old nikon dSLR batteries

[MR_Candyman]

I have a couple energizer batteries in my D80 and they are just as good as the nikons. And honestly, there's been quite a few recalls on Nikon batteries, so they're not entirely trustworthy either.

Andre, funny you mention "made in Japan" because the US market is pretty much the only market that usually gets the Nikon batteries made in Japan. Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Argentina do not (though they occasionally will ship some in to dilute the potential for such a massive recall affecting too many people at once).

[Draconian Guppy]

How will they know? If the battery explodes (Li-ion battery can do that) inside the camera, I don't think you will be changing it before sending it off to repairs. If a faulty battery short-circuits the electronics, you will have to send the faulty battery for them to examine and verify that it was indeed the battery that caused the damage. Yes, chances are slim to none for something like that to happen. But if it does, your warranty is gone. With the original, the manufacturer will replace both the camera and the battery no questions asked.

Seeing how most off brands are made in China, chances of getting a faulty battery because of the poor QC are somewhat higher than with the branded batteries which are made in Japan. Surely, there's never a guarantee that the original battery will not fault, but at least you have the warranty may something happen.

One of my off brands, Phottix (not quite sure about the other two, they don't state brand nor where they were made), was also made in Japan and still works, but not quite. When putting it in D700, the head display will tell that the battery is empty. After the camera is turned on, only then battery is recognized and the charge is read. Hence why I don't use it very often anymore.

:s I've heard about cellphone batteries exploding, but camera batteries! yikes!

ok well ... I honestly think you're making a big deal out of nothing. I've honestly never heard of off brand batteries EXPLODING.

I have two off brand batteries and 1 original battery, making a total of 3 batteries total, taking 21,000 photos, half of those with VR, and they all perform equally.

I gotta side with crazzy too, though not saying it's completely imposible either.

I dunno, but The energizer one does seem like a pretty good deal and is more recognized then "phottix".

Mr_Candyman, in comparison with the nikon branded ones, how would you rate the performance of the energizer ones? Eg. if the nikon captures say 500 shots, are the energizer up to par?

[crazzy88ss]

My off brand ones shoot just as many photos as the nikon brand ones. It depends on the type of shooting I'm doing. I get as low as 500 (sports shooting with VR lenses) and as high as 1100 (trip to europe, shot 1100 photos in 6 days with no VR and minimal use of the camera's other features).

[MR_Candyman]

I can't tell the difference at all using the nikon battery in comparison to the energizer. As far as I can tell some of the Nikon batteries were made by Fuji, and some by Panasonic. They've had a couple recalls on various batteries we use (lots of recalls on the EN-EL3 batteries for melting problems). So you're not really "safe" no matter which way you go, and sorry, but I trust energizer to make better batteries than Fuji or Panasonic (who don't rely on it as their sole business)