Any recommendations for a spare nikon battery?

Brian_of_Bozeat

Brian_of_Bozeat

Jeff
Suspended / Banned
Messages
3,232
Name
Brian (not Jeff)
Edit My Images
No
to suit a D5100. Please.

Just ordered my new camera and I hate to think I'm going to sit there waiting for the battery to charge with only 1 in the kit. Wondered if anyone can recommend a spare battery and maybe a car charger. Or maybe one of those chunky add ons with 2 batteries in?
 
Personally I'd go for a genuine Nikon one,any aftermarket ones never quite seem as good.
 
I bought an original from Amazon, but £27 odd. I did have a £10 voucher which made it more bearable :)

Al
 
Well that's a no brainer - £8 vs £25! the 7day shop spare battery is ordered, unfortunately I could only get the 950mah as the 1030 was out of stock, as a "just in case" spare for my pocket I'm sure it will be fine. Thanks for everyones responses.
 
My understanding is that the battery has to match the camera in the D3100 and D5100 (ie the battery has to be made by Nikon) or the camera locks up and refuses to play - to my mind a particularly dirty trick by Nikon to force you to buy their grossly overpriced spare batteries...
 
Organnyx said:
My understanding is that the battery has to match the camera in the D3100 and D5100 (ie the battery has to be made by Nikon) or the camera locks up and refuses to play - to my mind a particularly dirty trick by Nikon to force you to buy their grossly overpriced spare batteries...
Click to expand...

If true it is indeed disappointing - however with a number of 'battery fires' in electronic equipment over recent years I guess they would be claiming to protect their reputation ... "Nikon camera explodes in meeting" is the sort of headline they wouldn't want.
 
That's brilliant! - 6 months ago, none of those "non-Nikon" ones available had the right "chip" to work, I had to cough up the thick end of £40- I'll certainly go for an Amazon one if I find I need another!
 
Last edited:
Organnyx said:
My understanding is that the battery has to match the camera in the D3100 and D5100 (ie the battery has to be made by Nikon) or the camera locks up and refuses to play - to my mind a particularly dirty trick by Nikon to force you to buy their grossly overpriced spare batteries...
Click to expand...
Nikon may sell batteries, they sure as hell don`t make them.
 
They're are chipped you can only use genuine. Now thankful you can get them for £27 on ebay now. I had to pay £40 last summer!

Update: missed the link above for the 3rd party battery on amazon. Thanks for the link.
 
Last edited:
Are you sure you need to use genuine? There seem to be so many batterie on ebay for under a tenner that claim to work in a d5100

Having just got the camera, i'm also needing a new battery...
 
I've used 7dayshop batteries as spares for my D70 for several years with no issues - they're not chipped. I've also used replacements from them for my D200 and now D700, again, no issues and the EN-EL3es are chipped.
jlevo, there are also plenty of places on e-bay where you can get "SanDisk" memory cards. One or two of those places may actually supply SanDisks rather than fakes! I would think that plenty of the batteries sourced from there are also less than genuine!
When I first got my D70, there was a recall on the genuine Nikon batteries - luckily I had my 7day spare so didn't lose any shooting time.
As a rule, I keep an eye on the battery level and top up the charge if it drops below 1/2 full on the camera's meter. That way, I rarely have to swap batteries "in the field" since they last for around 750+ shots with little or no chimping. If I ever do need to swap them out, I pick a time of little or no action and can do the swap in a second or 2, missing nothing.
Make sure that any batteries you buy are suitable (or claim to be so) in the blurb - that way, if they don't fit/work for any reason, they're not fit for their stated purpose so can be returned (to any reputable supplier...) for a full refund, including postage charges.
 
jlevo said:
Are you sure you need to use genuine? There seem to be so many batterie on ebay for under a tenner that claim to work in a d5100

Having just got the camera, i'm also needing a new battery...
Click to expand...

As mentioned above the batteries have been chipped and until recently you could only use genuine. If they say they are decoded and work on d5100 then they will. This is the obviously reason for the huge price drop of genuine's recently.
 
r1bazza said:
Personally I'd go for a genuine Nikon one,any aftermarket ones never quite seem as good.
Click to expand...

Non genuine batteries are a bit of a minefield... I had two from Kerso for my 400D several years ago. They had twice the capacity and lasted several years (outshooting the genuine battery by 2), however when they died after about 4 years I got two more from 7day shop and they lasted a few weeks...
I just bought another genuine battery for my D7000 from calumet as they have them at £60 at the moment, a bargain IMO!
 
OK so - time for an update.

The camera refused to work with the 7 day shop battery as expected. It gave a message on screen to say the battery was not genuine and it should be changed. I will return this and I will be happy with a credit note as it was my error.

The "pattern" one from Amazon that Graham recommended works perfectly. I haven't had any extended use but I rattled off a couple of hundred images with chimping and some live view and it was about half way used. I'm happy with that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top