Spare battery

[Roarasaur]

So, my shitty battery is dying on me and I was just wondering what were your guy's suggestion on picking up a spare battery. I have a d700 and it uses the en-el3e battery and was mainly wondering if you guys use generic or brand name batteries as your back up? I've heard things about both sides but would just like to know what your take is on all of this.

[Mitsu3000gt]

$77 locally, $39 in the USA and the dollar is better than par right now. For that low of a price just buy an OEM battery so there are guaranteed to be no issues, warranty or otherwise. I personally wouldn't risk a 3rd party battery in a $2000+ camera even though it would probably be fine. It's cheap enough that its not worth the risk IMO.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...G&A=details&Q=

Strange that your battery is failing at all. My D300 uses the same battery, is over 3 years old now, and I still get the same 2000+ shots per charge I have been getting since the day I bought it.

[blitz]

In the menu system somewhere, there is a way to check the battery life. It will rate it between 0 and 4, 4 being end of life.

Very weird that it's failing, both my OEM batterys still read 0 after a full year of use.

I'd just get the OEM ones personally, use the BHphoto purolator ground shipping option, it's the cheapest and you pay all fees and GST up front. I picked up some Adorama generic ones and they were half the weight of the OEM ones...made me suspicious...

[ourdon]

I've been rotating between the oem and the Phottix en-el3e for several years. No problems.

Are you sure it is your battery, and not your charger. I agree with the other guys that it seems a little strange.

[Roarasaur]

Well I'm not too sure what it is, but I've been having some sort of battery problem lately. Could be the charger, I have two chargers so I will try it with the other one, but what's been happening lately is that my battery after a full charge will deplete in about a week, after very light use, (approx. 30 shot).

I've contacted Nikon about this and they just said send it in and they'll take a look at it. I'd rather not wait with the entire shipping process but I might end up having too if I cant get this battery thing fixed. I've also upgraded to the latest firmware but that isnt the issue. Anyone heard of this? I've tried looking around but rather than the battery itself or the charger, not much else is coming up.

[Go4Long]

damn, I wish I could get my batteries to last a week, and I have the big ones

[Mitsu3000gt]

I would suggest borrowing a battery from someone to see if it's the battery that is the problem. Any OEM D300, D300s, or D700 battery will work (EN-EL3e). Just sitting in the camera they should last months and months.

[ourdon]

All this talk about batteries has made me check mine more closely.

Mitsu, I picked up my 300 about the same time you got yours, about three years ago. My battery is still on zero for charging life. Mine also will stay charged for months.

Roarasaur Your problem lies in one of three areas, battery, charger or perhaps an open circuit in the camera. With luck it is just the battery or charger.

Go into your setup menu and check your battery info. What is your charging life?

[Roarasaur]

Currently I have a different battery charged in there at full capacity with a different charger. I guess I will have to report back in a week and see if anything changes. The charging life is at zero atm. We will see...

I've read somewhere also that it might be a short circuit and really hoping this isnt the issue. It should be covered by the warranty but the hassle to get it sent there is something I'd rather not do. I don't want to pay $50+ for the shipping insurance.

[Ashkente]

Sure your battery isn't fake? I have some cheap as balls chinese batteries, and they drain quickly unused (out of cam and all), like yours. They do work fine for ~1500 shots each though when charged and used right away. My OEMs that shipped with the camera don't drain over time. (well, they do, but extremely slowly)

https://nikoneurope-en.custhelp.com/...teries#EN-EL3e

[AccentAE86]

I tried some knockoffs a few years ago (not in my D700) and while they performed well enough when I got them, they got spastic after a year of use. I'd charge them, then they'd show up full on my battery meter, and then after a couple of shots, it would show up empty and the camera would shut down. Meanwhile, my genuine Canon batteries from 2005 still work like they are new.

Anyhow, I have an analyzing charger (the Maha MH-C777PlusII) and found that while the knockoffs would have fully charged cells, the VOLTAGE under load had dropped about 1v compared to the genuine batteries.

I've never bought a knockoff since then. Not worth the hassle and doubt not knowing if your batteries would act up in the middle of a shoot.

If you can find a used Maha MH-C777PlusII they're great. I use it to charge my Nikon, Canon, Panasonic, and Nokia batteries. They charge at a much gentler rate than the factory chargers which seems to extend their life considerably. I bought my D700 on the initial release date and the battery still works like new. My BP511A batteries from 2005 still work really well and have only lost about 100mah of capacity (of about 1500) over 6 years. (The charger can tell you exactly how much capacity it has)