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3rd party battery does not work in D500

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My Watson battery wouldn't work in the D500 either. I also received mine free from B&H on the last camera I purchased.

I too noticed the charger without the cord. I'm not even going to unpack mine. I'll just use my older charger. The cord makes it a little more user friendly.
 
rumple said:
Last year at a radio-controlled aircraft weekend, I saw a LiFePO battery go up in flames at a charging station, taking out every other charger, the station as a whole, and very nearly the structure it was attached to.

So I use OEM batteries.

--
"THINK" - Watson
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lipo or some other lithium chemistry maybe but i seriously doubt it was a lifepo

Lifepo's have been executed by every means possible and none have ever caught fire. This includes being shot, attacked with axes and short circuited till they vent. Search ebay for some very interesting videos.
 
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David Lal said:
rumple said:
Last year at a radio-controlled aircraft weekend, I saw a LiFePO battery go up in flames at a charging station, taking out every other charger, the station as a whole, and very nearly the structure it was attached to.

So I use OEM batteries.
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... That's what it sounds like to me.
  • Do no OEM batteries ever fail?
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Of course they do. There have been laptop fires with OEM batteries; but also of course, OEMs take more care in QC for batteries because a) the reputational issues have larger impacts and b) large companies always have more-mature governance processes. So, there will be fewer failures from OEM.
David Lal said:
  • Could not the charger have been at fault in your anecdote?
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Could be. But it was, as relayed to me, a non-OEM battery. It's just an anecdote, but it isn't the only one.
David Lal said:
I don't suppose Nikon actually makes its own batteries - so there must be some 'third party' supplier supplying Nikon and no doubt other companies.
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Yep. And they will insist on adequate QC, and evidence of same, throughout their supply chain.
David Lal said:
Admittedly, I still have Nikon batteries in my DSLRs but I have been using non-OEM batteries in other bits of equipment (especially laptop PCs) with no mishaps for more than 20 years.
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One data point, rather like mine ;)

I've read multiple cases of aftermarket batteries destroying the electronics in cameras, non of an OEM battery doing the same. I don't think it's a large problem (more the internet amplification effect), but OEM is cheap insurance - and preserves my warranty.
 
I'll add my 2¢ on batteries. Just got my D500 the other day and I can say Nikon branded batteries I have (4) work on the D500 coming from my D7K but the two Wasabi's do not. At first I thought they had a full charge but D500 did not so I put the batteries in the Wasabi charger and it was a green led so they were fully charge plus showed fully charged in the D7K's.

Now on OEM batteries I have had several occasions the Apple branded batteries in a MacBook Pro and a MacBook (white) have expanded. The MacBookPro may have had an extended warranty or recall similar to the Nikon's battery recall a few years ago. I know when I bought the non OEM I did buy the Wasabi's rather than non OEM that were really cheap.

I remember when I was employed at Loco Manufacturing business I came in to work one evening and that I had to retest a stack of boards that had Op Amp chips to determine which ones were bad. You see the Loco Manufacture out sourced these board that we made in our plant to save some money. The vendor ran out of the Op Amp's we used and his vendor said the one he had "were same as" NOT! Some of you may remember the electrolyte fiasco of the green capacitors! I do!

For now I will wait for the vertical battery grip when they start shipping an buy one for the D500.

So far the the two Lexar cards seem to work and have not had the error others have written about. I'll use the D500 in a bicycle race this weekend.

Lou Cioccio
 
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rumple said:
Last year at a radio-controlled aircraft weekend, I saw a LiFePO battery go up in flames at a charging station, taking out every other charger, the station as a whole, and very nearly the structure it was attached to.

So I use OEM batteries.
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athomasphoto said:
...
I mean it has nothing to with SAFETY (hell the more cameras that explode, the more money nikon makes on camera sales and repairs!) They simple added that coding in there to force battery sales, which obviously have a HUGE MARKUP and profit margin. Considering the hit they took revising their sales figures after delaying the D500 initially, something stupid like this could easily make up for lost ground and add a few million in additional profits if it takes 3rd party manufacturers a long enough time to reverse engineer the chips again.
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Hmmmmm ... and how many batteries would Nikon have to sell to make millions in additional profit, at the current battery prices? Assuming all profit goes to Nikon and the stores do not collect any?

:-)


JC
Some cameras, some lenses, some computers
 
I just brought home a cord from the office. It is a standard 2 plug AC cord that is used in notebooks and other AC Adapters. Fits perfectly instead of the little adapter plug that comes with it. If you don't have one you can get one cheap.
 
Don't be so sure, most retailers are lucky to make a tiny cut off the retail price - and for something like batteries it's just simply outrageous.

I don't know, 30-40k batteries? Considering the shared-use of the EL-15 with other models, isn't out of the question at all. Figure with good margins perhaps $40 goes to revenue and maybe even profits, that's 1.3 to 1.6 MILLION right there!
 
Albert Silver said:
thomas2279f said:
Sorry about this why use a cheaper 3rd Party battery in the first place with an expensive Camera body (and you outlaid / paid £1729 / $1999.99 for a new camera) and not splash a bit extra for an original Nikon Battery ?.

Are 3rd party batteries safe to use in cameras like the D500/D8xx, etc and are there any dangers of the battery overheating and exploding ?
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Shouldn't that be a choice of the user/buyer?
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It is and no one has taken that choice away. It's just that one of the consequences of making the choice to use 3rd party batteries and other third party accessories like lenses or flashes is that future bodies with new firmware might not be compatible with them. Nikon/Canon/Sony/ect only test their firmware and hardware with their own stuff. They are not going to make sure their new firmware code or whatever doesn't' break support for the thousands of third party accessories available. So sometimes a firmware update or new body doesn't support some of them. If you don't want to take that chance buy first party stuff. Simple as that.
 
athomasphoto said:
Don't be so sure, most retailers are lucky to make a tiny cut off the retail price - and for something like batteries it's just simply outrageous.

I don't know, 30-40k batteries? Considering the shared-use of the EL-15 with other models, isn't out of the question at all. Figure with good margins perhaps $40 goes to revenue and maybe even profits, that's 1.3 to 1.6 MILLION right there!
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B&H charges $48 for the EN-EL15. So you are suggesting Nikon charges $40 to the resseller. To make the profit figure you mention, Nikon would have to manufacture the batteries out of thin air.


JC
Some cameras, some lenses, some computers
 
goactive said:
I can confirm this my 3rd party battery by High Voltage will not work in the D500 it works just fine in the D750 and D7200 but will not work in the D500.
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Wow, if Nikon starts nerfing my battery selection I'll sell all my gear, switch systems and never look back. Already on the verge of doing it with the lens price hikes over the past few years.

seriously this is a really dirty, greedy move.
 
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keiththom said:
My Watson battery wouldn't work in the D500 either. I also received mine free from B&H on the last camera I purchased.

I too noticed the charger without the cord. I'm not even going to unpack mine. I'll just use my older charger. The cord makes it a little more user friendly.
Click to expand...
 
David Lal said:
rumple said:
Last year at a radio-controlled aircraft weekend, I saw a LiFePO battery go up in flames at a charging station, taking out every other charger, the station as a whole, and very nearly the structure it was attached to.

So I use OEM batteries.
Click to expand...
..[...]
Click to expand...
David Lal said:
I don't suppose Nikon actually makes its own batteries - so there must be some 'third party' supplier supplying Nikon and no doubt other companies.
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As an interesting point, the EN-EL15 I'm looking at now says "CELL MADE IN JAPAN" - so the cells are not, at least on this one, made in China. Kind of surprising. Then it says "FURTHER PROCESSED IN CHINA", so I guess the Japanese cells are put into Chinese cases.
 
I have a D500 and the factory battery works fine; I just purchased a third party battery [from a reputable photo supply store] , fully charged it and then input the battery to the camera and the battery level shows empty. It fits and I am positive it is charged; it seems like a programming issue within the D500.

Long story short I second your issue.
 
One possible issue is the fact that the D500 uses a slightly different voltage from the other Nikon cameras (one reason the older Nikon batteries were draining faster and they offered a free replacement of them). They probably block third party batteries to cut down on complaints on them not working properly (or as long) with the D500.
 
With a chip inside the battery, it is easy to identify and disable a non-Nikon product.
 
Someone on another site posted a link to a UK company who claims to have batteries compatible with the D500, so I bought one last night. There was also a company on Amazon UK claiming that there batteries work correctly with the D500, so I bought one from them too. Hopefully they will come in the next few so I can see what works. These two batteries were about £20 each, so two batteries (potentially) for less than one from Nikon.

I have a holiday coming up at the end of Oct, so need a bit more power than relying on one battery. I will be taking pics all day, with the WiFi on to receive GPS from my tablet, and taking long exposure pics at night. Add to that if it is in any way quite cold at night, and I could be really struggling with one battery.

Fingers crossed these work. If they do, then cheaper batteries will hopefully start appearing from multiple sources. :-) Until Nikon change something to make them not work in the future at some point. :-( ;-) LoL

If anyone would like the links to what I have bought PM me. I make no claims for them at this point though, other than passing on their claims. :-)
 
All new EN-EL15 Wasaby third party bateries work fine in the D500.

The D500 Lithium battery is a redesigned battery, none of the older Nikon EN-EL15 batteries work either in the D500.

Nikon replaces the old Nikon EN-EL15 for free to the new ones and even pays for the shipping.
 
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