Confirmed: 3rd party NP-FZ100 (A9/A7RIII/A7III) batteries are in development

[mrbenji]

NOTE: If you would never buy a third-party/generic camera batteries, please ignore this post. You have every right to buy only OEM batteries, but others have every right to buy OEM batteries if they decide that the cost / benefit / potential risk equation works out differently for them. I posting this to discuss 3rd-party batteries with others who buy them.

As we're approaching the 1 year mark for the NP-FZ100 battery (first used by the A9, now also in the A7R III & A7 III), I was getting nervous that the lack of 3rd party replacements meant Sony had added some sort of hardware protection scheme to the new battery & camera-battery interface.

Well, that appears to not be the case. I emailed Gradus, manufacturer of the (generally well-regarded) "Watson" replacement batteries & chargers sold by B&H, and received a response with the following assurance:

"We have a battery in development, we hope to have it available within the next 6 to 8 weeks." If that's an accurate estimate, we should have a Watson-branded generic by early June.

I assume other 3rd-party battery manufacturers are also working on NP-FZ100 replacements... has anyone received similar confirmations from another potential source of batteries?

 

[zephyrprime]

Not a surprise really. I wish they would make a lithium polymer version of these batts since the cylindrical cells inside these things waste space. It would be especially useful for the old battery since the older cameras like the a7ii don't work with lower voltages (unlike most devices) and lithium polymer is a little higher voltage.

 

[aronake]

looks like kingma (and some other) already have for sale on taobao

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detail.tmall.com

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s.taobao.com

 

[mrbenji]

looks like kingma (and some other) already have for sale on taobao

https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.25.3c306866iA2NTP&id=566660596847&ns=1&abbucket=5

https://s.taobao.com/search?q=NP-FZ...2227oh.d100&from=sea_1_searchbutton&catId=100

Sweet! Those must have appeared pretty recently, I looked extensively about a week ago and found nothing. Looks like they are now available on AliExpress:

1 battery for $28.04

2 batteries + a 2-port external charger for $59.49 (!)

Anyone have experience with Kingma batteries?

 

[PWPhotography]

Since NP-FZ100 last much longer than the battery for previous generation, so two NP-FZ100 is enough for entire day. Personally I will stay with Sony OEM batteries and already have two for A9. Although third party batteries never caused damages to my cameras, Sony or Canon, but they don't last long as OEM ones and deteriorate much quickly after even one year's usage.

 

[Mark K]

Is there any update on third party batteries

 

[mrbenji]

I first bought a Kingma battery and Batmax dual charger directly from AliExpress. My battery exhibited an issue that was shared by many of the first round of generics, i.e. it would occasionally trigger an "incompatible battery" error. I was given a refund without being required to send back the battery.
The charger works great, it's this one:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/NP-...050.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.15d74c4dpLeOxD

I then bought another battery off Amazon, which has worked perfectly. It's this one:
https://amazon.com/gp/product/B077XQDWQ7/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


BTW, the good battery is hilariously poorly-named... not sure who they consulted before calling it "LeiFire" and using flames on the logo. LOL

 

[PWPhotography]

Is there any update on third party batteries

--
Mark K

If you search, there are already few third-party NP-FZ100 available.

My personal opinion is that third-party NP-FZ100 is less appealing than old third-party NP-FW50 batteries, not really worth.

1) You only need another NP-FZ100 for entire day in heavy usage, even one is already sufficient in normal usage. So quantity is not a key factor anymore.

2) The price difference between OEM and third-party NP-FZ100 is much less than the difference in NP-FW50. You can get around $60 OEM one via Greentoe.

3) We don't know the quality of third-party NP-FZ100. As we have seen in the past, those third-party batteries don't last long. Usually after one year's usage, they deteriorate quickly. My four old third-party NP-FW50W batteries after one year's usage, more and more difficult to be fully charged with either their charger or Sony charger. My old NP-FW50W either 'fully' charged very quickly (false positive) or 'fully' charged (green light) but once put in camera, only show 55~65% of level and still run out quickly.

At this moment I have total three OEM NP-FZ100 batteries, shared by A9 and A7r III, enough for me in one day max usage.

--
https://www.flickr.com/photos/55485085@N04/albums

 

[Mark K]

I just don't know but I have never had good experience using any third party batteries. The technology seems relatively simple. The source lithLith batteries are every where.