Wasabi Power batteries

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Toddinlou

New member
Hey guys I'm wondering what the consensus is here on third party batteries specifically the Wasabi Power batteries. At half the price of the Nikon batteries they have a definite plus. Do you guys trust your dslrs to third party batteries? I don't want the cheapie but the Wasabi seem to get a Good reviews. Are they still playing well with Nikon firmware? By the way I just upgraded from my d40 to the d3200 and then after a few weeks with the d3200 I picked up a d7100.

Thanks guys!
 
Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
I've used Wasabi batteries in all three Nikon cameras I've owned over the years and my girlfriend has used them in both of hers. In our experience Wasabi batteries are as good, if not a little better, than Nikon branded batteries and cost half as much. If for one minute I thought I was getting something more by paying Nikon prices for their batteries, I wouldn't hesitate to do so but the simple fact is, you're not. Wasabi batteries rock.

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John P

Senior Member
Horoscope Fish said:
I've used Wasabi batteries in all three Nikon cameras I've owned over the years and my girlfriend has used them in both of hers. In our experience Wasabi batteries are as good, if not a little better, than Nikon branded batteries and cost half as much. If for one minute I thought I was getting something more by paying Nikon prices for their batteries, I wouldn't hesitate to do so but the simple fact is, you're not. Wasabi batteries rock.

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I have had the same experience with them.
 
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WayneF

Senior Member
My Wasabi batteries still work in a D800, after the recent firmware update this week.

They perform fine, except one little thing. Mine never did store the number of shots on the battery charge. That count of shots is lost at camera power off (not stored). I don't know if that is just mine (they were a fairly early version), or if all of them work that way. But seems unimportant, and the batteries perform fine in all other respects, and they report charge status fine. No problems, now or before.
 
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Dave_W

The Dude
I received one with my D800E about a month or so ago and it seems to be working just fine.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk
 
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Pebbleheed

Senior Member
I bought a Duracell branded battery for my D7100. It seems to work well enough and even holds the number of shots etc. The only downside is that it messes up my charger each time I charge it. The light flickers like mad after a while and I have to unplug it and leave it off for a while to fix it.
 
Browncoat

Browncoat

Senior Member
Toddinlou said:
Do you guys trust your dslrs to third party batteries?
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Nope.

I'm not one of those Nikon brand advocates. Most of my lenses are Tamron and my speedlight units are LumoPro. However, there are two parts of my kit I would never fully trust to an El Cheapo: batteries and memory cards. Aside from the camera itself, these are the most important parts of your gear.
 
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Cowleystjames

Senior Member
Nothing on earth would make me buy non Nikon batteries for my cameras. What's the point in putting your faith in a cheap battery in an expensive camera, just to save a few pounds.
Ok, some may be half the price of a genuine Nikon, but how do you know the battery management isn't going to spike the camera, pay cheap, get cheap.
 
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Pebbleheed

Senior Member
The thing with third party battery damage that gets me is that I can find plenty of links on the Internet that say it 'could' damage your camera but I have yet to find anyone with first hand experience of this.

That's not to say it's impossible, but is it likely? Surely if it was a genuine problem there would be plenty of threads about it happening with first hand experience being quoted. After all, when things go wrong the Internet is normally the first place people head to to vent their anger.

On another note, when I bought my car it came with an expensive manufacturer recommended battery in it. Since then I have added a cheapy replacement battery when it was time for a new one. No damage so far although the manufacturer and the dealer obviously recommend I only use their expensive battery to avoid damage. Thing is, they can't refuse my warranty in the uk for me not using their battery. Further to that, it's unlikely I'll need to as again there's little evidence of such problems actually happening.

Now I agree that your increasing the chance of poor quality if you buy a £5 battery from a seller in china on eBay, but if you stick to decent third party names I'd suggest using a non-official battery shouldn't be too much of a risk.
 
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Dave_W

The Dude
Spot on Pebbleheed - and to further bring your point home, I doubt you could find a battery anywhere that was not made in China. Cheap batteries will wear out faster than better batteries but batteries do not go crazy and send giant voltage spikes through your car (or camera, or flashlight, etc.).
 
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Cowleystjames

Senior Member
I'll just reiterate a point. In my case I've spent £5000 on a D4s and £2500 on a D800e, I'm not going to save a few pounds on some cheap EBay battery with dubious electronics built in that could fry my cameras.
Batteries aren't just batteries now, they house sophisticated regulator circuitry and management chips.
If you want to save a few bucks then thats your privilege, me? I'll stick with the genuine article thanks.
 
Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Everyone's free to do as they please of course and I don't blame anyone for ponying up for a Nikon battery if they choose to. I just happen to think if third-party batteries were destroying peoples cameras, we'd be hearing about it. And we're not. Except of course for that Nikon battery recall...

I'd also like to point out that Wasabi batteries are not made in China, they're made in Japan.

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Cowleystjames

Senior Member
At no time did I say third party batteries were destroying people's cameras.
I make a living from my images and need the greatest possible chance of achieving this otherwise the editors that pay my salary will fire me out the door.
So I need to hedge my bets by buying the best I can possibly afford to give me the best chance.
If people want to buy third party, fine go ahead.
For all I know, nikon batteries may be made by the same manufacturer as Wasabi, just a bit concerned that this manufacturer wants to call himself after Japanese Horseradish!
 
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Pebbleheed

Senior Member
I think the point is that forums tend to pick up this 3rd party battery bad vibe but as of yet there's little or no evidence that it's actually the case.
 
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Dave_W

The Dude
Cowleystjames said:
At no time did I say third party batteries were destroying people's cameras.
I make a living from my images and need the greatest possible chance of achieving this otherwise the editors that pay my salary will fire me out the door.
So I need to hedge my bets by buying the best I can possibly afford to give me the best chance.
If people want to buy third party, fine go ahead.
For all I know, nikon batteries may be made by the same manufacturer as Wasabi, just a bit concerned that this manufacturer wants to call himself after Japanese Horseradish!
Click to expand...

I believe your intimations that buying a non-Nikon battery can put your camera at risk is what we're all having a problem with. If you can cite an incident in which a 3rd party battery resulted in a "fried" camera, it would be something I would be very interested in knowing. If it's a case of brand name loyalty, that's okay, too because I'll be the first to admit I'm a Nikon fan-boy, nothing wrong with that. So if you're a Nikon battery fan-boy, I totally understand where you're coming from! :)
 
Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
I'll admit sometimes all the needless arm flailing and pearl-clutching over third-party batteries can get on my last nerve sometimes, stupid as that is. But in all honesty all this noise about the "risks" involved, warranties being voided, voltages spiking etc. etc. etc. is just that; so much arm flailing and pearl clutching. No one gets all up in arms over using other third-party kit, like lenses or strobes and the idea that Nikon has some kind of secret technology, or that no one else can put together a battery of quality equal to what Nikon does, simply flies in the face of reality from what I can tell; assuming Nikon *actually* manufactures their own batteries, which, I really doubt they do. I would bet you dollars to donuts Nikon batteries are made by third parties under contract.

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WayneF

Senior Member
I agree, and my D800 is a very happy user of Wasabi batteries. Half price is attractive, however frankly, I have bought a D800 and a few high end lenses, so it's not about a few bucks. It's about not supporting the Nikon practice. The Nikon price is simply excessive gouging, and then they also disallowed any dealer from discounting anything (protects small dealers, preserves more Nikon outlets, but no concern for customers). Plus in some cases, the Nikon firmware is trying to do anything possible to detect and prevent us from using batteries that did not feed the Nikon pocket, which is NOT a performance feature, or a safety issue, it is a greed issue.

Lithium Ion batteries are a special case however. Very potent, and capable of destructive runaways. Lithium batteries are simply different. Safety regulations require a special chip in Lithium Ion batteries, called coulomb counters, which determine state of charge by carefully measuring and accounting for all input and output current (this chip is not in other battery types). This chip prevents overcharging, and the chip disconnects the battery if excessive currents occur. Other than short circuit, it is not really about discharge use, it is about charging. Same chip can report charge status to the camera, and to the charger, but then which can possibly suffer interface differences. The chip does add manufacturing expense to Lithium Ion batteries, but not that much. TI chips are around $2.

So, cheapest camera batteries can work to power the camera, but the chip might not report charge status to the camera properly. I would avoid those, not because of not knowing status, but because they apparently omit the necessaries to make it happen. The proper chips are plentiful.

The Wasabi batteries do fully report charge status, and seem to work great. I am unaware of any reported issues.
 
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