I have a question about the Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries (which are not rechargeable btw). I bought a few and had them in the MB-D12 grip of my D800, and camera is not seeing the grip batteries no matter what type I select. The grip buttons work fine with the camera, but the camera only draws power from the camera battery even though I set it to draw first from the grip. So I exchange the Lithium batteries for the usual Duracell alkaline batteries and now the camera sees the batteries fine and draws power from the grip. These lithium batteries are new and so I have no idea why they don't work in the Nikon grips. Just seeing if anyone else came across this issue.
Energizer Ultimate Lithium Battery use in Nikon D800
- Thread starter crycocyon
- Start date
Oh, how weird. Did you try (and it sounds like you did) the Li battery option for the grip settings? Either way, it's hard to imagine the camera can detect the composition of a battery in the grip since electricity is the same no matter where it comes from. It will be interesting to find out what the issue is.
Yes that was the first thing I tried. The amps would be greater for Li than with alkaline but that shouldn't make a difference to the camera since it will just draw whatever power it needs. I don't think either that the camera can detect the type of battery. I'll need to test the Li batteries in something else just to make sure they have power.
Ok now I'm really baffled, I just tested alkaline batteries in the MB-D11 of my D7000 and they worked fine whereas I know from before that the Li batteries didn't work and I had thought the problem was with the grip. So maybe it is just this batch of batteries so I'll need to look into the source.
edit: just tried two of the Li batteries in a remote control for a blu-ray player and they didn't work.
(I know, I should check with a multimeter)
edit: just tried two of the Li batteries in a remote control for a blu-ray player and they didn't work.
(I know, I should check with a multimeter)
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Ok now I'm really baffled, I just tested alkaline batteries in the MB-D11 of my D7000 and they worked fine whereas I know from before that the Li batteries didn't work and I had thought the problem was with the grip. So maybe it is just this batch of batteries so I'll need to look into the source.
edit: just tried two of the Li batteries in a remote control for a blu-ray player and they didn't work.
I stopped buying regular batteries a long time ago. The Nimh batteries are more environmental friendly and pocket money friendly to me. For higher capacity NiMh batteries, try the XX Eneloop batteries. They'll last longer compared to the 1800Nimh eneloops.
Amazon.com: eneloop XX 2500mAh Typical / 2400 mAh Minimum, High Capacity, 4 Pack AA Ni-MH Pre-Charged Rechargeable Batteries: Electronics
Thanks, Glenn, ya I had used Ni-MH batteries in the past for other devices, but when I got the grip for the D7000 I had read that the Li ultimate put out the most power and I wanted to squeeze as many fps and flash recycle time as I could from them. I read that with the Li batteries you can get an extra 0.5 fps on the D7000 so I thought I would try them as well on the D800.
Thanks, Glenn, ya I had used Ni-MH batteries in the past for other devices, but when I got the grip for the D7000 I had read that the Li ultimate put out the most power and I wanted to squeeze as many fps and flash recycle time as I could from them. I read that with the Li batteries you can get an extra 0.5 fps on the D7000 so I thought I would try them as well on the D800.
The only thing that you are squeezing is your wallet and I'm quite certain that it doesn't appreciate it.
Thanks, Glenn, ya I had used Ni-MH batteries in the past for other devices, but when I got the grip for the D7000 I had read that the Li ultimate put out the most power and I wanted to squeeze as many fps and flash recycle time as I could from them. I read that with the Li batteries you can get an extra 0.5 fps on the D7000 so I thought I would try them as well on the D800.
pistnbroke
Banned
The grip cannot detect the type of battery but it can detect the voltage...Nikon have had problems with getting this right ..I suspect it sees too high a voltage so it is programmed not to take the power from the grip...I bet NimH are ok
I use the Eneloop XX in my D800.
I set the battery type to Ni-MH.
The problem I see is that these batteries don't seem to last more than 30-40 shots, according to the camera (the low battery indicator comes on).
However, the batteries seem to be fine, as I can keep on shooting. For how long I don't know exactly, but I can generally finish the day's work.
Since I don't want to risk running out of juice, I recharge the batteries for the next shoot and the cycle repeats.
I have done this many many times, and it's always the same experience. A few shots, and the low battery comes on but the camera still works fine for a long time.
Anyone experience this?
Is the problem with the Eneloops being Low Self Discharge type? I hear LSDs have higher internal resistance. Could that be the problem?
AA batteries on your grip might be a clever way to add more power to your camera as a back-up but with my experience in using AA batteries, the life doesn't last that long unlike the original OEM battery. Better off buying a second Nikon battery which is also much lighter than 8 AA batteries.
I want to know if anyone else experience the problem I described: camera thinks that Eneloop XX batteries are low after only a few shots.
From what I've observed, the batteries are not low. Proof of that is that I can continue shooting for hundreds of shots beyond the indicated low battery point. How many hundreds? I don't know for sure, since I've never shot until the batteries are completely dead.
Same behavior with video. Low battery indicator comes on after 30 min or so (on and off, not continuous recording), but I can continue recording for at least another hour or two.
I speculate that this is a defect in the D800's firmware, which probably is not accounting for the fact that LSD Ni-MH batteries have higher internal resistance than regular Ni-MH batteries and therefore doesn't deliver the expected current at the expected rate.
I'm hoping for someone more knowledgeable that can confirm or bust this theory.
As to your statement that the OEM Li-Ion lasts longer than 8 AA batteries... that may be true compared to regular Alkaline AAs, but definitely not when compared with the Eneloop XX AAs.
The EN-EL15 is rated at 7.0v @ 1900 mAh. Each Eneloop XX is rated at 1.2V @ 2500 mAh. When I put 8 of them in series, I get 9.6V @ 2500 mAh. That is the reason why we get higher fps with AAs then with the EN-EL15.
Further proof: when I had my D300, I also used a grip and 8 AAs, except I used regular Ni-MH at that time. I could go ~500 shots with the grip and only ~350 with the OEM EN-EL13.
This is normal, simply how it works, and is not a problem. You have no battery meter for NiMH. It is not just related to LSD Eneloops.
NiMH nominal voltage is lower (like 1.3 volts) than Alkaline (1.5 volt) or Lithium AA (1.6 volt). That is a misleading statement, because the NiMH voltage holds a more constant voltage over their usage lifetime, where the other types start falling fast, and much of their lifetime have lower voltage than the NiMH.
The lower voltage is not an issue in flashes, which have internal power converters to convert the low battery voltage to be over 300 volts flash capacitor voltage, which drives the flash tube. The flash recycle time is charging that capacitor again. The 300+ volts is regulated, not allowed to go higher. High current capability is all important to the flash battery (NiMH are ideal). Cameras are high current too (compared to a mp3 player), but very much less important than to the flash recycle.
The battery meters in electronic gear are just simple voltmeters. An alkaline starts at 1.5 V, which is full charge. Towards the end, it is 1.0 V, and it's dead. Around 1.25 V is half charge. The meters are voltmeters, and are marked that way. Alkalines can go down to 0.9 volts, but most electronic circuits quit at 1.1 volts.
But NiMH start out at 1.3V, and these dumb simple meters pronounce them half charge when fresh. Of course, they continue to just keep on working, because that is their full charge state. The meter just does not know about them. And the NiMH constant voltage (which is a plus) is not going to let the voltmeter see a change anyway. They "appear" to stay at "half" state the entire time, until they suddenly go dead. So a voltmeter is not meaningful to determine NiMH charge. I am not aware of any way to determine NiMH state of charge (until you either test by discharging it, or you test to see what it takes to recharge it).
Lithium Ion camera batteries are 3.7V and rechargeable, a very different chemistry than Lithium AA (1.6V and not). But due to their constant voltage advantage, camera and laptop Lithium Ion batteries have chips in them (coulomb counters), primarily for lithium safety, and to meter the usage and report a meaningful charge state. But NiMH do not.
The NiMH can deliver much more current than either alkaline or lithium, so NiMH is ideal for a flash.
The Lithium AA cells were previously called Advanced, and next version is now called Ultimate (Energizer). The chemistry might be able to deliver high current, but which was a safety problem (lithium fires). So Advanced batteries (AA) were artificially limited to peaks of 2 amps for safety reasons (fire). This meant they had a slow recycle time in flash units. Later they increased this limit to 5 amps (called Ultimates), and now they recycle flash as fast as Alkalines (but NiMH are still noticeably faster).
Four Flash Photography Basics we must know - Powering the flash - Batteries
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