Batteries not charging fully

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Sorry this is specific but might apply to any.

I have Nikon EN-EL15 batteries, One, no longer how long I put it in the charger for won't charge past about 45% and the other 93%. The Nikon age thing is showing them as 4 year old. Is this usual for batteries to get to a point where they only hold a % of full capacity? can they be reconditioned or best to just let them go?
 
Sorry this is specific but might apply to any.

I have Nikon EN-EL15 batteries, One, no longer how long I put it in the charger for won't charge past about 45% and the other 93%. The Nikon age thing is showing them as 4 year old. Is this usual for batteries to get to a point where they only hold a % of full capacity? can they be reconditioned or best to just let them go?

It isn’t saying the battery is 4 years old the rating is from 0-4 to give an idea of the age of the battery and quality of charge it is capable of. When a battery hits such a low level it is time to dispose of it and replace it. The battery age is printed along with serial number on the battery.
 
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It isn’t saying the battery is 4 years old the rating is from 0-4 to give an idea of the age of the battery and quality of charge it is capable of. When a battery hits such a low level it is time to dispose of it and replace it. The battery age is printed along with serial number on the battery.
Yes they are showing both as 4 years old. That just didn't seem that old for a battery
 
Yes they are showing both as 4 years old. That just didn't seem that old for a battery
The ability of a battery to retain a good charge reduces with time, after 4 years it may well be time to replace them as the more the ability to retain charge reduces it is often the case that it will become flat much more quickly.
 
LiIon batteries apparently have a life span of 3-5 years or 300-500 charging cycles.
 
Yes they are showing both as 4 years old. That just didn't seem that old for a battery

As I already said the in camera battery reading is not an indication of how many years old the battery is. It is there to show you an indication of how knackered the battery is with 4 being worst. You could have a 2 year old battery with a rating of 4. The rating is based on how many charges the battery has had and how it holds a charge.
 
In laymans terms what does calibration do?

You can't calibrate EN-EL15 batteries you can only do that for the batteries for the Nikon D3, D4, D4S, D5 etc. via the Nikon charger that has a calibration button. You need to dispose of the batteries showing a usage rating of 4 and buy new ones.

For the single digit pro Nikon bodies the charger calibrates the battery by discharging it to depletion and then it recharges it to full capacity again. Usually you need to do this a few times for it to work. Depending on how far gone the battery this may not work and you would still need to buy a replacement.

It isn't possible to do this with EN-EL15 batteries.
 
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It sounds like the one that goes to 43% has dead cells, I'd bin it. The other one looks like it's had quite a few charging cycles but I wouldn't get rid just yet.
 
It sounds like the one that goes to 43% has dead cells, I'd bin it. The other one looks like it's had quite a few charging cycles but I wouldn't get rid just yet.
Have written my letter to Santa to fill my stocking with EN-EL15b's as these seem to be the latest evolution.

Having said that theres lots of warnings about buying b's over a's because b's are the native cell for the Z6/7 and the battery life on those isn't the best supposedly!
 
Have written my letter to Santa to fill my stocking with EN-EL15b's as these seem to be the latest evolution.

Having said that theres lots of warnings about buying b's over a's because b's are the native cell for the Z6/7 and the battery life on those isn't the best supposedly!

That has nothing to do with the battery capacity.

Because they are mirrorless they have an evf which uses a lot more power than an dslr.
 
That has nothing to do with the battery capacity.

Because they are mirrorless they have an evf which uses a lot more power than an dslr.
Sounds like the EN-ELb is the best successor to the EN-EL15 then - thanks for all your advice
 
I have an EN-EL15 which came with my D750 which is about 14 months old and has only about 4600 shots under its belt. Last night I was doing some indoor photography and my almost new battery went flat. I put it on charge and fitted the original battery which was also flat, I don’t normally keep my batteries stored flat. And thought it was my mistake. Anyway I put it on charge, a few hours later it showed charged. For some reason I decided to check and age my batteries, The battery I had just charged, the original, shows 7% charge and an age of 0. I have three batteries, so this battery has certainly not taken the 4600 shots shown on the camera, and it has in actual fact had very little use. Seems like it has cells down, but why, especially as it shows an age of zero. I have since tried to re charge this battery, with the same result. Has any one experienced similar on a not very old battery.
 
As I already said the in camera battery reading is not an indication of how many years old the battery is. It is there to show you an indication of how knackered the battery is with 4 being worst. You could have a 2 year old battery with a rating of 4. The rating is based on how many charges the battery has had and how it holds a charge.
This^. The in camera 0-4 rating is an indication to show how much it’s its been and the potential amount of useable life left. Like others have said the date of manufacture is shown by the first 4 digits of the serial number on the rear of the battery.

Like any battery the amount of charge it will hold will drop over it’s life as it’s used and charged. In many ways its like a phone battery charge will drop with repeated use.
 
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I have an EN-EL15 which came with my D750 which is about 14 months old and has only about 4600 shots under its belt. Last night I was doing some indoor photography and my almost new battery went flat. I put it on charge and fitted the original battery which was also flat, I don’t normally keep my batteries stored flat. And thought it was my mistake. Anyway I put it on charge, a few hours later it showed charged. For some reason I decided to check and age my batteries, The battery I had just charged, the original, shows 7% charge and an age of 0. I have three batteries, so this battery has certainly not taken the 4600 shots shown on the camera, and it has in actual fact had very little use. Seems like it has cells down, but why, especially as it shows an age of zero. I have since tried to re charge this battery, with the same result. Has any one experienced similar on a not very old battery.
And I get the impression Nikon generally aren't interested as they just want you to buy new ones.
 
This^. The in camera 0-4 rating is an indication to show how much it’s its been and the potential amount of useable life left. Like others have said the date of manufacture is shown by the first 4 digits of the serial number on the rear of the battery.

Like any battery the amount of charge it will hold will drop over it’s life as it’s used and charged. In many ways its like a phone battery charge will drop with repeated use.

Very useful information, Thankyou, my duff battery is 2016, and I bought my camera in January 2017, so nothing really untoward there, must be just a weak battery.
 
My original battery that came with my D750 drains when not in the camera, the new ones I have bought recently used hold charge a lot better.

I email Nikon but they did not want to know about.


The original one had Lion 10, the Lion 20 ones seem better.
 
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My original battery that came with my D750 drains when not in the camera, the new ones I have bought recently used hold charge a lot better.

I email Nikon but they did not want to know about.


The original one had Lion 10, the Lion 20 ones seem better.

My duff one is Lion20. Interesting about discharging when not in the camera, because this one hasn’t been in the camera for about 6 weeks. Have tried again but it won’t take charge, so it looks like the local weefi recycling depot for it
 
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