Sudden Death of Nikon EN-EL15!

Alpha Delta 210

Alpha Delta 210

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I have a D7000 and a D610, which both use the EN-EL15 battery. I have read various theories about the "programmed" life of these batteries, and not really believed them! However I have just had an experience that makes me wonder whether there is some truth in the theory that there is a chip in the battery that programmes it to die after a certain number of charging cycles/shutter actuations!

Last weekend, one of my batteries refused to charge beyond 35%, but still showed an age of "0" (New). I decided to try to condition it by letting it discharge to 1% before charging it. The charger flashed for hours and when I eventually removed the battery in exasperation, I was surprised that it showed 2% remaining, but the age meter had jumped to "4" (Replace).

Has anyone else experienced this jump from 0 to 4 in one go, rather than the expected incremental rise?

I would be interested to hear your experiences.
 
I have an EN-EL4a (D3s) looking at me now that just died.
I have two which I used to alternate. One day this one just wouldn't charge, nor would the camera or charger recognize it as being installed.
It was out of guarantee but I emailed Nikon for their comments.
"It sounds as though it's died, you will need to buy a new one"!
 
Graham W said:
I have an EN-EL4a (D3s) looking at me now that just died.
I have two which I used to alternate. One day this one just wouldn't charge, nor would the camera or charger recognize it as being installed.
It was out of guarantee but I emailed Nikon for their comments.
"It sounds as though it's died, you will need to buy a new one"!
Click to expand...

Hmm, it does make you wonder if the speculation about them being programmed to die is true, doesn't it? Surely there would be a gradual deterioration which would show on the age scale in the Battery Info menu if the battery was growing old gracefully? :)
 
No deterioration on mine, just apparent instant death and the age scale thing showed no indication of end of life.
Very disappointed in Nikon's lack of interest. They should arrange a works outing to Fuji to see how customer service should be done.
I suppose the obvious answer is to buy third party!
 
Thats what I'm going to do. Got a D3 recently and came with battery that is not in a good life. Lucky I've got a third party one on my D700 that will work on the D3. I got 2 sport shoot coming in the june and july and I think I will be buying a few third party one. As long as they work thats all I care. Not paying £60-80 for a battery ......
 
I bought a compatible battery from 7dayshop.com, which seems fine (and displays the Battery Info like an oem one), but I have also taken a risk and bought 2 used oem batteries from eBay. I will weigh them when they arrive to check they are genuine.

I notice that Nikon has a list of known fake items on their site, but surprisingly, they don't list any batteries.
 
I've been using 2 x EN-EL15 from 7dayshop for 2 years..

The Nikon versions are better (last MUCH longer) ---but the 7DS work fine.
 
There was one battery from ebay that members where recommending,i thought i had saved it in my watch list but didnt,any one an idea as to which one it might be.
 
mikew said:
There was one battery from ebay that members where recommending,i thought i had saved it in my watch list but didnt,any one an idea as to which one it might be.
Click to expand...
Ex-Pro :)
 
I've had to return one of my eBay purchases because it wouldn't hold a charge even though the Battery Info menu showed the age as "0". I don't think it was counterfeit, based on the information from the website kindly identified by Sphinx above.
 
If I remember correctly, I think Nikon issued a firmware update on the camera, which mean 3rd party batteries could no longer be used in the cameras.

I will see if I can find the link...
 
One of the reasons i think hard and long before trusting a Nikon firmware update
 
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