Nikon Battery question

[angelsfort]

Hiya! I was just wondering if anybody knew if the Nikon EN-EL3e battery had a memory?? Can I just charge it whenever I get the urge to? Or do I have to run it down before I can charge it??

When I went to the Jacksonville Zoo a couple of weekends ago, my battery died on me after just a couple of hours... then I was stuck carrying my camera around and wishing I could take pictures!!! SO, when I got back home I bought another battery so that I will lower my chances of this happening again!

However, I'm concerned that the batteries have to be completely discharged before you can charge them again... or you risk lowering their memory. I know that you can buy batteries from other manufacturers ("Nikon Compatible" they call them) that have no memory... but I don't see it anywhere on the Nikon official battery. And I have heard too many horror stories about people who purchased a cheaper alternative for their camera battery and had something bad happen (like the battery overheating and melting inside the camera!!)... I'm not going to get anything but Nikon.

so... does the EN-EL3e have a memory? Can I charge it whenever I get that wild hair up my... ahem... will I be able to charge it at anytime?

[Loa]

Hello,

Practical answer: I've been using a Nikon D70s (same battery) for the best part of a year and I've had absolutely no memory issues with it. The battery lasts for so long that I've never actually went close to emptying it in one go. So everytime I recharge it, it's not from a full discharge.


Theoretical answer: Li-Ion batteries are never supposed to have memory issues...

Loa

[angelsfort]

thanks Loa! I appreciate it!

I've been using the battery until it's fully discharged and then re-charging it... unfortunately that sometimes works against me! I could recharge it (or so I thought) before heading off to the zoo, so I could only hope it had enough life to get me through the day... obviously it didn't. To make matters worse, my dad's camera was good-to-go all day long... and his is a Canon. LOL he couldn't help but rub that in... ALL DAY LONG!!! "My canon is still working just fine" "too bad you didn't buy a Canon instead of Nikon" etc. etc. Never mind the fact that the battery not being charged up before we left has nothing to do with Nikon or Canon...

as you can see, we've got a bit of a rivalry going on here... fortunatly for ME, I've got a little more time to practice and spend time doing research than he does... so I know how to work my Nikon better than he knows how to work his Canon.

[R. House]

The manual states (D80, same battery) that the battery can be charged at any state of charge with no ill effects. I too have never completely run my battery down, and usually give it a full charge before going out for a day of shooting.

[angelsfort]

thanks guys! I feel better now!!

[Tom Swaman]

Diana,

I think you will find that the best way to operate with your batteries is to charge these at your convenience and at any time, not waiting to empty thes. I keep a charger on my editing desk and my wife and I just plug our batteries in at will whenever.

However, it is my understanding that while these batteries do not suffer from hysteresis, they also have a finite number of times they can be charged before they deteriorate in their ability to hold their charge.charge amount(ampere-hours). So the more you charge your batteries, the less is their useful lifetime.

Tom

[happusa]

I run two EN-EL3e batteries on my D200 and normally run one dead and sometimes charge both before discharge and have had no issues either way.

[cyclohexane]

Charge it whenever the heck you want. It is a Lithium ion battery.

[angelsfort]

thanks Y'all!! You've helped immensly!

[trentchau]

also to help, I buy spares from great places like sterlingtek. Helps having about 6 extra batteries on hand for the price of 2 original oems

[cyclohexane]

I buy spares from great places like sterlingtek. Helps having about 6 extra batteries on hand for the price of 2 original oems

Nikon's taking to putting a chip in its batteries, so if it isn't OEM it might not power the camera. This applies to the EN-EL3e, EN-ENL4, EN-EL4a, and if I recall correctly the battery included with the D40/D40x (model number escapes me).

If, however, one's camera still uses the older batteries (EN-EL3, EN-EL3a, EN-4) then third party batteries should work fine.

[trentchau]

Originally Posted by cyclohexane

Nikon's taking to putting a chip in its batteries, so if it isn't OEM it might not power the camera. This applies to the EN-EL3e, EN-ENL4, EN-EL4a, and if I recall correctly the battery included with the D40/D40x (model number escapes me).

If, however, one's camera still uses the older batteries (EN-EL3, EN-EL3a, EN-4) then third party batteries should work fine.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I know active monitoring and so on is awesome, but it sounds like a "Ink cartridge" ploy to me. Spending $59.99~$79.99 for a 1100 mah seems ick

[cyclohexane]

Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

Well, it's certainly good for Nikon, LOL

[generic]

I have D70, D70s, D200.
I recharge any/all when it's convenient. The D70 is/or/near 3 yrs old. I have all the original batteries, some oem, some not. I just recieved a 3rd batt for the D200 for the convenience of leaving one in my vehicle where I also have a charger. Too often I'd grab a camera and forget to grab the extra battery to take with me. This of course with the D200 which with the vr lens and lots of photo viewing uses the charge up quickly enough that I want a second battery with me. But I have no real complaints with batt life with any of them. I worry more about the charge in the penlight size batts in the flash because while using it less I tend to forget to check there condition.

gene

[cyclohexane]

Spending $59.99~$79.99 for a 1100 mah seems ick

Well, I finally got around to checking... an EN-EL3e is $44.95 for 1500 MaH. Not great, but you know it'll work. We have some kind of third party battery at work for our D200 and it seems to work fine though I noticed it died much faster than the OEM.

The EN-EL4A is $109.95 for 2500 MaH but it lasts forever...

[blumesan]

Originally Posted by Tom Swaman

However, it is my understanding that while these batteries do not suffer from hysteresis, they also have a finite number of times they can be charged before they deteriorate in their ability to hold their charge.charge amount(ampere-hours). So the more you charge your batteries, the less is their useful lifetime.
Tom

Tom,
Where did you find this