Help me pick an NP-F battery

[Devon]

Hello filmmakers. I hate to do it again, but I’d love fresh new perspective for the new year. 

I’ve purchased a Sigma FP as another cam, and am rigging it out. I’m attracted to its small form factor. So mounting a V-Mount defeats the purpose of keeping it small. So I’ve decided to go with NP-F batteries to power the rig. 

I’ve had to have the camera repaired by sigma once already as somehow I fried the PCB board by failing to shut off my camera before disassembly. I’ve since upgraded to SmallRig’s latest NP-F plate, which has built-in overcurrent and short circuit protection (to prevent me from frying the board again since I tend to move fast sometimes.) 

Because of this, I’ve created a whole new fear of frying another board, with any camera in my future.

I feel better having the new SmallRig plate, but also have noticed some NP-F batteries advertise that they have a built in chip to also protect from over-current/short circuiting. 

I can’t get myself to purchase a true Sony NP-F as they’re so expensive and seemingly hard to find. So, I’m gonna give some Amazon brands a chance. I also have a gift card to Amazon from the holidays, so I’d prefer to use it. 

I’ve used Wasabi Power batteries for other cameras and have generally been happy. Check out this link though, as this person disassembled a lot of 3rd party NP-F batteries and found that they’re not even wired to deliver their claimed capacity. He also disassembled a Wasabi Power NP-F and found there was steel taped to the batteries. Seems sketchy, unless there’s a real use that I’m unaware of? Bummer. 

The only high capacity 990 I can find on Amazon is from Kastar. The reviews also are not great, claiming that the capacity isn’t as high as claimed. It also says it has a built-in circuit protection chip. Anyone like Kastar batteries despite being seemingly some of the cheapest on Amazon?

The Wasabi Power NP-F (linked above) has great reviews, has built in chip, but it looks like the forum poster (linked above/first link) left their findings as a review too. Bummer, as I like this brand. They have a good warranty too. Still considering it anyway. 

I know Watson batteries are generally good. But the price is still high. Still onsidering it though. 

Any other decent 3rd party Amazon brands ya’ll have had a good experience with?

Again, I don’t wanna fry my board. So a battery with a circuit protection chip is preferred. 

Thanks all!

[kye]

7 hours ago, Devon said:

Hello filmmakers. I hate to do it again, but I’d love fresh new perspective for the new year. 

I’ve purchased a Sigma FP as another cam, and am rigging it out. I’m attracted to its small form factor. So mounting a V-Mount defeats the purpose of keeping it small. So I’ve decided to go with NP-F batteries to power the rig. 

I’ve had to have the camera repaired by sigma once already as somehow I fried the PCB board by failing to shut off my camera before disassembly. I’ve since upgraded to SmallRig’s latest NP-F plate, which has built-in overcurrent and short circuit protection (to prevent me from frying the board again since I tend to move fast sometimes.) 

Because of this, I’ve created a whole new fear of frying another board, with any camera in my future.

I feel better having the new SmallRig plate, but also have noticed some NP-F batteries advertise that they have a built in chip to also protect from over-current/short circuiting. 

I can’t get myself to purchase a true Sony NP-F as they’re so expensive and seemingly hard to find. So, I’m gonna give some Amazon brands a chance. I also have a gift card to Amazon from the holidays, so I’d prefer to use it. 

I’ve used Wasabi Power batteries for other cameras and have generally been happy. Check out this link though, as this person disassembled a lot of 3rd party NP-F batteries and found that they’re not even wired to deliver their claimed capacity. He also disassembled a Wasabi Power NP-F and found there was steel taped to the batteries. Seems sketchy, unless there’s a real use that I’m unaware of? Bummer. 

The only high capacity 990 I can find on Amazon is from Kastar. The reviews also are not great, claiming that the capacity isn’t as high as claimed. It also says it has a built-in circuit protection chip. Anyone like Kastar batteries despite being seemingly some of the cheapest on Amazon?

The Wasabi Power NP-F (linked above) has great reviews, has built in chip, but it looks like the forum poster (linked above/first link) left their findings as a review too. Bummer, as I like this brand. They have a good warranty too. Still considering it anyway. 

I know Watson batteries are generally good. But the price is still high. Still onsidering it though. 

Any other decent 3rd party Amazon brands ya’ll have had a good experience with?

Again, I don’t wanna fry my board. So a battery with a circuit protection chip is preferred. 

Thanks all!

I have had success with the Wasabi brand in the past across multiple cameras.  If the design is good and the real capacity-per-dollar is competitive then I'd say go for it.  

I wouldn't worry about them putting extra weight in there - Sony used to do this in the early days of manufacturing electronics in Japan because although they were making decent products the consumers were still in the mindset that the heavier something was the better it was made.

I think it's easy to look at this peek behind the curtain and conclude that cheap NPF batteries are a minefield / rip-off / etc and then get disheartened, but I think that most manufacturing is like this and we only think these isolated examples are bad because we have some deluded fantasy that the rest of the world is mostly above board.  
If you feel badly about this then just wait until you discover that in a lot of situations the "authentic" brands do this too, only they're doing it with their "genuine" products that cost 5x the third-party ones.  Then when the consumers find out and start buying third-party products the manufacturers put in mechanisms to deliberately cripple the competing products.  The printer ink cartridge example is well known, but this happens all over the place.  Here in Australia we have pretty strong consumer protection laws, so lots of stuff gets pinged here that doesn't overseas, but even here the law only matters if you get caught....

[A_Urquhart]

I use Swit NP-F batteries and they are fantastic. They also have an extra output so you can power another accessory if needed. Mine have lasted years of heavy use. Have also heard good things of IDX NP-F with their Xtap output. 

[Devon]

Thanks to you both! Yes, I assume its reasonable to believe many manufacturers to these kinds of things to "help" the selling of their products. Mostly, I dont want a cheap battery that claims to have over circuit protection, and really not.

[kye]

7 hours ago, Devon said:

Thanks to you both! Yes, I assume its reasonable to believe many manufacturers to these kinds of things to "help" the selling of their products. Mostly, I dont want a cheap battery that claims to have over circuit protection, and really not.

Maybe there's tests on the performance of the battery somewhere online, that would include these considerations?

I would imagine there are ways to test a battery, just like any other piece of equipment, so maybe someone is out there running those tests?

[LondonR]

DSTE (usually on Amazon) are decent, particularly if you are in UK where we cannot get Wasabi.

[ac6000cw]

My experience with non-OEM camera batteries (from a variety of 'brands') versus OEM ones is:

1. Their usable/useful capacity is usually lower (by maybe 10-20%), irrespective of their nominal capacity as stated by the supplier.

2. The battery indicator accuracy (on the camera screen) is lower.

3. They have higher self-discharge rates (i.e. when they're charged but not being used).

4. Their useful life (number of charge/discharge cycles and age) is lower.

5. The capacity versus cost is way better, so you can buy two or three of them for the cost of one OEM battery.

Beyond the OEM battery included with a camera, I've nearly always bought 'mid-price range' non-OEM batteries (and usually I have three batteries per camera) as they are so much cheaper and I'm not using them day in, day out (or earning a living from them). If I was using them hard I'd buy OEM batteries, other than maybe having a couple of non-OEM ones as an emergency backup.

If I wanted good non-OEM batteries at a reasonable price, I'd probably go for suppliers with a decent reputation in the market to protect and that you might get some after-sales support from e.g. Small Rig, Neewer, Wasabi, Hahnel etc.

[kye]

11 hours ago, ac6000cw said:

My experience with non-OEM camera batteries (from a variety of 'brands') versus OEM ones is:

1. Their usable/useful capacity is usually lower (by maybe 10-20%), irrespective of their nominal capacity as stated by the supplier.

2. The battery indicator accuracy (on the camera screen) is lower.

3. They have higher self-discharge rates (i.e. when they're charged but not being used).

4. Their useful life (number of charge/discharge cycles and age) is lower.

5. The capacity versus cost is way better, so you can buy two or three of them for the cost of one OEM battery.

Beyond the OEM battery included with a camera, I've nearly always bought 'mid-price range' non-OEM batteries (and usually I have three batteries per camera) as they are so much cheaper and I'm not using them day in, day out (or earning a living from them). If I was using them hard I'd buy OEM batteries, other than maybe having a couple of non-OEM ones as an emergency backup.

If I wanted good non-OEM batteries at a reasonable price, I'd probably go for suppliers with a decent reputation in the market to protect and that you might get some after-sales support from e.g. Small Rig, Neewer, Wasabi, Hahnel etc.

My experience is similar.  Definitely have lower lifetime in years, with batteries dying (no longer charging) after a few years but the OEM ones keeping on going, so I'm down to the OEM ones for most of my cameras now, as I haven't bought a new camera for a while!

I've been lucky with the camera / battery / usage of my cameras and mostly get by with a single battery on each day, and recharge overnight, so the non-OEM ones are mostly for backup, but that's not likely to be the case for everyone.

Some battery types remain relevant across camera upgrades over time (NPF being probably the best example of this, with some Canon batteries like LP-E6 etc being others) so it's worthwhile buying well as the OEM ones will have a much longer lifespan over the years than the non-OEM ones.  Like the sayings go: "buy well, buy once" or "the poor man buys twice".

[Clark Nikolai]

My take on it is I'm thinking of size when shooting. To not have it bulky, it's probably better to have three smaller batteries than one big one. If doing that then you'll already be switching batteries on a long shoot so it's okay if some non-OEM batteries don't have the full capacity that the OEM ones have.

I agree with ac6000cw that some mid-range non-OEM batteries would allow for a good quality vs price balance. I've had good experiences with Wasabi brand (but there are others in that price and quality range that are likely similar.)