Duracell is now making camera batteries for practically every camera you could imagine. They’re not available at retailers, and only available from Duracell directly. The Duracell camera battery looks and feels like any original manufacturer’s battery. In this video, I put the new Duracell camera battery through the test, comparing it to my Nikon EN-EL15B battery for the Nikon Z6. The Duracell camera battery is a heck of a lot cheaper than the Nikon one, so is it a good aftermarket camera battery that is worth the savings?
Transcription was done by Descript‘s automated transcription services which means it’s an AI-generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar, and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.
This is the battery that came with my Nikon D six. And this is the battery that came with my Nikon D at 50. These are the same batteries with minor differences. This is an E N E L 15 a and this is the E N E L 15 B. This one allows me to charge the battery while plugging the camera in to USB-C. This one does not. Normally I have found that over the years, aftermarket third party batteries are just not nearly as good as the OEM batteries. The original manufacturers battery. I have tried all sorts of third party batteries, but I find that there’s just certain things that just don’t add up that there’s, they don’t hold a charge as well, or they don’t charge fully or things like that. But sure. Third party batteries are way cheaper. And today I want to talk about a third party camera battery that I never thought would have been made from Duracell.
That’s right. Duracell is now making batteries. And this is the dr. N eel 15 U S. This battery is supposed to be like the ENL fifteens from Nikon, but I’m not exactly sure if it’s the AA version, the B version, the upcoming E or whatever version that they’re going to be doing in the next future generation of the Netcom bodies. But I will tell you that it’s about 60% less expensive to get the do or sell. So I got two of these and I’m about to charge them up and see how they hold up. Now, I figured that if you’re going with the third party camera battery, you might as well try one from a company with the reputation of Duracell. They’ve been making quality batteries since, before I was born. But before I dive in, I just want to point out that the ENL 15 a is a seven volt, 1900 mil amp, 14 watt hour battery.
Whereas the Duracell version is a 7.4 volt 1600 milli amp, 11 point 84 watt hour battery. So while this has more voltage than the Nikon, [inaudible], it’s actually less mil amps and less milliwatts per hour. So there’s that. And when you compare it to the ENL, 15 B it’s the same as the [inaudible]. So this is still under powered in Miller amps and milliwatts, then the OEM ones. So without even charging it up and trying, and I will say that this will likely not hold up as long doing video work and photography, then the Nikon one would, by the way, the other thing that I’ve found over the years is that some camera manufacturers like Sony, and I think even the newer Nikon batteries, they’ve put little chips inside the batteries that help the battery and the camera talk to each other and fine tune its optimization.
In fact, a lot of the third party, Sony battery, you can’t even use in Sony cameras because of the lack of chips. So let’s charge this up and we’ll see how long the battery lasts. Then let’s see, let’s see how this the next day. So yesterday after I finished, you still need the introduction to the video. I did a big test. I set up the Nikon Z six. I had two fully charged batteries. One is the Nikon branded battery, and one is the Duracell branded battery. I started with the Duracell when it put it in and I recorded as long as the camera would record. And the Nikon Z six can only record 30 minutes at a time. So I set a timer and I started recording. And then at 30 minutes I would start recording again and just keep going. And I did the same test with both batteries, but I started with, started with Duracell and it went to an hour and 20 minutes and then shut off on me.
It would not keep recording because the battery was too low, an hour and 20 minutes. I moved on to the Nikon branded battery and I started recording and then add an hour and a half. Still had some juice left in the battery, but I didn’t need to keep going because it already out ran the Duracell branded batteries. So we know that I had one bar left by the way. So I probably could have gone an extra 15 minutes or so before the battery died. So it probably could have gotten an hour and 45 minutes. But even if we say an hour and a half, it’s still out survived the jury cell branded battery. Now this is not to say that the Duracell branded battery is not good. In fact, I expected it to not last as long as it did. I expected it to have a battery life that was shorter than the Nikon branded battery.
Even though the voltage on the Duracell is more, the amperage and the watt hours are actually less on the Duracell. So I expected it to drain the pleat completely before the Nikon. And again, this is not to say that the Duracell branded batteries are not good at all. Cause they’re actually pretty good. I was shocked that it lasted an hour and 20 minutes. I’ve had other third party batteries that would last maybe 40 minutes on a good day, especially with video and audio being recorded. Not just still, but still, if you could go days with one of these batteries and not have to recharge it. One other thing that could have helped the situation more is if I turned on the Bluetooth and connected it to my phone for the geotagging cause that would have depleted the battery even more. But I feel like the video was still a good test.
Here’s the thing. If you need a third party battery for your camera, no matter the camera brand that is check out Duracell cause it’s Duracell, they’re tried and tested company just like this Metcon battery has been tried and tested over the years by Nikon. The Duracell brand is tried and tested obviously. But the thing with this is that it is only sold directly by Duracell. So if you need a third party battery and you are interested in the Duracell battery, then you have to go to Duracell direct.com because that’s the only place that you will be able to buy it. Duracell direct.com. If you like this video, click that subscribe button below. Right now I publish new videos every Monday and Thursday, whenever possible. You don’t want to miss it.
