My Nikon D1x new battery is 2700 mAh ??? (should i be worried?)

[PhotoMonster]

I just got 2 new batteries for my D1x.. the problem is that I am afraid to use them because they are 2700mAh not the standard 2000-2200mAh I am use to seeing.. AM I SAFE TO USE THESE NEW BATTERIES???...
Thanks for the help!!..
Photomonster

[Roger Sinsheimer]

PhotoMonster,

Relax. This is actually a good thing -- a 2700 mAh battery will last longer than your older 2000 - 2200 mAh battery.

What would be grounds for concern is if their voltage didn't match the old ones, or if they had a lower mAh rating, which would mean they'd last through fewer shots.

mAh is a rating of how much energy they can store. A 2700 mAh battery stores 2700 milli (thousandths of an) Amp-Hours of energy.

A simplistic way of thinking of this is that (in theory) you could pull 2.7A for one hour, or one Amp for 2.7 hours, from the battery. In reality it's never that simple. ;^) But you can see that if this value were less, the battery would be capable of storing less energy.

-- Roger

[Noel_Carboni]

To add to what Roger said, make sure the voltage is what the Nikon needs. If that is the case, and the batteries can provide sufficient current, then a larger mAh rating is indeed better.

It is still worth checking the specs if they are purpose-built batteries for the Nikon, specifically.

All that said, I have never bought an aftermarket battery for my Canons, even though the Canon branded batteries are much more expensive. Batteries leak, electronics fail... There is more to them than just a few simple specifications. Lo and behold in 9 years of shooting Canon digital SLRs I have never had a battery failure nor a camera failure due to a battery problem.

-Noel

[DierkHaasis]

Let me add a little bit of concern.

The original EN-EL4 came with 1900 mAh, the current one, EN-EL4a, is listed as 2500 mAh. While third party batteries might be as good as, even better, than original ones [in the case of the EN-EL4 series I doubt it], there is a high chance you get a dangerous dud. Lithium-Ion batteries are rather fickle, contrary to popular belief they are not as hardy as NiMh or NiCd.

For instance, if the electronic circuitry in it is missing or faulty, you easily break it by a deep discharge; it is also possible to overcharge in this case. Not as problematic but more than just an annoyance is the communication between battery and camera. And then there is the matter of cheap/faulty cases. Even a very small crack in the batterie case can lead to fire or explosion as lithium reacts quite fiercely with oxygen.

[hatadds]

The EN4's are not the newer lithium ion. I believe they are NiMh.
I had a D1x and the mAh ratings on the several batteries I purchased over the years varied from 1900-2500 mAh.

[DierkHaasis]

True, the D1x does not use teh EN-EL4[a]. Since the D1x isn't the newest camera on the block I couldn't find the specs for its battery [EN-EL 3], so I used the - admittedly more problematic - newer battery design for the D2 and D3 series. It was an illustration to a larger point.

[David_Buzzard]

The batteries in the D1x are old fashioned NiCads, which means you need to take care to run them flat before you charge them, and refresh them every 10 charges.

The batteries were definitely the weakest part of the old D1x