p.2 #1 · Real vs Fake Nikon Batteries....on EBay..
rathman wrote:
I'm not advocating generics but how many incidents of "fried" cameras do you recall? I've heard of cell phone and laptops catching on fire but they were always with OEM batteries. I could be wrong.
There is nothing about a battery that will "fry" a camera. A lithium-polymer cell peaks at 4.6V and should never be discharged below 3V, preferably staying above 3.2V. If you short them they catch fire, unless the shorted leads or board burns out first. If you poke a hole in the seal (a foil laminate bag) they WILL burn in contact with air. Li-Po battery packs catch fire because of manufacturing defects in assembly. They may also hold charge poorly due to chemistry defects. Any charger that can charge li-pos can charge any li-po. Li-pos are generally balance charged so all the cells match in voltage; this is why there are multiple pads on the batteries: one per cell so the charger can monitor each cell. Otherwise if during charging one cell is at 4.6V and another at 4.4V the charger will overcharge (and damage) the first one until the second is finished. Doesn't matter if it's from Nikon or anyone else; a li-po is a li-po. Other than this there's nothing special about a li-po pack that makes any difference in a camera (like whether it can sustain 80A or only 20A).
I don't buy fake batteries; not because only the OEM can contract for good cells free of defects and do a competent packaging job, but because there is no brand name to protect. If someone like Turnigy, Dynamite, etc that make li-po packs for other markets made batteries for my cameras I'd have no problems buying them. (And they're all made in China, too. In the same factories. Just to different specifications.) But for something that's fraudulently labeled as Nikon, you have no idea what you're getting. They're almost certainly safe to use, they just won't hold charge very well because of toy grade chemistry.
