Today I want to talk about batteries. In previous episodes, I've talked about storing batteries, charging batteries, and how heat and cold affect them. Today I want to talk about one specific question that comes up often. Third-party batteries. Third-party batteries usually cost about 30 to 50% less than the OEM. OEM simply means Original Equipment Manufacturer. So if you shoot Nikon, the battery says Nikon on it. That's an OEM battery.
Same idea with Sony, Canon, or any other camera brand. I've had some experience with third-party batteries, and my experiences have been really bad. I'm not saying every third-party battery is bad, but my personal track record with them has not been good. The failure rate in my experience has been uncomfortably high. So let's talk about why this might be the case. The first question you have to ask yourself is, why are third-party batteries cheaper?
The first reason is probably materials. People often argue that third-party batteries come out of the same factories and off the same production lines as OEM batteries. And guess what? That's most likely true. There are only so many battery manufacturers in the world, and a huge percentage of camera batteries come from just a handful of those factories. But even if they come from the same factory, that does not mean they are made from the same materials or held to the same standards.
The manufacturing process may look similar, but it's entirely possible to swap in cheaper components and lower grade materials. That's one of the easiest ways for them to lower the cost. The second issue is quality control. In theory, the OEM battery should have a much higher quality control standard. Let's say an OEM requires one in every 10 batteries to be tested, while a third-party manufacturer may decide to test far fewer batteries.
Or maybe the standards for passing are simply lower, which means they'll put fewer batteries in the bin, lowering the cost per battery. And that leads to another question. What happens to the batteries that don't quite make the cut for the OEM? Let's say a factory produces a million batteries and some percentage of those don't meet the stricter OEM standard, but they're still functional and may be quote unquote good enough.
Why wouldn't the manufacturer put their own label on that battery and sell it at a lower cost? If they didn't do that, they would just hit the bin. It's essentially free income for them, right? They could put a shorter warranty on them, and with the lower price tag, the expectations are significantly lower. Now, to be fair, this is always a percentage game. Because if you take just a 1% failure rate on a million batteries, we're talking about 10,000 batteries in the bin.
For high precision items, manufacturers aim to have an infield failure rate of approximately 0.0001. That's pretty small. But in my experience in consumer items, where nobody dies if that product fails, I've seen failure rates between 1 and 10% and sometimes even higher. For products with high quality control, that number can come down below 5%.
So let's say 5% of the batteries don't meet the OEM standard, but are pretty passable. They could just put a shorter warranty on them and lower the price tag, and with the lower price tag, the expectations are significantly lower too. And there you have it, a lesser battery. Now to be fair, this is always a percentage game. Even OEM batteries fail because random testing means random testing and no system is foolproof.
Someone out there is going to open a package, put the battery in, and it's dead on arrival. It's simply going to happen. Out of a million batteries, some number of them are going to fail. Sometimes defective products slip through, even in industries with extremely high quality control like food. I once opened a can of soda and found a piece of cardboard inside. It happens. Manufacturing is never perfect. So yes,
you can absolutely get a bad OEM battery. And yes, you can absolutely get a good third-party battery. Both things are true. But for me, the issue is not whether exceptions exist. The issue is where the odds are better. I personally believe that the odds are better with OEM batteries. I believe there is a higher likelihood of getting a bad battery if you go third-party. And for the kind of travel I've been doing over the last several years,
where I may be out in the middle of nowhere, I want to reduce the risk as much as possible. For me, that matters a lot. If I'm somewhere remote, I don't want to discover my battery suddenly won't hold the charge or that it dies after far fewer frames than expected. I want the maximum number of frames I can reasonably expect out of a battery every time. Now, I know there are people out there who will say,
I've had a third party battery for years and it's been fine. And that may be true. Like I said, not all of them will be bad. But I think there's another question hiding inside that claim. How often are you actually using that battery? Most people I meet are not using their cameras every week. A lot of them are not even using them every month. They may pick up the camera every few months, shoot a little and put it away again. In that situation,
a weak or slowly failing battery may not reveal itself very clearly. You're not shooting enough frames to push it. You're not depending on it hard enough to notice the decline. So for some users, maybe a third-party battery is good enough. For me, it isn't. In the last 15 years, I've purchased three third-party batteries, and all of them went out of service in under a year. By contrast, the roughly
dozen Canon batteries I've purchased over the same period, they're still in use. A couple of them are definitely showing signs of age and no longer giving me as many frames as they once did, but they are still usable. That has been my experience. And I have one more data point. I've been doing New York City Photosphory for about 15 years, and over that time, I've seen hundreds and hundreds of third-party batteries in the hands of photographers.
About 90% of the time when someone complains about a dead battery even though they just charged it, it turns out to be a third party battery. That doesn't prove that every third party battery is bad. After all, no one with a good third party battery on a photo safari is telling me, hey, check out my good third party battery. But the fact is, nine times out of 10, when there's a bad battery on safari, it's a third party battery.
So it certainly reinforces my suspicion that overall they're less reliable. Now, there's an argument that some third party manufacturers are quite good. I'm sure there are some reputable third party brands out there, but even then I keep coming back to the same question. How are they keeping their prices so low? It's not just a branding issue, right? That's part of it. But when we're talking about 30 to
50% less? I have to wonder. Yes, OEM manufacturers are charging a premium because they can. Brand name matters, but that alone does not explain why some third-party batteries are half the price. To me, the most likely answer is still cheaper materials, lower standards, or both. So when you put it all together, my recommendation is simple.
buy the OEM. It costs more upfront, but in my opinion, it is the safer choice, the more reliable choice, and the better long-term choice. And one last warning, be careful of counterfeits. The counterfeit market is everywhere, and gear is no exception. There are counterfeit batteries out there, just like there are counterfeit filters and other sorts of accessories. I've seen them, and I've owned them by accident.
So when you think about buying OEM, make sure you're buying from a trusted source, and Amazon is not necessarily a trusted source. I hope that was helpful. Until next time, keep on shooting.
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