First of all, this blog article is not talking about after-market knock-offs, replacements, equivalents, or off-brands, those are cheaper third party brands that may or may not work with your camera. This article is to discuss counterfeit or fake Nikon EN-EL3e battery on the market sold by various vendors, meaning the vendors claim they sell genuine Nikon EN-EL3e batteries, at about the same price as the genuine ones (about $37 - $38 as of late 2010), but these batteries are not genuine.
I have been looking for a backup battery for my Nikon D700 camera, which came with an original EN-EL3e battery I believe. After trying a few off-brands with troubles, I decided to buy a genuine Nikon EN-EL3e.
Then I went to amazon.com and tried a Marketplace vendor "HD Camcorders & More" who has pretty good customer reviews. Their shipping was fast, I quickly opened the package, found a few suspectable non-genuine spots, used a multimeter to measure the battery's terminals so that I knew it's better than off-brands, plugged the battery onto Nikon charger for a several-hour full charge, then put into camera and took a few test pictures. The battery works. But when I looked into camera's menu to check out the Battery info, I found something wrong.
I knew I took 3 pictures using this 100% fully charged battery, but the Pic.meter showed "1"! I blinked my eyes for a few times, it was still "1", not the expected "3". Then I left the camera on along with this battery inside, spent a few minutes to re-look the packaging materials, user's manuals, etc., then came back to camera's menu to check Battery info again, now it changed, the Pic.meter showed "0"! I took 3 pictures, but this battery barely 'remembered' only 1 shutter actuation for a while, then just after a few minutes it totally forgot it! What a bad memory... *#^@_@^#*!
Here is a picture showing the Battery info menu page, for 3 shutter actuations, it only shows "Pic.meter 0".
Based on this finding, considering the suspectable here's and there's, also read through a few online pages discussing counterfeit or fake Nikon EN-EL3e battery (see Appendix below), I knew this battery is a fake.
Quickly went to Amazon.com and ordered another EN-EL3e battery solder by Amazon.com itself, shipping was fast (with notorious Amazon.com stingy packaging, this time no air bubble at all), as soon as I grabbed the battery paper carton box in my hands, I could feel the difference! The weight is the same, I mean the carton box's paper material felt different in my palm, it is quality paper carton well folded while the previous one is not as good.
Since I hadn't returned the fake one yet, I put both of them side-by-side for a comparison. Below are some pictures, left is fake, right is genuine, unless otherwise noted.
Paper carton box package. Note the holographic seals differ:
Note the fake one says "Cell: made in Japan" and "Pack: assembled in China", while the genuine one says "Made in Japan":
The fake one has an additional barcode label covering original ones, the JAN barcodes differ:
The fake one's carton box is thicker:
Inside the carton box, the fake one as shown below. Notice the low quality of paper carton, plastic bag, and user's manual; the tight battery protection cover; also the always-golden color holographic seal:
Inside the carton box, the genuine one as shown below. Paper carton has more complicated and neat and fit folding; paper carton, plastic bag, and user'a manual all have good quality; the battery protection cover fits perfectly on battery; holographic seal changes to green color at this angle:
User's manuals: different paper quality and printing quality. Your fingers will tell you the difference as soon as they touch them...
View at an angle, left is fake, right is genuine. At least you can tell the different colors of their holographic seals.
Now let's look at them side-by-side (left is fake, right is genuine), try tell as many as differences among them, like a kindergarten's game:
- Main label size: the fake one has larger label, while the genuine one has very even margins around the whole label.
- Main label's corners: the fake one has two 90 degree sharp inner turns at right side, while the genuine one has only round corners.
- "Nikon" logo text: the fake one is "N i k o n", while the genuine one shows the correct Nikon logo text font.
- Label fonts: the fake one uses fatter/wider font than the genuine one.
- Garbage bin drawings are different.
- Below the garbage bin, the fake one says "7.4V 1.14Ah" (one point one four Ah) while the genuine one is "7.4V 1.41Ah" (one point four one Ah).
- At left side of the "7.4V 1.14Ah" text, the fake one misses a Chinese punctuation 'period' which is a little circle as correctly shown on the genuine one.
- The fake one's 3 terminals use shiny metal, like stainless steel; while the genuine one uses dull, non-shiny metal surface finish. Fortunately the fake one's "S" terminal doesn't have a voltage comparing to "-" terminal, otherwise it'll have the same bad self-discharge as the off-brands.
- The fake holographic seal is not flat, always golden/orange color, has 4 flimsy cuts, shows both even and odd rows "Nikon" text at any angle. The genuine one is flat, well stuck, can change color at different angles, with 4 even cut notches, only shows even or odd row "Nikon" texts at some angles while the other row(s) display is muted.
- The "Nikon" vs. "SONY E.D" difference should be OK to ignore.
- Both have lot numbers.
Place them in another way, up is fake, down is genuine, re-examine their differences:
Now look at the other side of the battery, see the bolder font on the fake one (up) vs. the nice Nikon logo and other text on the genuine one (down):
The fake one:
The genuine one:
Different holographic seals at an angle:
Shiny contacts/terminals on the fake one (the yellow/golden color holographic seal is in background):
Non-shiny contacts/terminals on the genuine one (the green color holographic seal at this angle is in background):
Looking at all these differences, I see this fake EN-EL3e battery is differently faked comparing to other kinds of counterfeits mentioned in Appendix links. The biggest problem is still the fake one's "bad memory" or volatile Pic.meter issue, not sure about the battery's lifetime though.
I'm returning this fake EN-EL3e battery back to HD Camcorders & More for a refund. Also I urged Amazon.com to clean up counterfeits at Amazon.com Marketplace, Amazon.com Customer Service confirmed it can be returned and they'll pay the return shipping cost, also said "We'll consider your feedback as we plan further improvements."
Also I contacted Nikon USA Customer Service, they said "The only way to be sure it is a genuine Nikon battery would be to send it to service to be checked", also they confirmed EN-EL3e "batteries are labeled as Made in Japan."
Appendix
Online references on "fake EN-EL3e":
The official Nikon website:
Other web pages:
