EN EL4 battery

Afternoon everyone,

 

A few months ago I bought a low mileage D300S that’s in quite good condition. It came with a battery grip that at first didn’t seem to want to communicate with either of my 300’s. It sat for quite a while and today I had some time to tinker with it. With the grip in place and an EL3e battery it worked just fine with none of the apparent problems it had shown. This grip came with an EL4 battery that apparently needs a charge. It looks like the battery in the grip is used instead of the battery located in the body. I haven’t downloaded a manual but this camera has been otherwise pretty intuitive. I am unsure why the on-board battery isn’t used if the grip battery is low on power but that seems to be the case. Is there a reason for this? What charger should I use for the EL4?

 

Rick H.

Isn't there a menu option for changing the grip/body battery use priority?

 

I seem to remember an extra menu item appearing in the D700 when a battery-grip was fitted.

I haven’t downloaded a manual

Why the flick not?!

Nikon | Download center | D300S

 

Custom Setting d12

Joe there is rarely a need for one and the menus on the 300S are fairly intuitive. I managed to get through much of Eastern Europe just fine without it. I find that most questions are easily answered here. Thanks Mike I’ll look into that custom setting and probably download since you were nice enough to provide the link. I also found that KEH can get me the insert for the EN-EL3E battery by tomorrow for $29 and change while a charger for the EL4 is just under $80 so that was an easy decision.

 

Rick H.

Edited June 15, 2021 by Rick Helmke

Just in case ..Link .https://usedphotopro.com/nikon-mh-21-quick-charger-for-nikon-en-el4-en-el4a-battery-25278-und-87-mh21-3-90300031-a16d698f

Just to show how I sometimes get in a hurry, one is a D300 and the other a 300S which means custom settings are D11 and D12 but both are set now. I also took out the EL4 battery after getting the insert for the en-el3e and am now running the same batteries on all of my crop bodies except the D1X.

 

Rick H.

Inside the MB-D10, you can optionally use 8 AA batteries also. The D300S was the last Nikon body that uses the EN-EL3e. Because of its exposed electronic contacts, it was no longer compliant with Japanese safety laws since around 2011 or so, and Nikon switched to the EN-EL15 with the D7000 in 2010.

Inside the MB-D10, you can optionally use 8 AA batteries also.

For about 50 shots! If the battery-grip for my D700 was anything to go by.

 

I needed a machine-gun belt of AA cells to keep the darn thing fed, and a wad of cash to buy those AAs. I found it cheaper to buy extra En-el3e batteries than to use the AA tray. Not even sure why such a thing was supplied, except for use in extreme emergency - when you're all out of camera battery charge, but there's a store selling AAs within reach.

The trouble with AA trays is that both rechargeable and normal cells fit, but the resulting working voltage is 9.6v v 12v respectively.

I don't think the Nikon 'internals' could handle that concept very well.

I remember finding plenty of juice remaining in them after the camera shut down due to low power.

The trouble with AA trays is that both rechargeable and normal cells fit, but the resulting working voltage is 9.6v v 12v respectively.

I don't think the Nikon 'internals' could handle that concept very well.

I remember finding plenty of juice remaining in them after the camera shut down due to low power.

 

My MB-D10 on my D300 worked quite well with the current Panasonic Eneloop Pro Ni-MH rechargeables, though it was light duty use. I used that configuration to increase the frame rate on the D300.

The trouble with AA trays is that both rechargeable and normal cells fit, but the resulting working voltage is 9.6v v 12v respectively.

I don't think the Nikon 'internals' could handle that concept very well.

I remember finding plenty of juice remaining in them after the camera shut down due to low power.

 

My first digital camera, years ago by now, was a Nikon CoolPix 2000, which uses 4 AA cells.

They lasted about 36 exposures, which made using in not so much different from the cost of

a 36 exposure roll of film. After using it for some time, I sent it to Nikon to get fixed.

 

I believe as noted above, (and I used with with both NiMH and alkaline cells) the problem was the sensing

of low voltage was too high. The batteries still had plenty of life, but it wouldn't use it.

 

I now have the external grip for the D700, which I believe is also the MB-D10, but haven't tried it yet.

The EN-EL4 is also the pack for the D1 and D1X. As recommended by someone with a popular

recommending web site, I got the Watson equivalent. Not quite as cheap as the brand X version

of the EN-EL3e, but not so bad. Also, I got a charger locally for $50, which also seems to be a

good price these days.

 

And I bought some replacement NiMH cells to fix up the old battery pack that I have,

but still haven't gotten to put them in. They are a slightly hard to find size, but not all

that hard.

The Nikon D1 family uses the EN4 battery, which is NiMH and totally different from the Li-ion EN-EL4 that are in the D2 and D3 families.

Thanks Shun, I wanted to bring that up as I still have a D1X but I’m not home and couldn’t remember the battery number for it.I can say they are still easy to find.

 

Rick H.

The Nikon D1 family uses the EN4 battery, which is NiMH and totally different from the Li-ion EN-EL4 that are in the D2 and D3 families.

 

Oh, OK. I still haven't figured out Nikon numbering of anything, and especially batteries. If it starts with EN and ends with 4, it should be the same ...