Digital SLR Batteries

Page updated: June 2008

You've got a camera - now you need some digital SLR batteries to power the thing.

I have to admit it - there really aren't a ton of options here: the camera that you have will determine the batteries that you use.

Some cameras only use a proprietary rechargeable battery while others give you the flexibility of using standard AAs.

Regardless of which digital SLR batteries you need, I highly recommend that you get a spare (since all digital SLR cameras only ship with one battery) - there's nothing worse than running out of power right in the middle of a great photo session.

Not sure what battery your camera uses? Jump straight to the battery table.

Film vs. Digital SLR Batteries

With a film SLR, you could go for about 2 to 5 years without changing the battery.

Film SLRs use tiny pancake batteries that only cost a few dollars to replace.

By way of comparison, your digital SLR battery will only last anywhere from 1 to 2 weeks (depending on how much you use it).

These batteries are not cheap: a typical rechargeable battery costs between $30 and $50. So what's going on here? Why are digital SLR cameras such battery hogs?

How Digital SLRs Use Batteries

Your digital SLR camera does a lot more work than a film SLR every time you take a picture:

1. The camera opens and closes the shutter to expose the sensor to light
2. The sensor captures light and color information and runs that through the cameras internal processor
3. The digital image is saved onto the memory card
4. The image is displayed for brief period of time on the camera's LCD

All of this computer processing and information display takes a lot of power.

The good news: digital SLR batteries today last much longer than they used to.

Unless you are a very aggressive photographer, you probably won't need to recharge the battery for at least a week (and even longer if you only pull out your camera for special occasions).

Types of Digital SLR Batteries

The camera that you choose determines the batteries that you can use.

For example, the Canon digital SLR cameras all use rechargeable Canon batteries like the LP-E5 and the BP-511A, while Nikons use the EN-EL9 and the EN-El3a.

Many Pentax digital SLRs run on 4 standard AA batteries.

Regardless of the battery that your camera requires, there are several common battery types:

• Lithium Ion (Li-on) — Lithium Ion batteries are rechargeable and can store charges for a long time. These proprietary batteries are expensive to replace but last a long time
• Nickel Metal Hydride (Ni-MH) — Ni-MH batteries are the most common replacement for standard AA, since they can be recharged time after time
• CR-V3 — A CR-V3 battery is equivalent to 2AAs, and come in both rechargeable and non-rechargeable versions

If you can use rechargeable batteries, here's how to tell which ones will last the longest: look for the mAh (milli-Ampere-hours) number.

This tells you how long the battery will last when fully charged. A larger number means that you'll be able to take more photos before the battery runs out.

Battery Grips

If you really want your digital SLR to take photo after photo, you might want to invest in a battery grip. These optional battery compartments attach to the bottom of the camera, and can store multiple Li-on or AA batteries.

Besides providing your camera with more power, battery grips also have a shutter release button, and often include some of the same control dials that you'll find on the camera body.

These additional controls on the grip makes it much easier to take portrait photographs when you're holding the camera vertically.

Battery grips are expensive and add a lot of weight and bulk to a digital SLR, but are useful for photographers who take a lot of portraits and want to avoid wrist strain.

Is an Extra Battery Worth It?

If your camera uses a rechargeable Li-on battery, then my answer is yes. Here's why.

A rechargeable Li-on battery can take from 2 to 3 hours to reach a full charge.

Imagine that you're taking photos of a special event and your battery runs out. Without a backup, it's going to be awhile (and you're going to miss a lot of photo opportunities) if you have to charge your digital SLR batteries.

Sure, you think, that will never happen.

But here's the problem: digital SLR cameras aren't very good about showing you exactly how much charge the battery has left.

The symbol for "the battery is about to run out" and "the battery has a 50% charge" are similar to each other. If you've been taking pictures for awhile, this makes it hard to tell just how much juice is left.

I'm very careful about charging my batteries before big events, but there still have been times when my battery has run out unexpectedly.

Having a backup lets me keep taking photos so that I don't miss any special moments.

Digital SLR Battery Table

I've put together this table of all of the current digital SLR models and the batteries that they use.

Use it to determine what kind of a battery each camera uses, find a backup battery for a camera you already own, or find out more about the battery grips for each camera.

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