Hahnel HL-EL20 Li-ion Battery Replacement Compatible with Nikon 1 J1

In my opinion, this is another one of those very convenient, unexpensive - but professional - third-party replacements for all those Nikon accessories that typically involve applying for a second mortgage on your house in order to buy them... ;-)In this specific case, this is a replacement for Nikon EN-EL20 batteries for the J1 camera, which cost 50 euros (!) in my country (Italy).I gave it a lot of thought before buying this, at first, since I always prefer to buy original batteries, when possible, due to some very bad experiences with cel-phone third-party replacements; luckily, knowing that Hahnel is a well-known company with a good reputation even among professional photographers, and having read positive comments on other replacements from this brand, I decided to give it a try.Finding a reliable cheap third-party replacement is particularly important for custom camera batteries, in my opinion, especially if you consider that - no matter how much you are willing to pay for an original one - _all_ Li-Ion batteries usually have an average life of 2 years, after which they typically stop being able to hold a charge properly, forcing you to fork more bucketloads of hard-earned cash to buy new ones...Moreover, if you consider that these 2 average years usually start from the _manufacturing_ date, even if the batteries are not used, and not from the date you actually start using them, it becomes even more absurd, IMHO, to pay a large percentage of the cost of _any_ device for an original battery, without even knowing how much it will last... (Not surprisingly, very few manufacturers include manufacturing dates on their batteries, unfortunately.)Luckily, this specific battery worked like a charm; it was professionally packaged in a brand-new blister with proper instructions, including a 2-year warranty and even an authenticity hologram on the blister (!) (This definitely does not seem to be a dirt-cheap, unboxed, obscure concotion of recycled cells coming from a 1000-year-old dusty shelf of some Troll in Moria... ;-)).It charged properly in Nikon original battery charger, the camera accepted it with no problem (also because apparently my Nikon J1 does not have a specific function to tell original batteries from third-party replacements, luckily...;-)), and - most importantly - it has been working like a charm in non-consecutive use for several hours, without discharging immediately, as many cheap no-brand replacements often do, and it still shows full capacity (!)...By the way, even if this is just a 880 MAh battery, compared to the 1020 MAh of the original Nikon, it still has not discharged after a prolonged use, even if it got _very hot_ during repeated movie shooting (as the original Nikon battery, actually). So, I could not tell the difference in shooting time from the original Nikon battery, so far: maybe this will become evident with further use, but for now I am totally satisfied with this replacement.So, considering that I paid it half the price of the original Nikon battery, I would not hesitate buying another one in the future, even for other devices.Another rare case of "cheaper is not _always_ worse", in my opinion ;-)

Also zuerst einmal: ich habe den Akku erst einen Zyklus lang im Einsatz (aber immerhin kann ich nicht von Problemen berichten, wie sie bei modernen "Nachbau-Akkus" wohl öfters mal der Fall sind). Ich habe den Akku bekommen, ausgepackt, im Originallader der J1 geladen und in die Kamera gesetzt - er passt perfekt (nicht zu eng und nicht zu weit, wie das Original), die Kamera erkennt ihn und nimmt ihre Arbeit auf.Nachdem ich derzeit sehr viel teste (F-Mount Objektive an der "1" mit FT1-Adapter) braucht sie zur Zeit auch extrem viel Strom. Ich konnte keinen Unterschied zum Originalakku feststellen, obwohl dieser nur 880mAh und das Original 1020mAh hat. Fühlbar ist das jedenfalls nicht.Was die Zukunft mit diesem Akku bringt kann ich erst beurteilen, wenn noch in paar Wochen/Monate ins Land gehen. Da ich also erst mal den "Heute-Zustand" beurteilen kann gebe ich auch volle Punkte, ich kann den Akku guten Gewissens empfehlen.

Nach eineinhalb Jahren bekam ich den Akku fast nicht mehr aus der Kamera heraus, da er sich bauchig verformt hatte.

I bought this battery as a back up for my Nikon 1 when going on a family holiday - first time i used it the charge was depleted after 2 pictures! after recharging the same thing happens again. I have previously used Hahnel batteries with great success but never this format.

These batteries are only slightly less efficient than the original Nikons, certainly not enough to justify the extra cost of Nikon's.They are well worth it.