Excellent review. The first couple of test weren't surprising at all considering the Z6-2 camera has 2 processors. I was just on Nikon's website today to see if the c battery could be used in my D810 ( it can )&, the b & c batteries cost are the the same at $73 us. Great vid. For time laps , the V-grip & 3 batteries is the way to go.
Interesting. My z6 never clears 300-400 images in "walkabout" use. That's even if IBIS is off. One thing I never considered was compression as I use LOSSLESS compression since it retains quality and us upwards of 20% smaller. Always in airplane mode... Hopefully what these findings show is Nikon has improved idle time performance as no doubt that comes into play for walkabout shooting where idle time is a bigger deal.
It's an interesting test, but there are a couple of things to keep in mind. The Z 6II is 100% going to be more energy-hungry. It has two processors running. They are not a new generation, more energy-efficient processors. The higher C capacity is needed to offset the extra processor's power needs and that's why you have similar shot counts.
That’s true, that’s one of the reasons I tested it on both the Z6 and Z6 II, but what was surprising is that it indeed got less shots that the Z6 with B, you would imagine the second processor would only kick in when it’s needed, but it seems it’s on all the time, even when it doesn’t have to think or compute anything as focus was off and it was full manual no changes, but at least it’s less power hungry when idle 👍🏻
Since EXPEED 3, Nikon's image processing and camera control chips are based on ARM (en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expeed). ARM's first CPU was tested and as designed, but after the test it was discovered the test motherboard had faulty power lines. So the CPU had run on power disseminated from the I/O lines (1 Watt). This formed the basis for phone CPUs. And Apple's new M1 and, ages ago, for Nikon's EXPEED. I expect Nikon to have allocated to their firmware components as logical pipelines across the following two principles: all sensor control, scanning and raw buffer handling with associated I/O by Exp1 and all "computer vision" by Exp2. This would mean Exp2 does JPEG conversion, display driving, down sampling/scaling, AF, WB, exposure, when Exp1 scans the sensor, writes to buffer, moves from buffer to card. Etc. Bus width is doubled, waits reduced, processor cache paging is removed, etc. No, Mk II will ~never run on one processor again. I think. I still have 4 EN-EL15 of the A series - don't see the problem. Mk II works over USB-C whilst being charged too. With a USB power bank (external battery pack) of 20,000 mAh you have the energy of 10 type A or B batteries.
Very interesting and thank you for this comparison. Was wondering if my next battery for Z6 (OG) should be B or C. Did you use mechanical or silent shutter on the tests?
You’re welcome, I always use silent as I shoot a lot of timelapse, only switch to mechanical occasionally when taking photos with artificial lighting at high shutter 👍🏻
What sort of differences are you seeing with a Nikon D500 and a En-EL15b as the c is still not as popular with Amazon? moving forward i need them compatible with future Z models. i have had trouble with the charges bending my pins when I am careless inserting the battery. Nikon always has a more expensive better design. I prefer the Nikon charger becasue of the longer loading barrel. I would like to see a video of repairing the Nikon battery connector. I was just working at subzero conditons with reduced viibility and bent two batteries connectors beyond repair. One a Vivitar battery and one a Nikon battery.
Hi I am a Nikon Z6 user and I got 2 EN-EL 15b batteries from Nikon ... One of them is giving this fast blinking while using Nikon official charger and when I used that in Z6 camera is not turning on. I ever tried out USB charging in Camera but after 5-6 seconds the charge indicator is turning off. Have you encountered anything like that with your Nikon batteries. Problem is that they are out of warranty now, not sure what to do. Never expected Nikon battery came with Z6 die like that.
I think there's quality control issues with the C batteries. I got one for my original Z6 and it is routinely getting 25% less shots than the B batteries. Honestly, the Nikon C battery has the same output as the Sony Z battery now, and my A7III lasts a full week on one battery under the same workload conditions. The Nikon EN-EL15c drains in a single day by comparison. It appears to me Nikon needs to work on how their cameras handle idle time over increasing the output of batteries going forward.
Sounds like you got a bad one, I’d try to get a replacement if I was you, maybe you have things like WiFi and constant jpeg downloading on ? But yes I agree idle time battery consumption especially could be improved
Hi Michael, my name is Kyriacos and I live in Cyprus. I'm an amateur photographer and I do among others timelapses too. I have the Z6 with the Nikon 20mm s lens. I would like to congratulate you for your excellent work as well as for your chanel. I would like your opinion about something. I plan to buy a manual focus lens. Would it work in P mode so that I can use it for day to night timelapses? What do you think 🤔?
Hey, thanks for your kind words and great setup, have the same, all my vlogs are usually on the 20mm S, love that lens. Manual lenses won’t work automatically in P mode, because your aperture will be manual, so they will work in A mode which just limits you to either fast shutter in daytime , or having to change the f stop yourself, or going full manual ramping, at least this way you won’t get any aperture flicker but sure, I’ve got loads of manual lenses and use them when the situation is right, rarely for day to night thought, for that I prefer native or G lenses
@@LondonViewpoints Dear Michael thanks for your prompt answer. Is it is so I will go for the Tamron 15-30 mm. I was asking because I wanted the Samyang 14mm but I love the day to night timelapse so... I have an Instagram account if you would like to take a pic. Search for kakosartphotography. Thanks and have a nice day...
@@LondonViewpoints I prefer that because I want it to be useful also for Nightscape-Milkyway photography. I know it's relatively heavy but we can't have everything...😉
London Viewpoints, WHAT About the Original Nikon "" EN-EL15 "" with No Letter at its End & Nikon EN-EL15A Will those all interchange //= ALSO Fit in The Same Camera Bodies as The B & C Series ? in Other Words I Always Thought That "" EN-EL15 "" FIT Compatible Wise Work in the Same Places as Those With TRAILING Of Letters behind Them? YES? NO?? THANKS In Advance London Viewpoints :-) C,P,
I used wasabi brand batteries for a couple years in one of my Nikon cameras and authentic Nikon batteries in my other Nikon camera. When the weather temps get below freezing my Nikon camera with the wasabi brand batteries stops working after being out of my camera bag and in the below freezing temps for about 15 minutes while my Nikon camera using Nikon batteries keeps on taking photos with no problems.
Thanks for this info, good to know, we should’ve really be surprised but this but didn’t know the difference will be this drastic, I would’ve assumed one will just work longer but not one will work one won’t
you all probably dont care but does someone know a trick to log back into an instagram account..? I somehow lost the password. I love any assistance you can give me.
@Canaan Jairo Thanks so much for your reply. I found the site on google and im in the hacking process now. Looks like it's gonna take quite some time so I will get back to you later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
WOW!!! Man, that seriously answered the question I had ..... and more! As soon as they perfect "MINDMAPPING" TECHNOLOGY by all means make sure that your mind is on the list? I believe that "AI" could benefit greatly from the way you think. Outstanding review sir.
That's really helpful thanks for sharing! But what about if i shoot a "normal" timelapse with an interval between 4 to 10 sec? Does the battery will last longer over a 35 sec interval like in your review?
I recently shot a flower blooming time lapse with my Nikon Z6 with the stock battery and it was able to shoot about 1140 photos over a span of about 3-4 hours on Mechanical shutter as I needed flash. My Shutter speed was 1/200 and 24-70 f4 set to manual focus.
Excellent review. The first couple of test weren't surprising at all considering the Z6-2 camera has 2 processors. I was just on Nikon's website today to see if the c battery could be used in my D810 ( it can )&, the b & c batteries cost are the the same at $73 us. Great vid. For time laps , the V-grip & 3 batteries is the way to go.
Glad you found the review useful 😀👍🏻
I will wait and buy the Cs when a third party makes them.
@@gosman949 I believe Watson or is it Wasabi is making them. Don’t know for sure but, Promaster probably does 2.
@@thomastuorto9929 Not on BH Photo yet.
Brilliant review of the different versions of the same product
Always good to test things like this I believe 😀
@@LondonViewpoints ever get to test nikon 120-300mm f2.8 or 180-400mm f4 lenses in a fast action situation?
@@NikCan66 no I haven’t had the privilege yet
@@LondonViewpoints interesting to see what these lenses perform on a Z mount compared to the F mount cameras
Interesting. My z6 never clears 300-400 images in "walkabout" use. That's even if IBIS is off. One thing I never considered was compression as I use LOSSLESS compression since it retains quality and us upwards of 20% smaller. Always in airplane mode...
Hopefully what these findings show is Nikon has improved idle time performance as no doubt that comes into play for walkabout shooting where idle time is a bigger deal.
It appears they did indeed improve idle time, but only on Z6II while performance in Z6 with C is jsut better due to its higher capacity
It's an interesting test, but there are a couple of things to keep in mind. The Z 6II is 100% going to be more energy-hungry. It has two processors running. They are not a new generation, more energy-efficient processors. The higher C capacity is needed to offset the extra processor's power needs and that's why you have similar shot counts.
That’s true, that’s one of the reasons I tested it on both the Z6 and Z6 II, but what was surprising is that it indeed got less shots that the Z6 with B, you would imagine the second processor would only kick in when it’s needed, but it seems it’s on all the time, even when it doesn’t have to think or compute anything as focus was off and it was full manual no changes, but at least it’s less power hungry when idle 👍🏻
Since EXPEED 3, Nikon's image processing and camera control chips are based on ARM (en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expeed).
ARM's first CPU was tested and as designed, but after the test it was discovered the test motherboard had faulty power lines. So the CPU had run on power disseminated from the I/O lines (1 Watt). This formed the basis for phone CPUs. And Apple's new M1 and, ages ago, for Nikon's EXPEED.
I expect Nikon to have allocated to their firmware components as logical pipelines across the following two principles: all sensor control, scanning and raw buffer handling with associated I/O by Exp1 and all "computer vision" by Exp2. This would mean Exp2 does JPEG conversion, display driving, down sampling/scaling, AF, WB, exposure, when Exp1 scans the sensor, writes to buffer, moves from buffer to card. Etc. Bus width is doubled, waits reduced, processor cache paging is removed, etc. No, Mk II will ~never run on one processor again. I think.
I still have 4 EN-EL15 of the A series - don't see the problem. Mk II works over USB-C whilst being charged too. With a USB power bank (external battery pack) of 20,000 mAh you have the energy of 10 type A or B batteries.
@@jpdj2715 that went wet over my head, but appreciate the highly technical insight, I’m sure there will be people who’ll find it handy to read 👍🏻
very useful, many thanks!
Glad it was helpful!
Hi. Interesting test. Thanks. Which battery is better for Nikon D750. The EL15, EL15a or EL15b ?
Thanks, I don’t know, but guessing C will be best if it’s compatible 🤷🏼♂️
Very interesting and thank you for this comparison. Was wondering if my next battery for Z6 (OG) should be B or C. Did you use mechanical or silent shutter on the tests?
You’re welcome, I always use silent as I shoot a lot of timelapse, only switch to mechanical occasionally when taking photos with artificial lighting at high shutter 👍🏻
What sort of differences are you seeing with a Nikon D500 and a En-EL15b as the c is still not as popular with Amazon? moving forward i need them compatible with future Z models. i have had trouble with the charges bending my pins when I am careless inserting the battery. Nikon always has a more expensive better design. I prefer the Nikon charger becasue of the longer loading barrel. I would like to see a video of repairing the Nikon battery connector. I was just working at subzero conditons with reduced viibility and bent two batteries connectors beyond repair. One a Vivitar battery and one a Nikon battery.
Dont have a D500 🤷🏼♂️but surely the benefits should be in the same average 30% improvement bracket
Hi I am a Nikon Z6 user and I got 2 EN-EL 15b batteries from Nikon ... One of them is giving this fast blinking while using Nikon official charger and when I used that in Z6 camera is not turning on. I ever tried out USB charging in Camera but after 5-6 seconds the charge indicator is turning off. Have you encountered anything like that with your Nikon batteries. Problem is that they are out of warranty now, not sure what to do. Never expected Nikon battery came with Z6 die like that.
No idea why, try searching this info on some forums 👍🏻
Nice work so i can more calculate how mutch batterie i need realy for longtime shots thx
You’re most welcome
I think there's quality control issues with the C batteries. I got one for my original Z6 and it is routinely getting 25% less shots than the B batteries. Honestly, the Nikon C battery has the same output as the Sony Z battery now, and my A7III lasts a full week on one battery under the same workload conditions. The Nikon EN-EL15c drains in a single day by comparison. It appears to me Nikon needs to work on how their cameras handle idle time over increasing the output of batteries going forward.
Sounds like you got a bad one, I’d try to get a replacement if I was you, maybe you have things like WiFi and constant jpeg downloading on ? But yes I agree idle time battery consumption especially could be improved
Very very helpful review for me
so...I am now your subscriber who lives in South Korea ^^
Thanks a lot, and welcome on my channel 😀
Hi Michael, my name is Kyriacos and I live in Cyprus. I'm an amateur photographer and I do among others timelapses too. I have the Z6 with the Nikon 20mm s lens. I would like to congratulate you for your excellent work as well as for your chanel.
I would like your opinion about something. I plan to buy a manual focus lens. Would it work in P mode so that I can use it for day to night timelapses? What do you think 🤔?
Hey, thanks for your kind words and great setup, have the same, all my vlogs are usually on the 20mm S, love that lens. Manual lenses won’t work automatically in P mode, because your aperture will be manual, so they will work in A mode which just limits you to either fast shutter in daytime , or having to change the f stop yourself, or going full manual ramping, at least this way you won’t get any aperture flicker but sure, I’ve got loads of manual lenses and use them when the situation is right, rarely for day to night thought, for that I prefer native or G lenses
@@LondonViewpoints Dear Michael thanks for your prompt answer. Is it is so I will go for the Tamron 15-30 mm.
I was asking because I wanted the Samyang 14mm but I love the day to night timelapse so...
I have an Instagram account if you would like to take a pic.
Search for kakosartphotography.
Thanks and have a nice day...
@@kyriacoshadjisoteriou1532 heard good things about that lens but since I got the 14-30f4 I love it so that’s my preference 👍🏻
@@LondonViewpoints I prefer that because I want it to be useful also for Nightscape-Milkyway photography. I know it's relatively heavy but we can't have everything...😉
Thanks. Good test.
Thank you
Now compare the Z6 II battery life to the D850 or a similar DSLR
Don’t have a D850 🤷🏼♂️
No surprise here. Z6 II has two processors, for instance.
That’s true but I didn’t think there will be any instance that it’ll be worse than Z6 and B, yet it was
@@LondonViewpoints yes, and that's why your comparison is very useful. Thank you!
@@LondonViewpoints I mean imagine a dual processor phone or computer. Going to have a larger tdp.
London Viewpoints,
WHAT About the Original Nikon "" EN-EL15 "" with No Letter at its End & Nikon EN-EL15A
Will those all interchange //= ALSO Fit in The Same Camera Bodies as The B & C Series ?
in Other Words I Always Thought That "" EN-EL15 "" FIT Compatible Wise Work in the Same Places
as Those With TRAILING Of Letters behind Them? YES? NO??
THANKS In Advance London Viewpoints :-)
C,P,
No idea as I don’t have any 🤷🏼♂️
It's interesting (and a bit dissapointing) that you cannot charge Z6 mk1 via powerbank if the camera is ON.
Yeah but at least they’ve added it in Mark II and all other post Z6 bodies
@@LondonViewpoints that is true. I'm only complaining, because I own mk1 :)
I used wasabi brand batteries for a couple years in one of my Nikon cameras and authentic Nikon batteries in my other Nikon camera. When the weather temps get below freezing my Nikon camera with the wasabi brand batteries stops working after being out of my camera bag and in the below freezing temps for about 15 minutes while my Nikon camera using Nikon batteries keeps on taking photos with no problems.
Thanks for this info, good to know, we should’ve really be surprised but this but didn’t know the difference will be this drastic, I would’ve assumed one will just work longer but not one will work one won’t
Problem is, Z6 II has two processors vs Z6
Boring test...no way, I have been wondering the same...well done and much appreciated!
Thanks but I wouldn’t have done this nowadays, I hike during the pandemic this was something that got me busy🤪
Great review/test and a perfect example of the two batteries in different real world scenarios. Very Helpful... :)
Thanks a lot, glad you found it helpful
you all probably dont care but does someone know a trick to log back into an instagram account..?
I somehow lost the password. I love any assistance you can give me.
@Kamryn Louis instablaster ;)
@Canaan Jairo Thanks so much for your reply. I found the site on google and im in the hacking process now.
Looks like it's gonna take quite some time so I will get back to you later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
@Canaan Jairo It did the trick and I actually got access to my account again. I'm so happy:D
Thanks so much, you saved my ass :D
Absolutely Superb! Well done and appreciate your efforts! Cheers from across the pond!
👍👍👍✌🏻🇬🇧🇺🇸📷🎄⭐️
Thanks 👍🏻
thanks for the review! for me was very helpful!
Thanks, glad to hear it
WOW!!! Man, that seriously answered the question I had ..... and more! As soon as they perfect "MINDMAPPING" TECHNOLOGY by all means make sure that your mind is on the list? I believe that "AI" could benefit greatly from the way you think. Outstanding review sir.
That's really helpful thanks for sharing! But what about if i shoot a "normal" timelapse with an interval between 4 to 10 sec? Does the battery will last longer over a 35 sec interval like in your review?
Thanks, I didn’t get to test that, but assuming in Z6 it will last a bit longer, also all depends on your gap time, how long the camera will be idle
I recently shot a flower blooming time lapse with my Nikon Z6 with the stock battery and it was able to shoot about 1140 photos over a span of about 3-4 hours on Mechanical shutter as I needed flash. My Shutter speed was 1/200 and 24-70 f4 set to manual focus.
Interesting. I did not know you can put C batteries in the original Z6!
Yes, and as you see they’re much better in Z6😀was curious myself so had to try it
@@LondonViewpoints but can't find any third parties yet.
good review! very helpuf for me
AMAZZZZZINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGG ! thank you for giving us this video
You’re welcome