Collhar Loc: New York City.

My husband likes Wasabi. I find it a little too hot.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I have used generic batteries in everything for years with no problems. I can buy two batteries with a home/car charger for less than the cost of one OEM battery.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

To each his own.

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

Panasonic is the one camera company that also makes batteries. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the knockoff batteries were also made in a Panasonic plant. Either way I rotate through about 8 batteries through my G9 and only one is OEM. Wasabi, Kasper, Powertek, they all seem about the same.

mrtaxi Loc: Old Westbury NY, Fort Lauderdale, FL

For Canon I use OEM batteries and third party. The third party are cost effective back ups. 1/4 the price and about 3/4 as good. Often a 3rd party battery seems to go from 50% charge to zero way faster then the Canon. For my Sony I have found the 3rd party better then Sony batteries!

jbk224 Loc: Long Island, NY

Scruples, I generally agree with your take on most discussions. But, sorry, not here. Restraint of trade does not play any part in a manufacturer, such as these, voiding their warranties if 3rd party products are used with their product. While not taking the time, right now, to research Canon's, Panasonic's, or Nikon's warranties; you will find this explicitly called out with companies like Apple. Installing 3rd party RAM, HD, or batteries; not provided by Apple; will void your warranty. Now, to others reading this who might say that 'they are not disassembling the product to do this, so it does or can apply to just using someone else's battery-- not so. We are talking about very sophisticated 'electronic' equipment with these cameras. Batteries that are manufactured by others are not guaranteed by the camera manufacturer to meet their standards and performance criteria. Any anomaly in the construction and performance of the battery could adversely affect the camera. While most of us are not concerned and do use 3rd party batteries--the camera manufacturer does care. This does not apply to speed lights as they are not provided with batteries from the manufacturer. So, all of us out there--- don't assume that you can use 3rd party batteries and still keep your warranty.
Playing the other side right now...when you bring in your camera for service, i.e. Nikon; you keep your battery. So, I don't know how they could tell if the battery caused the problem unless it leaked. FWIW.

kymarto Loc: Portland OR and Milan Italy

I had one Wasabi battery fail--it now only charges halfway. But I have used Wasabis for a while and generally had good experiences with them. At the price they are certainly worth the occasional failure.

kymarto Loc: Portland OR and Milan Italy

And lithium batteries do not leak.

DSmith

I just bought some Powerextra off of Amazon and have had no problems. Scott Kelby recommends them and that is good enough for me.

brooklyn-camera I Loc: Brooklyn, NY

I have a few OEM batteries but I also use 3rd. party batteries too in my 6DMKII & 7DMKII. They last long enough that they pay for themselves. You can purchase 3X's as many batteries with the $$$$ you save on the 3rd. party batteries. Never had any problems with these 3rd. party batteries.

Don't whatever feels right to you, good luck.

ltj123 Loc: NW Wisconsin

OEM

BillFeffer Loc: Adolphus, KY

I have OEM for my D750 as well as Watson and Vivitar. The Vivitars are vintage 2015 and still going strong.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

Generally OEM's are more expensive but outlast third party, so in the long run you are better off with OEM's.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

As I have communicated in other posts, I'm a pretty big advocate of freedom of choice when it comes to our purchasing decisions. That said, I will no longer "mail order" any batteries for the simple reason that there is no reason to verify freshness, and shelf life age does make a difference in battery performance and life, no matter what anyone tries to tell you. My one exception is that I have ordered OEM batteries from B&H when my local store was out of stock for an extended time.

My local stores do not offer a huge price advantage on third party batteries either. OEM versions are usually $70, and 3rd party equivalents are generally about $10 cheaper. My take from this us is that the really cheap batteries may be either stale or counterfeit. I'm not interested in either.

In addition to the power connection between batteries and cameras, there is a sophisticated communication link between them. I have found this to be implemented better in some batteries than in others.

The Z cameras, along with some others, are implementing encoding to prevent or restrict use of non OEM batteries. In particular, I'd be interested to know how the USB charging feature works (if it works at all) with 3rd party batteries, since lithium ion batteries are ordinarily optimized to function best at charging current levels far beyond what a USB source normally provides, and since the EN-EL15 battery had to be redesigned to implement that feature.

47greyfox Loc: on the edge of the Colorado front range

The only issue I have ever heard of with 3rd party batteries including Wasabis and others is discharge rate as the batteries age. I.E., 3rd party don’t hold charges as long as OEM. But, if the battery is 1/4 the price as OEM, I’m okay with that.