Third party batteries for Sony A7iv

[Checksix]

I am a new member, ready to upgrade my old A77 to an A7iv but have a limited budget. Frankly I was shocked by the cost of Sony batteries, and that the body doesn't include one. I saw one by Duracell that's about a third of the price of the Sony battery, and others for even less. What is your experience with third-party batteries and chargers? Should I not even go there, even though I can buy three or more third-party batteries for the price of a single Sony one?

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

I'm sure that deals are regional and seasonal, but when I got my a7iv a couple of years ago, the bundle included two Sony batteries and a Sony charger. And, whereas, for my previous aps-c, I ended up with five or six of the smaller batteries, I have no plans to buy a third. It all depends how many shots you take and how.

My collection of batteries for my aps-c a6500 includes the one I got with my a6000 about seven years ago. I can't say what it's capacity is now, but it is still alive, and has shown no sign of swelling. My three third-party batteries all fell by the wayside, and two of them swelled. I would now much rather stick to Sony.

These NP-FZ100 batteries may not last like a DSLR, but they take you quite a long way. The a7iv is also more flexible than much older cameras on powering. It will charge your battery in a couple of hours (carry a phone charger). It can do this from an appropriate-spec power bank. You can even operate the camera on USB/power-bank power.

If you are spending to the last available cent (and for some of us in this hobby, that can easily be the case for some of our purchases) then do try to get one Sony battery. Even better, look for or bargain the bundle. Initially, you can do without the external charger.

That's my two cents, pence, or, in this part of the world paise.

Oh... And welcome to the site!

 

[iamdlewis]

I got a 2pack of Neewer NP-FZ100 batteries that came with a dual charger about 8 years ago. They have worked fine in an A9, A7Riv, A1 and A1ii, even though you do get a warning about them not being Sony batteries from the camera. Originally they would have about 95% the life of the Sony battery but now they have about 60%, which is fine for the stuff I do around the house or walks around the neighborhood. At the time they did cost less than 1 Sony battery. There were two nice things about the charger, it was USB and small, this meant it was super easy to travel with. It was slower to charge than the Sony chargers I had but that wasn't USB and was single battery charger.