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It is well known how useful it is to have a second battery for your DSLR camera. Besides it is advisable to use original brand equipment, specially when it comes to batteries. So, I'm currentley looking for a new and original Nikon battery for my D3300 (the battery is an EN-EL14a 7.2V) but it has been impossible to find one! First I found one in Amazon but some of people commented that the battery wasn't original in spite of the price. So I looked for it on the Nikon USA page, where they recommend some stores (in Miami in my case). In the only one among the ones they recommend where I could find the battery that works for me, was Best Buy but as far as I know that's not a trust worthy place when it comes to warranties (as you can tell by the comments in here).

So what I came to ask you guys today is: Is there any place in which I can buy a original Nikon battery safeley? Have any of you have had troubles like this before?

Thank you all in advance

(Ps: Excuse my grammar and spelling and everything, I'm not English native speaker).

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  • \$\begingroup\$ There are good OEM batteries. I have a Baxxtar battery, one third of the price of the Canon, but twice as expensive as all other brands, and I can' t see the difference with the original Canon one after three years. I also had a Baxxtar battery on my previous camera so that's 9 years total without any problems. \$\endgroup\$
    – xenoid
    Commented Jun 22, 2019 at 0:46
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Xiota OEM is ambiguous. Let's say "aftermarket". \$\endgroup\$
    – xenoid
    Commented Jun 22, 2019 at 7:54
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    \$\begingroup\$ @xenoid No, OEM means Original Equipment Manufacturer. Non-OEM is after market. \$\endgroup\$
    – Eric S
    Commented Jun 22, 2019 at 13:40
  • \$\begingroup\$ This is ambiguous. OEM generally does not mean that it has a big brand name on it, because Nikon, Canon, et AL don't make batteries themselves. The "OEM" designation original meant "this is made by the actual original manufacturer, same as the branded ones". But it really can't be relied on to mean this, plus as noted in these comments many people are led to believe that it means big camera-maker name brand. \$\endgroup\$
    – mattdm
    Commented Jun 22, 2019 at 13:47
  • \$\begingroup\$ Q&A to hopefully clear up "OEM" terminology confusion \$\endgroup\$
    – mattdm
    Commented Jun 22, 2019 at 15:12

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I understand your concern. I personally have bought things on Amazon which looked completely legit but turned out to be fraudulent. (Like, not just generic instead of official, but actually with fake brand silkscreening.)

However, this is generally because Amazon isn't really selling most of the stuff on amazon.com — it's a big network of third-party sellers and it's often hard to tell who is really behind any particular sale. (This is, of course, part of their success.) This means they're a marketplace for all sorts of questionable activity, and Amazon has little real incentive to stop it — they can always point away the blame.

Best Buy isn't like that — they're a singular retail operation. The fact that Nikon links directly to them is indicative of an official relationship that they're unlikely to want to jeopardize. I wouldn't put too much stock in the online complaints site you've linked: there's probably some legitimate problems there but the grab-bag I sampled when skimming is mostly people complaining that their returns weren't accepted out of the store's policy, that they couldn't get large amounts of cash for returns, or that they had to wait too long on hold, etc. None of that particularly indicates fraudulent activity like you might find from some New York camera stores selling online.

There are two big NYC camera stores and online retailers which have made some effort to rise above the mess and which I would recommend without hesitation. (No affiliation, just a happy customer.) These are B & H Photo and Adorama. Both of these sell both official, branded batteries and third-party replacements, but I'm quite confident than they're all labeled correctly and that if you do buy an official Nikon battery, that's what you'll get.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Thank you very much! I finally decided to buy it on Best Buy. It was the most unexpensive price I could find and it finally turned out to be legit and good. You were right!. \$\endgroup\$
    – Natalio
    Commented Jun 30, 2019 at 14:43
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Warranty service is with Nikon, not Best Buy or any other retailer. If Nikon says you can buy a genuine product someplace, then you can (and you did).

If you're concerned a product is not genuine, verify the serial number on the manufacturer website. If you're unable to figure it out, you'll likely have difficulty making a claim because it's usually a required step.

A good principle to keep in mind is, "If it's too good to be true, it is." – That "Nikon" battery listed for $5 is fake.

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