Nifty Battery Tip for the D40, D40x and Olympus E-410

[setaside2]

Just a quicky here...

The D40, D40x and the Olympus E-410 use the same battery. Be it BLS-1 (Oly) or the En-EL9 (Nikon), you can use them interchangeably.

Blew the roof off our Oly rep when we showed him.

In fact, the rear design of the three cameras are strangely similar.

Like the D50 and the Pentax *ist DS/L series cameras. So, so close.

And I'm sure it's already been posted and discussed to death but if not, the Pentax K10D uses the old Minolta NP-400 battery from the Maxxum 7D and 5D.

Yes, folks, recycling is GOOD!

cheers!

seta

p.s. we have also discovered that, in a pinch, the Nikon MH-18a (En-EL3/a/e) can charge the Oly BLM-1.

p.p.s Nikon and Oly also share a battery in their newer point and shoots. The Coolpix S200 and the vast majority of the current Olympus Stylus cameras use the same battery, along with the Pentax Optio M30 and W30. Shared technology is hear-warming stuff!

[Ian]

Re: Nifty Battery Tip for the D40, D40x and Olympus E-410

Just a quicky here...

The D40, D40x and the Olympus E-410 use the same battery. Be it BLS-1 (Oly) or the En-EL9 (Nikon), you can use them interchangeably.

Blew the roof off our Oly rep when we showed him.

In fact, the rear design of the three cameras are strangely similar.

Like the D50 and the Pentax *ist DS/L series cameras. So, so close.

And I'm sure it's already been posted and discussed to death but if not, the Pentax K10D uses the old Minolta NP-400 battery from the Maxxum 7D and 5D.

Yes, folks, recycling is GOOD!

cheers!

seta

p.s. we have also discovered that, in a pinch, the Nikon MH-18a (En-EL3/a/e) can charge the Oly BLM-1.

p.p.s Nikon and Oly also share a battery in their newer point and shoots. The Coolpix S200 and the vast majority of the current Olympus Stylus cameras use the same battery, along with the Pentax Optio M30 and W30. Shared technology is hear-warming stuff!

Good to hear that there is some standardisation of batteries at last. I can't believe that replacement batteries are such a profitable area that incompatibilities should be maintained.

Ian

[setaside2]

Re: Nifty Battery Tip for the D40, D40x and Olympus E-410

Good to hear that there is some standardisation of batteries at last. I can't believe that replacement batteries are such a profitable area that incompatibilities should be maintained.

Ian

Ian:

Believe it or not batteries are one of the most singularly profitable accessories in digital systems. Frankly, the hardware itself (camera, camcorder) usually has very little profit to work from... but the accessories are huge and the batteries are the biggest of the lot. Even the discount, bargain bin, so-far-off-market brands are marked at least 40 to 50 points above cost. Sometimes more. There are many batteries out there at 75 points mark-up.

In contrast the average, say, Nikon D-SLR is somewhere between 7 and 13 points. They're a pretty good example. 15 points would be considered very high profit for an SLR these days. Back in the film days, in comparison, it was closer to 20 to 30 points in an SLR, on average.

So batteries are a huge, huge money market. Proprietary means that they've got you where they want you, you know, so the price goes up.

Fact is, when you see battery sharing it generally means you're also seeing a shared outsource for a given camera, though this is not always the case. Samsung and Casio are, in particular, HUGE outsourcing providers for the major manufacturers (I won't tell you who, it'll destroy most people's faith LOL), which should give you pause. Sony provides a lot of parts, as well, as does Toshiba. On the back end, Samsung makes a pretty good camera in their own right and Casio is extremely popular, so it's not like the outsourcing is a bad thing, just...

Remember people: in point and shoot cameras it really doesn't matter whatsoever who's name is on the front. What matters is what's under the hood. It is not always what you might expect. Don't fall for the marketing. Go out and make your own darn decision.

LOL here's another great example of sharing:

Fuji Finepix Z1, F7, F40, Pentax Optio S, S4, S4i, S5, S5i, WP, WPi, W10, W20, Samsung i6, NV3, NV7... all use what Fuji calls the NP-40 and Pentax calls the DL-18. There are a few others (including a couple Kodaks and Minoltas (they call it the NP-1 battery)) that use this battery but this is all I can think of off the top of my head. The Samsung batteries are not widely available whatsoever, and neither are the Minoltas, so this'll help those guys a lot.

Also, for you older Coolpix guys and larger Minolta ZLR users: the Nikon EN-EL1 and Minolta NP-800 are the same battery.

Oh and For Canon and Pentax DSLR users. The Canon wired remote RS-60N3 for the Digital Rebel series (and film Rebels as well) is fully compatible with the Pentax DSLR crew. Pentax is slowly gaining market support again after their big splash in '06/'07 but it's going to take a while for pieces and parts to be widespread. The Canon brand remote, on the other hand is widely available. Works great!

sorry for the lengthy reply...

seta