Nauticam a6500 External Battery Alternative

[cleomagic]

Has anyone found a good alternative to the Nauticam external battery for the a6500? I currently have the Nauticam battery which is working fine, but I'd like to pick up a second (more cost effective) battery before our next trip.

I tried (twice) the "ELECTRICAL CANNED !!!!! power bank Eltin-J18" battery from Amazon per a recommendation I found somewhere, but both batteries refused to hold a charge.

 

[rks]

Haven't found anything either, aside from holding a charge it also has to stay on, even when the camera isn't charging from it which the initial nauticam batteries did not.

 

[jgttrey]

Haven't found anything either, aside from holding a charge it also has to stay on, even when the camera isn't charging from it which the initial nauticam batteries did not.

This. This was a major issue with the initial release. The battery would shut down once the camera was topped off and wouldn't come back on unless you unplugged and replugged. It meant that you had to open the housing right before you splashed and leave the camera on, else it would shut down when it topped off the camera and you'd be left only with the primary battery.

Most batteries designed as powerbanks for cell phones and such do that. It makes sense for that use but is a huge pain for our purposes. So, finding one that stays on and ready to delivery charge as long as it is plugged in will be a difficult task.

Nauticam's initial explanation was that the auxiliary battery was really aimed at video folks who needed one big long run time and wouldn't care about having to open the housing right before a dive. That never made sense to me, but they ended up fixing the issue anyway.

 

[rks]

Yeah, I got one of the ones that turned off initially then it got replaced pretty quickly, I agree with you it makes no sense for the application. The current one works great though.