Rumor or fact: battery capacity restricted by law?

Posted on January 12, 2012 by Oleg Volk

I saw this in various forums, attributed to Nikon spokesman: “higher-capacity batteries used by current professional DSLRs are now banned under recently introduced Japanese laws”. True, false, half of each?

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5 Responses to Rumor or fact: battery capacity restricted by law?

  1. darkknight9 says:
    January 12, 2012 at 4:07 am

    I don’t currently have enough time to look through it, but I’ll bet the answer is either in here: http://www.meti.go.jp/english/policy/economy/consumer/pse/Ordinance.pdf

    or somewhere here: http://www.meti.go.jp/english/policy/economy/consumer/pse/index.html

  2. David L. Burkhead says:
    January 12, 2012 at 10:46 am

    It might not be the capacity per se but rather some materials/environmental issue, something like:
    – Chemical X is considered “hazardous” and thus banned for individual use.
    – The best high-capacity batteries all use chemical X
    – Thus, individuals can no longer purchase those batteries.
    – All that’s left are lower capacity batteries without using chemical X

    Leaving all the chemical X for Professor Newtonium to create the Power Puff Girls. 😉

  3. Sigivald says:
    January 12, 2012 at 1:01 pm

    I found This with a little search; links to actual Nikon PR here, but in Japanese.

    Google Translate says they’re about right – I think the way the translation says “after 23 years” is doubtless some sort of error.

    The exact reason why they can’t ship the affected products inside Japan is unspecified, whether it’s banned materials or inability to meet new safety/shorting/fire specs with current designs.

  4. Lyle says:
    January 12, 2012 at 10:25 pm

    Well we certainly can’t allow people to be doing things that might be considered by some to be dangerous.

  5. Rivrdog says:
    January 13, 2012 at 1:18 pm

    I’m not a BSEE, but as a hobbyist, I’ve studied hi-capacity batteries and the accidents/damages linked to them. Such incidents almost always boil down to either very high discharge rates, or very high recharge rates, and partially to the construction of the battery/equipment in how it dissipates heat/outgassing.

    The problem that regulators run into then, is that the only way to end these incidents seems to be to “dumb down” the batteries/chargers so that they are not capable of rapid discharges/recharges.

    It’s all about liability laws, not really about the batteries at all.

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