Nikon EN EL1 Lithium Ion

...of this battery is that Nikon provide a small snap-on plastic terminal cover so there's no risk of the spare shorting and discharging in your bag or pocket.

It's best not to lose this cover because the terminals of this battery are flat and exposed, however in my opinion this is a good thing, my previous camera had a battery with its terminals secreted inside little holes. OK, this meant you couldn't short it on your keys or change ...
...pocket.

Most Nikon camera buyers are not going to worry about saving ten quid on a spare battery but it's worth noting that you can buy cheaper generic equivalents on well-known battery web sites. Personally I tend to stick to Nikon batteries as they are a fraction of the price of the camera and the heartbreak of your battery expiring just as that beautiful sunset comes to it's climax is just too much to bear.  ... more

This battery uses Li-ion technology which has been a great relief to me as I am the world's least disciplined battery charger, slapping batteries into chargers at any old state of charge. You can imagine that back in the days of NiCads and their dreaded memory effect, my batteries soon became useless. These are much more user-friendly.

I would say that a spare battery like this is absolutely essential. On my Coolpix 4500 you get very little warning of imminent battery failure, it just tells you it's run out and shuts down. These only seem to take about 3-4 hours to charge and they're quite small. A nice feature of this battery is that Nikon provide a small snap-on plastic terminal cover so there's no risk of the spare shorting and discharging in your bag or pocket.

It's best not to lose this cover because the terminals of this battery are flat and exposed, however in my opinion this is a good thing, my previous camera had a battery with its terminals secreted inside little holes. OK, this meant you couldn't short it on your keys or change or whatever but the holes quickly filled with sand and gunge in my pocket.

Most Nikon camera buyers are not going to worry about saving ten quid on a spare battery but it's worth noting that you can buy cheaper generic equivalents on well-known battery web sites. Personally I tend to stick to Nikon batteries as they are a fraction of the price of the camera and the heartbreak of your battery expiring just as that beautiful sunset comes to it's climax is just too much to bear. 

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