The Nikon Zf Battery and Charging, Explained

How to charge the Zf when there’s no charger in the box

The Zf doesn’t come with a charger. You don’t need one to charge the battery — you can just use the USB-C cable that does come in the box, or use any other high-quality power-transfer USB-C cable (preferably one explicitly compatible with PD).¹

With that cable, you provide your own power source. It can be a wall charger that you already own or even a portable USB battery pack. But in both cases, you’ll need to make sure it meets these requirements:

• First, it has to be a genuinely high-output charger or power bank. What you want is one that is explicitly rated for PD class, meaning USB Power Delivery. That’s the standard that lets a charger deliver higher power with the device.
• Second, the cable has to be rated for charging, not just for data.

Weak power sources and the wrong cable simply do nothing. The camera doesn’t show an error. The small charging light won’t stay on, but unless you’re looking specifically for that, that’s easy to miss. So it’s easy to assume that the battery is charging when it in fact isn’t (and yes, I’ve been caught out with that myself).

Optional extra charging options

There are also some accessories you can buy to help with charging. They fall into two main areas.

AC wall charger

This is a PD-compatible AC wall charger that you plug your charging cable into on one end and connect the camera on the other. It still means that your camera is basically out of operation while you’re charging (or at least inconvenient unless you’re shooting in a studio, which is not really the Zf’s natural habitat).

That only applies to charging, though. Charging the battery in the body happens with the camera switched off, but if you set USB power delivery to Enable in the setup menu, a PD wall adapter or power bank will run the camera while it’s turned on. So a power bank in your pocket isn’t only a charger — it’s a way to keep shooting when the battery is low, which is more useful in the field than sitting and waiting for a charge.

Nikon sells two AC adapters separately for this: the EH-7P and the EH-8P. Both plug into the wall and feed the camera over USB-C. Neither one will charge an EN-EL15a. Nikon lists both the EH-7P and the EH-8P as charging the EN-EL15c and EN-EL15b only, and the Zf itself can only charge those two versions in the body — an EN-EL15a needs a separate MH-25a charger. The EH-8P is the newer of the two and connects with the same UC-E25 cable that came with the camera. (The EN-EL15b and EN-EL15a will both work in the Zf for shooting, but they’ll give you fewer shots per charge than the EN-EL15c.)

Separate battery charger

This option is for charging the battery out of the camera. It’s by far the most convenient option if you’re looking to maximize shooting time and have spare batteries on hand.

If you’d rather charge a spare outside the camera, Nikon lists the MH-25a and MH-34 as compatible chargers. The MH-34 is only compatible with the B and C versions of the battery, and it isn’t a plug-into-the-wall charger on its own — it needs a USB Power Delivery source, either Nikon’s EH-7P or EH-8P or a good third-party PD adapter, which is an extra cost to factor in. If you also want to charge EN-EL15a batteries, the MH-25a will do that. Neither is included with the Zf.

Spares you might already own

If you’re using the Zf as a second body or are moving to it from another Nikon mirrorless, there’s a reasonable chance you already have EN-EL15C spares.

These Nikon bodies use it too, so spares move between them (I’ve covered the Nikon Z8’s battery and charging setup in more detail separately):

• Nikon Z8
• Nikon Z7 II
• Nikon Z6 III
• Nikon Z6 II
• Nikon Z5 II
• Nikon Z5

I also use the C versions in my Nikon D850, but that DSLR model didn’t come with the C version as standard.

(If you’re trying to work out which battery some other Nikon body takes, my Nikon battery compatibility chart lists them model by model.)

One thing you can’t do is stretch the runtime with a grip. Nikon doesn’t make a battery grip for the Zf. So that’s not option for extending shooting time on this camera.² Meaning that the only practical options on location are spare batteries or a USB-C power bank.

Tips for buying a spare Zf battery

• When you shop for a spare, search on the model number rather than the camera name, because the same battery is sold under several camera listings.
• Use extra care when choosing a third-party brand’s battery. With a modern, high-end body like the Zf, an additional consideration beyond the usual variation in quality control with aftermarket brands is that camera manufacturers can block compatibility with third-party brands’ batteries with any firmware update. And that’s getting increasingly common. I’ve had mixed results with non-OEM EN-EL15C batteries, so the safe recommendation is to stick with Nikon-branded batteries.

And if a battery that used to last all day now dies by lunchtime, the charger usually isn’t the problem — the cell is simply worn. I’ve covered how to check a Zf battery’s health and when it’s time to replace it separately.

It’s worth knowing what one charge buys you. Nikon rates the Zf at about 380 shots using the monitor and 360 through the viewfinder, rising to 430 and 410 with energy saving turned on, and about 90 minutes of video recording. Those are CIPA-standard numbers, so they’re deliberately conservative — normal shooting usually gets more — but they’re a fair basis for deciding how many spares to carry.

Notes & References:

1. Verified against Nikon’s own product documentation on July 29, 2026: imaging.nikon.com. [↩︎]
2. There is a different type of grip, like the Z f-GR1 accessory, but that’s not a battery grip; it’s an extension grip that gives you more to hold onto and adds an Arca-Swiss compatible base, with no battery inside it [↩︎]