Short answer: yes—but with caveats. You can find “higher-capacity” replacements for the Sony A500’s battery, but they’re all third-party and the gains are often modest or sometimes overstated.
First, the baseline
Your Sony NP‑FM500H battery is rated at about 1600–1650 mAh .
That’s already quite close to the practical limit for that physical size and voltage.
Common manufacturers offering alternatives
Here are reputable brands making compatible batteries:
Better-known third-party brands
- Duracell
- Ansmann
- Newell
- Promaster
These tend to stay around 1500–1700 mAh, i.e. similar to OEM.
Budget / high-claim brands
- DSTE
- Kastar
- PowerTrust
Some of these advertise 2000–2300 mAh equivalents , which sounds attractive.
Example options (real products)
Third-party alternatives
Reality check on “higher capacity”
This is the important bit:
- The battery compartment size is fixed, so energy density limits apply
- Most reputable brands stay near ~1600 mAh because that’s realistic
- Claims like 2000–2300 mAh are often optimistic or measured differently
- Some higher-capacity packs may:
- have higher internal resistance (worse under load)
- give less accurate battery reporting
- occasionally trigger compatibility issues
Practical ways to get longer runtime
Instead of chasing inflated mAh numbers, you’ll usually get better results by:
- Carrying 2–3 good-quality batteries
- Using a battery grip (if available for your A500)
- Powering externally (dummy battery + supply) for static setups.
Bottom line
- ✔ Yes, there are many manufacturers beyond Sony
- ✔ A few claim higher capacity
- ⚠️ Genuine usable capacity gains are usually relatively small.