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Extra Battery Question
- Thread starter JoshJosh117
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Many people use non OEM batteries without an issue, most likely you will not experience an issue either. The moment you do have an issue though and Canon can prove use of a non OEM battery then you could potentially lose the warranty coverage.
$20 for a knock off, $45 for an original and peace of mind (ie it is Canon's issue either way!). Why spend your hard earned money on a camera and then power it with a cheap battery?
When I got my Canon battery grip for my Canon 40D I bought an additional Canon battery. I'm not in a position where I can afford to just buy a new camera anytime a cheap battery messes it up.
$20 for a knock off, $45 for an original and peace of mind (ie it is Canon's issue either way!). Why spend your hard earned money on a camera and then power it with a cheap battery?
When I got my Canon battery grip for my Canon 40D I bought an additional Canon battery. I'm not in a position where I can afford to just buy a new camera anytime a cheap battery messes it up.
No comments about Canon batteries, but I have some varying experiences with P&S extra batteries of various sorts. Most recently a Pentax camers, the off brand battery seemed to outlast and give better performance than the original, a nikon for an old coolpix 5000 (not p5000) and the off brand was absolute crap with 1/2 the life of the Nikon battery. A battery for a Sony P&S didn't seem to be any different than the one that came with the camera in any way.
I think you may be rolling the dice some and can get a lemon occcasionally, but for the most part should be ok. Not sure about the warranty thing, as battery packs take AA batteries and they obviously aren't from the camera manufacturer.
I think you may be rolling the dice some and can get a lemon occcasionally, but for the most part should be ok. Not sure about the warranty thing, as battery packs take AA batteries and they obviously aren't from the camera manufacturer.
Once I see evidence of a cheap battery damaging a camera I'll the cheap brands. As DSLR batteries are generally not charged in the camera you avoid most of the issues with batteries.
Until then I'm happy to $20 for 2 5D batteries. I have 6 batteries, 2 OEM, 4 cheapo ones, they are all fine.
Assuming the cheapo is properly made, it will work with the camera and charger.
I had a pair of cheap batteries for my 20D, they got ~100 pics per charge vs ~ 800 with real batteries. They are now chucked.
Sounds like you had a rubbish set. The cheapo ones I have last longer than the OEM Canon ones (higher mah rating so I expected they would).
The mAh rating on the cheapo batteries was higher than OEM batteries. If you are going to produce rubbish batteries, whose to stop you from lying on the sticker too. My batteries were significantly lighter than OEM.
I am not saying all cheapo batteries suck, I know good ones exist, but just make sure that the batteries you buy are cheap enough that if you get a garbage set, you can buy a second set (and hope for better performance) for a total less than OEM price.
Considering the Canon OEM prices in Europe you can buy a hell of a lot of cheap batteries.
BP511a Canon £40 (average price)
Cheapo version £6.79 (or £5.99 if you buy 6+)
For my camera I have one original battery and two cheap ones. The two cheap ones have a slightly higher mAh rating than the original one. So far I haven't noticed any difference in performance, hot or cold weather. They all give me pretty much the same number of shots.
The cells in the cheapos often don't meet the quality assurance standards of name-brand manufacturers- so the battery makers sell them on the cheap market rather than losing out entirely. It's hit or miss as to why they didn't meet QA standards, or if it was just a particularly good production run. If you remember all the exploding laptop batteries, you have to really wonder if those DID pass QA, do you really want to go with a cell that potentially didn't? There have been lots of battery issues with 3rd party cheapo batteries, which is why Nikon and Canon won't cover warranty issues when you use them if your camera gets fried.
Where? what cameras? I guess it mostly compacts that charge with the battery inside.
All over, with Nikon and Canons- It prompted Nikon to issue a statement at one point because it was prevalent enough and the 3rd party folks were counterfeiting Nikon's batteries- it seemed to peak about the time that this was released:
http://support.nikontech.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/8119
At the time, I remember reading an engineer's discussion of the matching of cells in a Lithium ION battery and the 3rd party's usage of cells that failed QA and/or didn't match. At that point, I put it in the "Golfing in a thunderstorm" category- thousands of people do it every year- and for most of them it's just been mildly inconveniencing to get wet- but a 5% of deaths from lightning every year in the US happen on golf courses- despite a heavy USGA campaign against it- when they sound the horn, I'm heading in to the clubhouse because it's not worth the risk to me, even though the *odds* are on my side.
As well as potential damage, many 3rd party batteries die sooner than the manufacturer's ones- let's say you get 5 years out of a battery, and the price difference is $20- is the risk worth $4/year for "insurance?" Not to me.
Correct, if you do some research you will probably find a small number of brands that only seem to be well regarded and the rest will range from 50/50 success/failure to utter rubbish.
I wouldn't be surprised if some of the lower end companies sell their batteries so cheap because when something goes wrong most people will just toss the bad battery and go get a new one as opposed to trying to do warranty returns as the cost of shipping exceeds the cost of the new battery etc.
Canon/Nikon/etc have a reputation to protect when it comes to their products and the quality of them.
Its a no brainer in the UK
The last time I looked, a single Canon original battery for my 5D was £50.00, my 'Sterlingtechs' cost about £11.00 each and I have two for each of my cameras (5D & 400D) the 400D's are cheaper, but let's say £44.00 for the lot as opposed to something like £170.00 for Canons.
I have never had a problem with non Canon batteries (let's not call them cheapos, let's call the Canons 'Expensivos'.) and I have never heard of a camera being damaged by one, if they fail they just die, they don't explode unless you burn them!
I'm saving £126.00 a throw, it's a non brainer.
The last time I looked, a single Canon original battery for my 5D was £50.00, my 'Sterlingtechs' cost about £11.00 each and I have two for each of my cameras (5D & 400D) the 400D's are cheaper, but let's say £44.00 for the lot as opposed to something like £170.00 for Canons.
I have never had a problem with non Canon batteries (let's not call them cheapos, let's call the Canons 'Expensivos'.) and I have never heard of a camera being damaged by one, if they fail they just die, they don't explode unless you burn them!
I'm saving £126.00 a throw, it's a non brainer.
Very true, seems the only evidence is from Camera OEM's and Camera shops. I've used a number of internet camera forums for many years, not heard of any yet.
The basis of Nikon's warning about lack of protection circuits would seem to indicate damage has occurred. Explosion isn't the only failure mode, circuits can be killed by over- and under-driving them. Protection circuits aren't added to artificially inflate the prices, battery purchases are less-frequent than lens purchases and making them more expensive lowers the margins manufacturers can expect to obtain for them.
Apparently, LION cells in a pack need to be capacity-matched to within 3% to not result in premature failure- fortunately that's just "it doesn't hold charge anymore" not "it killed my camera." At 3% mismatch, the soft shorts can cause a ~40% loss of capacity after a year.
Here's what Jessica said in a thread in Jul of '07 here on Mac Rumors:
So, there's at least one first-hand report here, and it sounds like the lack of a functioning protection circuit or lack of power regulation circuitry to me. Lithium-Ion battery packs aren't just a simple unit like an alkaline cell.