Cheap Batteries

[Phil DeFrame]

Last year I bought a Brand X Li-ion battery for a fraction of the price of the Canon product. It worked great until a few weeks ago, when it suddenly went dead. The specific problem is a very high internal series resistance. It cannot deliver anywhere near enough current to run a camera (or anything else), even though the charger considers it "fully charged". In any case, the battery is now useless.

My question is: has anyone else had a similar experience? Is this typical of cheap batteries, or did I just get a lemon? Are there any non-Canon batteries that are as reliable as the official, very pricey item?

[paulnj]

I just got a lenmar replacement for my NPE3 for half the cost of the Canon version. It out lasted my Canon version by far yesterday, but I have only had them for a short time. My original 3 NP-E3 batteries are only good in a pinch right now as all 3 give me 100-150 exposures or so in normal use COMBINED.The lenmar gave me 300 yesterday

[Lionheart]

It may be typical, it may be a lemon. You never know with the offmake stuff. I've been very lucky so far. Most of my spares are third party batteries, and they've outlasted the originals, although the visual quality is a little shaky to me. I've found my np-e3 replacements to be better performers than the originals for my 1D II. All my spares for my other cameras are also third party, and I haven't noticed any performance hits on those either. I'd call up the place you bought the battery from and try to get a replacement.
Leon

[livin4lax09]

i got a couple cheap batteries for like 4 dollars each on ebay for my drebel, and they held a charge much longer than the battery it came with. same goes for my 1d batteries. the cheap alternative (while still something like 20 dollars) holds a charge better than the normal one. it's just a pain to get in the camera and lock in. Oh well, I saved 80 dollars, I'm not complaining.

[mwfanelli]

Last year I bought a Brand X Li-ion battery for a fraction of the price of the Canon product. It worked great until a few weeks ago, when it suddenly went dead. The specific problem is a very high internal series resistance. It cannot deliver anywhere near enough current to run a camera (or anything else), even though the charger considers it "fully charged". In any case, the battery is now useless.

My question is: has anyone else had a similar experience? Is this typical of cheap batteries, or did I just get a lemon? Are there any non-Canon batteries that are as reliable as the official, very pricey item?

Cheap batteries require luck. Some work fine, some burst into flame! I have a no-name battery that works as well as the Canon brand. A friend had the same problem as you have now. With Canon, you get better battery-to-battery consistency, with cheapies you get better prices. Pick your choose.

[Loupey]

I have used 3 lithium ion batteries for my 10D during the last (5 years?) - whenever the 10D was first introduced anyway.

Two of those batteries are two different generic brands. One is about 2 years old and one is 1 year old. They were both less expensive and each worked great for about a year each. Then suddenly they die. The 3rd one (2nd generic) is now in this phase.

I charge and use my batteries in a cycle so they get used evenly. You know what, the original Canon one is still alive and kicking! Its been gradually decaying so that I can only get about 1 hour of shooting but it outlasted the other two newer ones.

You get what you pay for.

[drg]

The reputable on-line merchants (i.e. Adorama, B&H, etc) offer equivalent batteries for many models that are as good (they are the same really) as the branded cells. As an example I have used generic/house brand BP-511 replacements in my Canon's that use them for some years without any problem. Then again, they were not bought from someone selling them door to door or on the counter of the local shops. The stores mentioned get them from known sources.

One key to batteries is to understand that the great majority use the same cores. The most are Japanese domestic manufactured and most use cores from, if are not actually made by Panasonic. These are the same as 99% of the O.E.M. (O.K. they are O.E.M.) originals. Avoid Li-ion from other sources such as China. Currently too much variation in product to consider.

The other key is that the power rating (mAh or milli Amp hours) should be the same or greater than the original spec battery. Other wise they'll not discharge properly and performance will degrade.

Some of the Li-ion designs are actually faulty and many of those cameras and battery sets quickly and quietly disappear from the market. I hope that this discussion does not revolve around one of the SD series of compact/ultra from Canon, as they were a some of these that the contacts on the batteries wore out in such a way that the batteries would start to short and degrade the life of the cell. If so, it may be time for a new camera.

These batts all have a 'lifespan' after which they do need to be replaced. Seemingly the smaller the cell, the fewer recharge cycle they will tolerate.

Good luck!!

[Phil DeFrame]

One key to batteries is to understand that the great majority use the same cores. The most are Japanese domestic manufactured and most use cores from, if are not actually made by Panasonic. These are the same as 99% of the O.E.M. (O.K. they are O.E.M.) originals. Avoid Li-ion from other sources such as China. Currently too much variation in product to consider.

Yep, the bad battery was made in China. I couldn't tell that before I bought it, though, because I bought it online from one of Amazon's Marketplace merchants. For the price I paid (about one fifth of the Canon's) I actually got a proportional amount of service from it.

It was a BP511 for my PowerShot G2 and 30D, so no risk from self-shorting or fires.

Thanks to everyone for your responses. It looks like there's no compelling reason to avoid third party sources for batteries, provided you know the source.