Batteries from HK?

[Justintoxicated]

I'm looking at getting something from this seller, but the battery says it is 7.4v vs 7.2v
http://cgi.ebay.com/2-BATTERY-BLM-1-...d=p3286.c0.m14

Also the capacity is listed at 2000mah shich would be significantly higher than the stock battery.

However stock battery is made in japan, where as this is probably made in china...

[Atomic2]

i bought a battery and charger combo from a seller on ebay.


truth be told, i think it worked better than the real oly battery. certainly lasted longer, but maybe they discharge rate was slower and that could maybe effect things like continuous shooting with a flash and autofocus... who knows. I didnt really see a difference to be honest, and i dont have those anymore, i gave them to my friend when i sold him my E500

it wasnt this set though.

[Atomic2]

this is the kind i had, i guess the company is called insten
http://cgi.ebay.com/Charger-Battery-...d=p3286.c0.m14

[Justintoxicated]

My stock battery was made in japan, so i have my doubts, I have a feeling that many of the china batteries are pretty mucht he same thign with different labels stuck on them. I found a similar kit to the one I origionaly posted that looked the same, however it said the battery is 7.2v 7.4v compatable. (complete oposite!) 7.4v @ 2000mzh SHOULD have a higher capacity than 7.2 @ 2000mah, if those rating were in fact real, but I have my doubts. I guess I'll go with the 7.2v to be safe since that is what my battery is right now. All the made in Japan Batteries list a lower capacity, but I have a feeling its all lies anyways, but I can't call Shens until I test it myself.

I liked the above kit due to the 12v charger, and I was going to split the cost with my friend at work since he picked up an e520 + 14-54mm for $500 durring the cash back on ebay. so $10 shipped for 12v charger and battery. Guess I can give the China battery a shot since my camera was also made in china and it works good. I jstu have a bad experience with produts made in china when better QC manufactureres are available (these days that's certainly not always the case)

[Atomic2]

All i can tell you is i have bought similar third party Chinese batteries and have been happy with them.

[mjs1973]

I have purchased several 3rd party batteries for my Canons over the last 4 years and I have been very happy with them. I currently have 7 batteries and only 2 of them are OEM, the rest are after market. I don't know if they are they same brand that you are looking at, but I am very happy with them, and for the price, I feel the 3rd party batteries are well worth the risk of getting a bad one. At one time I bought 3 new batteries and a charger all for less than the price as one OEM battery. The charger and one of the batteries died, but I didn't care because they were so inexpensive. The other 2 are still going after a couple of years.

I liked the idea of having the 12vlt charger for the car as well, but as I said the charger died. What I did was to get a power converter that plugs into my cigarette lighter. Now I can plug my regular battery charger into that, as well as my laptop.

[OlyOnly]

I bought a BLM-1 battery from OwnerUser in Hong Kong. It's rated at 7.2V but I can't see any difference between it and the original Oly battery.
I have used them together in the OwnerUser E510 Battery Grip and they work very well. One advantage of this grip is that it will work equally well with only one battery, either one, so you can keep the grip on the camera and use it while charging one battery.
Incidentally, I bought two AA battery holders to go with this grip and they work very well also. The only drawback is that 12 AA batteries are considerably heavier than two BLM-1 batteries.
Based on my experience you won't go wrong buying the aftermarket batteries and it makes you wonder why Oly batteries cost so much.
To give credit where it is due, I have found that for all but the most extreme situations one Oly battery is really all you need. It's quite incredible how many shots you get with the E510 on one charge. Of course that might be due to the fact that you're almost forced to use the optical viewfinder with this camera.