camera batteries

[Diane Pinkers]

I received a couple of Amazon gift cards for my birthday, and I decided to pick up a couple of extra camera batteries for my upcoming hike–my camera is a bit of a battery hog, it's the only thing I don't like about it. When I went on Amazon, there were the name brand batteries by Canon, then several other, much cheaper, batteries that would fit my camera. They seem to have good reviews on them. Is there a reason not to use the off-brand batteries? STK, Maximal Power, and Wasabi are a couple of the brand names–any commentary on their quality?

Thanks!

[Bob Gross]

Can I make the assumption that your camera is a Canon?

For my Canons, I always get one new Canon battery with a new camera. That is the last Canon battery that I get. I purchase extra batteries, and for some cameras, I had to have six or more extras. I've purchased some of those aftermarket batteries that turned out well, and others that did not. Some will look good for about a year, and then they go to hell rapidly. They get into a funky state where they take longer to recharge, but they have too much self-discharge. My chargers are all Canon, so I doubt that they are doing anything wrong during the charge process.

For the last few years, I've done best with this. I purchase the best aftermarket battery that is sold by Adorama or B&H. I'll get one or two of those. Then I go to Amazon and purchase one or two of the cheaper unheard of batteries. When I get all of the new batteries in hand, I run them all through a couple of cycles of charge-discharge, and then I start comparing them. On the average, Canon batteries are slightly better than the others, but that does not necessarily agree with the cost.

–B.G.–

[Adam Rothermich]

I had a Wasabi battery for my Panasonic G3. I didn't see in appreciable difference in performance between it and the Panasonic battery. I only owned the camera for a few months so I can't comment on the long term performance.
Just recently I bought an Olympus XZ-1 P&S and bought a spare 3rd party battery for it. The 3rd party battery actually has 50% more capacity than the Olympus battery (1500mAh vs 1000mAh). Again, I haven't owned it long enough to know if it will be a good value in the long run, but I'm happy with it's initial performance. It was also quite a bit cheaper than the Olympus battery.
As a counterpoint I had one 3rd party battery for my Nikon D300 and a handful of Nikon batteries. After about a year the 3rd party battery was giving me significantly less run time and then one day it wouldn't even turn the camera on. Even after I put it on the charger then slapped it straight into the camera.
Could be just a fluke battery but for my real camera I'm going to stick with the real batteries. But for my casual cameras I'll keep taking my chances with the cheaper batteries. In the case of my Olympus I could buy two 3rd party batteries for the price of the Olympus battery. Sure, I may miss some shots if the battery fails prematurely but there's very little at risk if my camera dies half way through a hiking trip.

Adam

[Bob Gross]

I guess you know about these lithium ion batteries in general. Typically they are given a lifetime of 300 charge-discharge cycles. Some people spend lots of time measuring these things, and they attempt to determine the very best methods for getting the most out of each battery. Exactly how you do that varies with your usage of the camera.

Let's just say arbitrarily that the battery has 250 photos worth of life in one charge. Do you use it until it goes dead, and then you recharge it completely and start all over? Instead, do you use it for 50 photos on one day, then recharge it that night before you start all over?

Some batteries seem to last better if you do it the first way, and others seem to last better if you do it the second way. You will likely get more cycles out of it if you use it the first way.

All of these batteries have some degree of self discharge, and it might be on the order of 1% or more per week. The cheapest batteries tend to develop bad self discharge early in their life, so they go to hell after a year or less.

Also, some photographers rely on cameras with the rear display lit up most of the time, and this is a huge battery drain. Instead, if you use cameras with an optical viewfinder, there is much less battery drain except for two seconds after the shot.

It is completely unacceptable for some of us to have the only camera battery die mid-way on a backpacking trip with no replacement for miles around.

–B.G.–

[Roger Caffin]

Bob wrote:

> one or two of the cheaper unheard of batteries. When I get all of the new batteries in hand, I run them all through a couple of cycles of charge-discharge, and then I start comparing them. On the average, Canon batteries are slightly better than the others, but that does not necessarily agree with the cost.

Been there, done that, got the same results as Bob.
The camera died before the batteries did – which was a RIGHT pain.

Cheers

[Mark]

Couple of things i would like to clarify please Bob.

1/ Lithium batteries have no memory, so they do not care if they are partially discharged and then charged again.

2/ Any camera that was designed to use lithium batteries will have a low voltage cut-off built into it, this will stop the lithium battery draining any more than around 3v (exact amount differs between manufacturers or even model to model)

3/ Lithium batteries have an extremely low self discharge rate, if your lithium batteries are discharging quickly with the camera off then there is a problem somewhere in the camera.
I have experienced this with a Lumix camera, in the end i got into the habit of removing the battery if it was likely to be unused for a long period of time.

The biggest negative effect on Lithium batteries is storing them fully charged.
A Lithium battery stored at say 3v will last for years, the same battery stored at it's peak voltage of 4.2v will not last anywhere near as long.

Your still talking a couple of years though, so we all use our batteries as we need them and simply replace them when they start to fail.

Personally i am extremely cautious with lithium batteries as i have witnessed several fires caused by them (radio controlled craft, one of my other hobbies).

Some say i'm cautious to the point of being slightly paranoid, but in the 10 years or so i've been using lithium batteries, often several times a week i have personally not yet had any problems, so it leads me to believe i must be doing something right.

So for me personally i would buy the OEM canon batteries.

[J Michael Orszag]

Some cameras (the Panasonic GH2 is an example) are hardwired not to use 3rd party batteries. Most of the time it is fine – and I personally use Wasabi batteries with one of my cameras. I will often take a small universal charger that takes USB input (such as the EC technology universal charger) and then connect this with a USB cable to a spare lithium ion battery.

[Bob Gross]

"1/ Lithium batteries have no memory, so they do not care if they are partially discharged and then charged again."

Mark, it seems like you don't understand! Which would you rather have, a battery that gives you 300 cycles of 250 shots each, or a battery that gives you 300 cycles of 50 shots each?

"2/ Any camera that was designed to use lithium batteries will have a low voltage cut-off built into it, this will stop the lithium battery draining any more than around 3v (exact amount differs between manufacturers or even model to model)"

Mark, that is common knowledge. What is your point?

"3/ Lithium batteries have an extremely low self discharge rate, if your lithium batteries are discharging quickly with the camera off then there is a problem somewhere in the camera."

Mark, most normal lithium batteries have a low self discharge rate. However, I have cheaper lithiums that got funky after only six months of use. They won't charge up as high, and they self discharge faster. It is not a problem of the camera.

"Your still talking a couple of years though, so we all use our batteries as we need them and simply replace them when they start to fail."

Or, six months.

"Some say i'm cautious to the point of being slightly paranoid, but in the 10 years or so i've been using lithium batteries, often several times a week i have personally not yet had any problems, so it leads me to believe i must be doing something right."

You can't help it if people are out to get you. You have a right to be slightly paranoid.

"So for me personally i would buy the OEM canon batteries."

The Canon batteries are the highest priced. I've found brands that seem to be 98% as good, but with a price of about 20%.

–B.G.–

[Michael Ray]

I bought both the SterlingTek (STK) and Wasabi batteries for my new S100. If you can find out the actual weight of the battery, that will give you an indication of it's quality. Canon's are the heaviest. STK is next and Wasabi is lightest of those 3. Performance wasn't quite linear relationship with weight but followed that pattern. I'm going to redo the test soon now that they've all been used for a couple months. My Amazon review

[Bob Gross]

Michael, I don't doubt what you stated, but I am wondering what it really means.

I wonder why lightweight construction makes for low quality.

Are the battery manufacturers just cutting out the cost of materials by cutting out materials?

–B.G.–

[Michael Ray]

Bob,
I'm an electrical engineer vs chemical engineer, but my guess is the cheaper cells are not as dense so they are thus lighter and can't hold as much charge. Maybe there are different grades of lithium (eg, impurities)? I just recall others noting the lighter cells didn't hold as much charge and my experience verified that.

[Franco Darioli]

Sometime the cheaper brands overstate the amperage, so you can have an 1800mAh from reputable brand lasting per charge longer than a 2000mAh from an accessory brand.

[Rick M]

del

[Daniel Collins]

Just to add something regarding aftermarket Panasonic batteries: They WILL work but they wont show the correct battery level on your viewfinder/lcd screen, so you wont know when to switch it out.
I have had good luck with the Opteka batteries in my Canons. Check the Mah rating before you buy, as there is much trickery in that market.

[dave e]

no-name brands on ebay are a crapshoot…sometimes good,sometimes not.I ll stick to name brands from here on out.

[Author]

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