I learnt my lesson. Don't buy cheap DSLR spare batteries. They are useless.

[MKHACHFE]

..and potentially dangerous. Fortunately it was a cheap lesson this time.

I'm sure most of you experienced members are rolling your eyes and going "well, duh", so this is aimed at newbies like me.

My official Canon battery lasts about 3 hours. The cheap £9 one I bought from Amazon lasts under an hour and makes my charger very hot when slotted in. Something the Canon battery doesnt do at all. 

I will not be using it again. So yeah..as with so many things in life, sometimes you just have to spend more for quality items. 

 

Cheers

 

[MKHACHFE]

I should add that the cheap battery holds less charge (550, compared to 840 for the official one).

Still, very poor performance IMO.

 

Cheers

[AlexK]

Can't comment on your particular "brand", as you forgot to provide any links, and just generalized your experience. But I've got a bunch (6) of quite cheap noname batteries for my oldish EOS 600D like 4 years ago. They're still performing fantastic.

To generalize: with the Amazon service, just watch for "free returns" widget on the right, and if you've got junk, just mail it back and try another piece.

[Mr Spock]

It's not logical. People will spend thousands on a camera but then fit cheap batteries.

It's like owning a Bentley and fitting remould tyres on it...

[tooth_dr]

2 hours ago, AlexK said:

Can't comment on your particular "brand", as you forgot to provide any links, and just generalized your experience. But I've got a bunch (6) of quite cheap noname batteries for my oldish EOS 600D like 4 years ago. They're still performing fantastic.

To generalize: with the Amazon service, just watch for "free returns" widget on the right, and if you've got junk, just mail it back and try another piece.

My experience has been the same as this, the no name spurious batteries lasted as long or longer than the genuine brand.  Perhaps you got a bad example?

[david_taurus83]

Can't you return the batteries to Amazon?

I bought 2 cheap ones for my old 600D and they were fine. Bought the same brand again for my 6D and also fine, in fact they probably last longer than the single genuine Canon battery I have.

[PeterCPC]

The trouble is that you can't always tell. I bought what I thought was genuine but they clearly weren't judging by their performance.

[AlexK]

50 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

It's not logical. People will spend thousands on a camera but then fit cheap batteries.

It's like owning a Bentley and fitting remould tyres on it...

Totally logical when you have some education about the modern battery tech, a little bit about the modern "global" economy, and ever heard about the second oldest profession "marketing" (you know what's the first oldest one, which gave birth to that second, right? ).

I.o.w., the DSLR camera batteries tech is not a high-tech anymore. It's reached its technological limits all the way to some ~90% profit like a decade+ ago. You are paying more for the HazMat shipment insurance than for the battery manufacturing expenses. Which means that OEM battery is the same as a nonOEM, the only difference is the higher probability of a manufacturing defect (and fraud). Which is mitigated the same way: Send it back and get a replacement, OEM or NoName.

Edited January 26, 2021 by AlexK

[Shimrod]

5 hours ago, AlexK said:

Can't comment on your particular "brand", as you forgot to provide any links, and just generalized your experience. But I've got a bunch (6) of quite cheap noname batteries for my oldish EOS 600D like 4 years ago. They're still performing fantastic.

To generalize: with the Amazon service, just watch for "free returns" widget on the right, and if you've got junk, just mail it back and try another piece.

Same here: I have compatible batteries for my Canon 7dMk2 that were bought back in 2011 and are still going fine. The compatible batteries costs around 20% of Canon originals - the only battery I have that has failed so far has been the original Canon battery which started reporting errors when placed in the camera. I did buy an original Canon AC adapter after reading reviews of the cheaper ones blowing fuses and circuit boards in cameras.

[DaveL59]

The Sony A77ii I recently bought came with one Sony and 2 noname batteries. On receipt I found one of these had charge but would not recharge on the Sony single battery charger but the other and the Sony one did. I bought a Patona dual battery charger and now they all charge and run just fine on that. Seems the earlier Sony charger would work with most but the later ones are more picky, could that be the issue with the Canon ones too?

[Carbon Brush]

I'm not picking on just Canon here. Unfortunately equipment manufacturers often market replacement batteries at a high price, tempting aftermarket purchase.

My Canon aftermarket batteries have worked fine for years. If they didn't, they would have been returned.

My Dyson vacuum aftermarket batteries are a similar story. At <£30 against £80+ for the original, I was prepared to give them a try.
When I opened up (several years old) original and aftermarket failed packs (make sure you have a grown up supervising, these packs are dangerous) I found the case mouldings and innards were identical.
In both cases the electronics, rather than cells, had failed and I had good (18650 size) cells that could be transferred to other equipment.

Almost all equipment manufacturers put their battery assembly work out to battery specialists. Anything not original branded may be good, it may be bad.

An analogy is in scope manufacture. A sub contract factory assembling scopes for Skywatcher (just to pick a known brand ) may choose to use their tooling and facilities to assemble 'Skywatching' scopes.
Whether 'Skywatching' scopes have the same quality lenses, or something made from milk bottle bottoms is anyone's guess. They look at the same at first glance or if you don't know how to measure.

[SyedT]

I'll agree with those saying that the generic brand batteries can work fine, I've owned them for my Canon 650D and now a Canon 6D, both hold more charge and have performed faultlessly. There is the danger of variable QC however, so it may be that you got a bad sample.

[Tiny Clanger]

I've used cheap batteries for a go pro, a panasonic lumix bridge camera, and several Nikon DSLRs , all have been as good as OEM . charging well, lasting in use as long as (or in the case of the Panasonic, longer than) the originals.  I have mostly bought Neewer brand ones (when they had the size I needed available) via Amazon, as the first Neewer one I tried was excellent, it seemed sensible to stick with them.  Not the very cheapest (because the very cheapest of anything is seldom a good idea ) , a brand which has been around for several years,  and through Amazon because I was confident in their returns/refund setup if there was a problem.

Heather

[MKHACHFE]

18 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

My experience has been the same as this, the no name spurious batteries lasted as long or longer than the genuine brand.  Perhaps you got a bad example?

When you guys say they lasted long, do you mean in terms of lifetime or charge?

This is the one i bought

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07JG65P7L/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Cheers

[MKHACHFE]

18 hours ago, PeterCPC said:

The trouble is that you can't always tell. I bought what I thought was genuine but they clearly weren't judging by their performance.

Exactly. Fortunately they are cheapish, so not much loss if they turn out to be duds

[MKHACHFE]

18 hours ago, david_taurus83 said:

Can't you return the batteries to Amazon?

I bought 2 cheap ones for my old 600D and they were fine. Bought the same brand again for my 6D and also fine, in fact they probably last longer than the single genuine Canon battery I have.

Thanks, i will look into those ones.

Yes, i guess i can return them, but they work...just not that great. And im not sure that them making me nervous by how hot they make the charger is a valid reason..but i will try for sure

 

cheers

[MKHACHFE]

18 hours ago, david_taurus83 said:

Can't you return the batteries to Amazon?

I bought 2 cheap ones for my old 600D and they were fine. Bought the same brand again for my 6D and also fine, in fact they probably last longer than the single genuine Canon battery I have.

Do you have a link to those? Or a model/name?

 

Cheers

[pete_l]

On 26/01/2021 at 05:30, MKHACHFE said:

The cheap £9 one I bought from Amazon lasts under an hour and makes my charger very hot

So send it back. If it makes the charger overheat it is faulty. What did the reviews of that particular item have to say?

[david_taurus83]

4 hours ago, MKHACHFE said:

Do you have a link to those? Or a model/name?

 

Cheers

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0768RS2SB/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_idreGb2Y8BPBR

[JOC]

Same story as above, I didn't have any problems with my non-branded Canon replacement batteries that I bought many years ago, when I need them too they still take a charge even now.  Mind you I still try to use the Canon ones of which I have enough when I can dig them out.

[tooth_dr]

4 hours ago, MKHACHFE said:

When you guys say they lasted long, do you mean in terms of lifetime or charge?

This is the one i bought

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07JG65P7L/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Cheers

In my case I mean just as long per charge. I still have them with no complaints. 

[Shimrod]

5 hours ago, MKHACHFE said:

When you guys say they lasted long, do you mean in terms of lifetime or charge?

This is the one i bought

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07JG65P7L/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Cheers

The most recent ones I bought (in 2019) are branded RavPower and came with a USB dual battery charger which works great- the earlier batteries (from 2011 and 2013) are no longer available, but the earliest batteries where a 7dayshop own brand. The earlier batteries had a slightly lower capacity, but not significant enough to worry about given the price difference. The newest batteries are indistinguishable from my Canon originals.

It's worth noting that the batteries will not hold their charge for long if it is cold, so if you are comparing the compatible batteries in the recent weather to the Canon batteries in the autumn you will see a difference in performance.

[RT65CB-SWL]

When I was shopping for replacement batteries for my Nikon D80* & D40x*, I would look at the guarantee period.

Some offer 3 months, some 6 months, some 12 months... I found the Ex-Pro brand were 24 months, so I ordered and purchased two for each. 

 

* EN-EL3e
** EN-EL9 / EN-EL9a

[MKHACHFE]

On 27/01/2021 at 08:36, Shimrod said:

The most recent ones I bought (in 2019) are branded RavPower and came with a USB dual battery charger which works great- the earlier batteries (from 2011 and 2013) are no longer available, but the earliest batteries where a 7dayshop own brand. The earlier batteries had a slightly lower capacity, but not significant enough to worry about given the price difference. The newest batteries are indistinguishable from my Canon originals.

It's worth noting that the batteries will not hold their charge for long if it is cold, so if you are comparing the compatible batteries in the recent weather to the Canon batteries in the autumn you will see a difference in performance.

Thanks mate 😃