Diamond Dave wrote:
Although I cringe every time I buy a Canon OEM battery, it's money well spent in my opinion. Too many horror stories about the knock-offs. You can get by with cheaper lenses and tripods but no battery=no takey picture.
What horror stories? In Canon DSLRs? What horror stories?
RDKirk wrote:
What horror stories? In Canon DSLRs? What horror stories?
I haven't heard any horror stories, but these batteries are chipped and a non chipped 3rd party batteries causes several issues including:
The Canon charger does not recognize them and will not charge them. You must purchase a 3rd party battery charger.
The camera generates a communications error when power up.
Remaining battery power is not shown in the top LCD. This necessitates carrying a spare battery.
Because the battery is not uniquely identified the battery status (last time charged, ability to hold charge, etc) is not shown in the menu battery item.
I have a couple of 3rd party batteries that are chipped and they do not have any of these issues and seem to last as long as the OEM batteries. The only issue is they cost around $50. This was bargain when the 5DMK2 first came out and the only way to get an LP-E6 was from Japan via eBay for $150+. But now that the LP-E6 is selling for $70 I would just buy the OEM battery.
I have a couple of 3rd party batteries that are chipped and they do not have any of these issues and seem to last as long as the OEM batteries. The only issue is they cost around $50. This was bargain when the 5DMK2 first came out and the only way to get an LP-E6 was from Japan via eBay for $150+. But now that the LP-E6 is selling for $70 I would just buy the OEM battery.
Yes, I'm aware of the operational shortcomings of the unchipped batteries.
Many hundreds (if not thousands) of people have been using non-OEM BP-511 batteries for the earlier cameras with virtually no "horror stories" of camera damage. I say "virtually" only because even though I've never actually heard any, I might have missed some--but if they had occurred, the Internet would surely have magnified their instances.
We can debate things like recharging robustness and longetivity, but the non-OEM batteries under brands like Sterlingtek, Impact, and Lenmar have proven themselves at least safe to use.
As I mentioned before, I suspect none of the Chinese battery factories are yet producing chipped LP-E6 clones in sufficient numbers with consistent quality--and at a sufficiently low cost--to make them competitive for the established non-OEM brand names.
Quality consistency is a very big problem dealing with Chinese factories, and where exporters have succeeded in getting it, it's normally been by shepherding a very limited number of factories (or just one factory) to the desired goal. I've seen and heard too many cases where the Chinese factories have changed specifications without the importer even being aware of it...until his customers start complaining.
It might have been fairly easy to find a factory that could toss out a batch of chipped batteries early in the game when the OEM batteries were scarce and sky-high in price. But getting consistent output at low cost is a different ballgame.
Thanks folks. I just ended up buying the genuine article for 55 shipped on FM. I think this is a reasonable "deal". Of course the $20 Chinese chipped version, if available, would be even better, but such is life.
Being that these things last nearly forever, what's the point of the chip? Knowing how many shots are left? Seems like 3-4 aftermarket batteries would give you all the redundancey and juice you'd ever need. Just don't see the point in spending so much money to get a feature we lived without in the past. Of course I don't even own these bodies, so I guess this is a pure troll post.
jdben622 wrote:
Being that these things last nearly forever, what's the point of the chip? Knowing how many shots are left? Seems like 3-4 aftermarket batteries would give you all the redundancey and juice you'd ever need. Just don't see the point in spending so much money to get a feature we lived without in the past. Of course I don't even own these bodies, so I guess this is a pure troll post.
I'd agree, except unlike the BP-11's, the aftermarket LP-E6's need their own charger. That's an extra hassle I'd be willing to pay an extra $30-$40 to avoid. I suppose one could switch and use all aftermarkets. Do they all use the same charger?
The after market charger charges the LP-E6 as well
I was going to buy a backup charger and ended up with an aftermarket charger PLUS 2 - aftermarket batteries for under $20 down the %Bay. I intend to use the original battery until it gets real low and then finish off the shoot with the aftermarket battery.
msalvetti wrote:
Do they all use the same charger?
jdben622 wrote:
Being that these things last nearly forever, what's the point of the chip? Knowing how many shots are left? Seems like 3-4 aftermarket batteries would give you all the redundancey and juice you'd ever need. Just don't see the point in spending so much money to get a feature we lived without in the past. Of course I don't even own these bodies, so I guess this is a pure troll post.
Live View and video are significant additional requirements for accurately assessing the ability of a battery to support high drain over a significant amount of time. Nobody wants to start a video clip or a Live View session and have a battery die suddenly because they were unable to predict that it was no longer holding its charge as well as it used to.
The most valuable aspect of the new system is the built-in mini-analyzer that tells you when the battery begins to age to the point that it no longer gains and holds a charge as effectively as it once did. You can see as it begins to fail in rechargeability and plan intelligently for replacement (which is especially important when you live in a small town or city where you have to order such things).
In order to do this, the camera must necessarily keep a record of each battery's performance from recharge to recharge, comparing the performance after charge cycle X with the performance after charge cycle X+n.
Because of the mini-charger, I have enough confidence about the capacity of my batteries at any moment to reduce the number of spare batteries I needed for my earlier cameras by 1/3. That makes up for the difference in price--the peace of mind is free.
Thanks Fred, but this is confusing now. Your link shows the Maximal power, but says Synergy in their description. If I search the e-battery storefront at Amazon, the Maximal power does not show up.
I could still try it but the experiment will be worth ~27$ USD. If it does not work and I have to return it, I will be out at least 10$; may be a little bit more...
I will probably just wait for a while.
-- Vivek
Don't bother. I took a chance and ordered the battery from Amazon and got a non-chipped Synergy that of course needs it's own charger, and will not communicate with the camera.
I got a Canon LP-E6 on Ebay from South Korea 2 weeks ago for $65.95 USD delivered. They are no longer listed and this week the cheapest I can find on ebay is $79 USD.
RDKirk wrote:
What horror stories? In Canon DSLRs? What horror stories?
The ones where the camera bursts into flame in your hands, and then a Nikon shooter walks by and points at you and laughs, and steals your girlfriend.
Just the battery not working. You think you have a charged up spare in your bag, and in the middle of something important you change batteries and have no power, because your knockoff was made by some guy earning 6 cents a day in western China. It's happened to me, so I just buy the real thing now and have had no problems. Of course, YMMV.
There may be more chance of getting good clones now the 7D is out and using the same battery, but frankly I decided early on to shell out (a small fortune) for the Canon one because the 5D2 is a pretty expensive piece of kit to fry with a cheap clone that goes wrong and destroys the innards.
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Just the battery not working. You think you have a charged up spare in your bag, and in the middle of something important you change batteries and have no power, because your knockoff was made by some guy earning 6 cents a day in western China. It's happened to me, so I just buy the real thing now and have had no problems. Of course, YMMV.
My experience was just the opposite. The Canon battery went dead and the SterlingTek battery kept on working. That was with my 10D and I am still using the same SterlingTek battery in my 50D.
