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Author Topic: Dying battery?  (Read 1562 times)

jrmintz

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Dying battery?
« on: February 26, 2011, 10:59:43 am »

Both BP-511A batteries that I use with my 5D have recently started running out of power suddenly, sooner than expected. I take this to mean they're reaching the end of their useful life.

The market seems to be full of off-brand replacements that are much less expensive than the Canon product, including one that's branded Duracell. My instinct is to stick with the name-brand original, but I'm wondering if anyone has had particularly good or bad experiences with the less expensive copies.

Thanks,

Seth
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Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: Dying battery?
« Reply #1 on: February 26, 2011, 11:16:51 am »

I'm in the same boat, and I just lost one of my spare batteries recently.

Of my four batteries till recently, three have been Canons and one has been a CTA which I bought a couple of years ago from B&H.
Of the four, the only one that ever failed was a Canon, so when I lost one of them I looked for more CTAs, but B&H no longer stocks them.

A google search indicated that they are in stock from http://overstock.com at about $12 each, so I bought four more, which came very quickly. Overstock still seems to have them, so I would recommend buying a few while you can. At that price, if one of them quits, its no big deal, IMHO.

Eric
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alanscape

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Re: Dying battery?
« Reply #2 on: February 26, 2011, 02:49:14 pm »

Don't buy cheapo's.... never.....if there's one magic exploding battery in 1 million you may get it. See the link, it's a good read...

http://batteryuniversity.com/

There's a bit on cheap copies somewhere but the rest of the site's really informative.
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Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: Dying battery?
« Reply #3 on: February 26, 2011, 04:36:24 pm »

Don't buy cheapo's.... never.....if there's one magic exploding battery in 1 million you may get it. See the link, it's a good read...

http://batteryuniversity.com/

There's a bit on cheap copies somewhere but the rest of the site's really informative.
In my experience the "magic exploding battery" was one of the high-priced Canons, not the cheap CTA (which cost a lot more back when they were still making them).

My Canons and my first CTA had many uses and many charge/discharge cycles starting in 2003, when I got my first Canon 10D. All except one of the Canons has worked flawlessly since then, both in the 10D and in my present 5D. My four new CTAs have all charged fully but I have only used one of them in the 5D so far. My failure rate for Canon-brand batteries has been 25%, and that failure occurred in 2004 or 2005 (the recent lost battery wasn't the result of a manufacturing flaw).

Just because an item is more expensive doesn't necessarily mean it's better. But yes: indeed there are cheapo batteries that are not very good.

Eric
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alanscape

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Re: Dying battery?
« Reply #4 on: February 26, 2011, 06:09:23 pm »

Apologies... you're absolutely right, I should get my facts right.
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stever

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Re: Dying battery?
« Reply #5 on: February 26, 2011, 07:33:38 pm »

i got a couple cheap batteries some years ago - they did not last long compared to the Canon batteries and it's a really big pain when they start to die and you have no idea how many shots you'll get on a charge
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Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: Dying battery?
« Reply #6 on: February 27, 2011, 01:08:41 am »

i got a couple cheap batteries some years ago - they did not last long compared to the Canon batteries and it's a really big pain when they start to die and you have no idea how many shots you'll get on a charge
That's why I always carry at least two spare batteries with me, preferably of different makes. Some batteries fail, regardless of the brand name printed on the case. Having more batteries than you expect to need seems to me like worthwhile insurance.

Eric
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thierrylegros396

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Re: Dying battery?
« Reply #7 on: February 27, 2011, 06:54:35 am »

Canon doesn't manufacture batteries !

You can obtain very good copy, sometimes better than original "Canon".

But please don't buy too cheap ones.
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