5D Mark 2 Batteries (non-Canon)

[Murray Fredericks]

Hi,

Has anyone found some cheaper 5D 2 batteries that are working well and allow the Canon's battery display to function properly?

If so where from and how many amp hours are they?

Cheers

Murray

[Yoram from Berlin]

Fundamentally there's nothing wrong with after-market batteries. The worst that might happen is that they don't hold a charge as well a couple of years down the road. I've never heard of damage on any forum I participate in.

I believe that most manufacturers outsource battery development anyway. They deliver the size and charge spec, but a third party delivers the actual battery design and manufacturing.

[Yoram from Berlin]

Sorry, looks like I'm having a slow morning... You didn't ask "whether" but rather "where". Can't help with that.

[stever]

sorry i don't know where either

my experience with cheaper batteries is that you don't find out they're not working well until a year or so later when you discover at a very inconvenient time that they've only taken half a charge.  i don't keep track of charge history, but do write the in-service date on all rechargeable batteries.  the Canon batteries have been very reliable.

[rcdurston]

I have about 6 Lenmar and 3 Canon batteries for my 40D. The Canons are ridiculous; they work for maybe a month before they just won't hold a charge. The Lenmars are less expensive and way outlast the Canons (some of them are going on 3 or 4 years now).
Now for my 5Dmk2 I'm just waiting for Lenmar to come out with their version. Hopefully it will have all the memory info capability that the Canon has. In the meantime I'm just using the one that came with the camera.

[JDClements]

I haven't looked into third-party batteries for my 5D MkII yet, but I have experience with third-party batteries with my Rebel XTi (NB-2LH). I use a brand called "Ultralast" and they are far superior to Canon's  batteries and ONE-THIRD the price. Canon's version is rated at 720 mAH, and the Ultralast is 950 mAH. While many battery manufacturers' juice ratings are suspect, these ones deliver.

I tried at my local camera shop first, and they offered Optex's version, which the camera shop guy said lots of them had trouble with because they crapped out after a few months. I can't vouch for that, but they were only one-third less than the OEM Canon batteries, which is too expensive when you can get two for that price (or three for the price of one Canon). I go to a dedicated battery store for all of my batteries. (You can do as well with cell phone batteries: 50-65% LESS, better performance.

Anyone who ignores third-party batteries is cheating themselves out of money and performance.

[Murray Fredericks]

Anyone who ignores third-party batteries is cheating themselves out of money and performance.

Yes,

the reason I posted this query was that I have been using a 40d for timelapse work where I have had to solder banks of canon batteries together for all night shooting. I was using 'non-genuine' batteries which cost about$7 each as opposed to the $70 price tag for the canon natives. The batteries lasted longer and I never had a problem with 80 of them all up!

I hope the 'cheap' 5D2 batteries appear soon!

Murray

[DavidP]

I was thinking about this myself, With my old 5D I was using the batteries from Sterling Tek which seemed at least as good at the canon ones and worked with the canon charger.
But with the new 5D2 it seems like they have some circuitry in them to show battery info in the camera, this is nice and also may make it harder to make aftermarket ones.
So I am seeing some batteries on ebay for the MK2 but they have to be charged with a different charger and there are some funny things about the function of them in the camera, mainly there is not info about the batteries showing up in the camera windows and they cause an error message that I guess can be ignored. Personally I think I will stick with the Canon batteries for this camera.

[JDClements]

I talked to Total Battery in Ontario, and they say it is too new for after-market batteries. However, I sent along the product number, and they are checking it out a little closer.

I am sure after-market batteries with all the features (i.e. works with the info screen) will appear sometime, but it may be a bit of a wait. It appears that the 5D MkII is the only camera (so far) to use the LP-E6 battery.

[BJNY]

Is there a charger that will work with both 5DII & G10 batteries?