Off brand batteries for Canon 77d
Nov 20, 2018 11:56:51 #
larryepage
Loc: North Texas area
There have been some other discussions of this topic, mostly for other camera brands.
In summary...each factory that manufactures batteries designs and builds them to provide similar performance to the originals. Manufacturers generally will not provide their internal specifications to other manufacturers, and if they provide specs to an outside "foundry" to make their own branded batteries, there are generally prohibitions against using those specs to make third party products. I worked for a lot of years for a company that made generic or "store brand" alternatives to products made by nationally recognizable companies. They considered us competitors, and provided no information to us. If it appeared that our version of the products was too much like theirs, we would hear from them, and not in a nice way.
The bottom line here is that you should probably not expect the world to end if you put a third party battery in your camera. (This is not necessarily true if you buy one of those ridiculously low priced batteries that you know in your heart is just too good to be true.) But as I have said in another discussion, you also have absolutely no reason to believe that a third party battery is going to perform exactly the same as a branded battery would (or as a different third party battery would). There are going to be differences between and among different batteries. Some of those differences will not be apparent until you try them. I will tell you that one way to be able to make a battery a little cheaper is to use less pure materials to make the electrolyte in the cells. That will generally lead to faster discharge when the battery is stored between uses, and it may lead to more performance degradation under temperature extremes. You can't know until you try.
I suspect that the situation described above where batteries are prohibited by programming in the internal control chip may become more common. Spare and replacement batteries represent very profitable business for the camera manufacturers...much more profitable than the cameras themselves. It is not surprising that the manufacturers may try to take steps to protect that business. We may not like it, but if they do, our options are limited. There is a huge amount of energy stored in modern lithium ion batteries. It is easy for companies to make a claim (at least mostly true) that using an uncontrolled rteplacement battery presents a safety risk to the user.
In summary...each factory that manufactures batteries designs and builds them to provide similar performance to the originals. Manufacturers generally will not provide their internal specifications to other manufacturers, and if they provide specs to an outside "foundry" to make their own branded batteries, there are generally prohibitions against using those specs to make third party products. I worked for a lot of years for a company that made generic or "store brand" alternatives to products made by nationally recognizable companies. They considered us competitors, and provided no information to us. If it appeared that our version of the products was too much like theirs, we would hear from them, and not in a nice way.
The bottom line here is that you should probably not expect the world to end if you put a third party battery in your camera. (This is not necessarily true if you buy one of those ridiculously low priced batteries that you know in your heart is just too good to be true.) But as I have said in another discussion, you also have absolutely no reason to believe that a third party battery is going to perform exactly the same as a branded battery would (or as a different third party battery would). There are going to be differences between and among different batteries. Some of those differences will not be apparent until you try them. I will tell you that one way to be able to make a battery a little cheaper is to use less pure materials to make the electrolyte in the cells. That will generally lead to faster discharge when the battery is stored between uses, and it may lead to more performance degradation under temperature extremes. You can't know until you try.
I suspect that the situation described above where batteries are prohibited by programming in the internal control chip may become more common. Spare and replacement batteries represent very profitable business for the camera manufacturers...much more profitable than the cameras themselves. It is not surprising that the manufacturers may try to take steps to protect that business. We may not like it, but if they do, our options are limited. There is a huge amount of energy stored in modern lithium ion batteries. It is easy for companies to make a claim (at least mostly true) that using an uncontrolled rteplacement battery presents a safety risk to the user.
Nov 20, 2018 12:28:03 #
billnikon wrote:
GEE, let's see, you spend thousands on name brand camera's and you want to put a CHEAP battery in it.
Nov 20, 2018 12:33:43 #
graybeard wrote:
I recently (today) purchased a Canon 77d and 64gb ... (show quote)
I'm sure many here will tell you that 3rd party batteries have worked fine for them with no problems whatsover for many years, and thats fine and dandy for them. Id it works, great. For me, I spent $3000.00 when I bought my camera, and when I bought extra batteries for it, I bought Nikon batteries. I just felt using OEM batteries was the best way to go to power up my and run my camera... why cheap out over maybe saving $25 after laying out $3000.00 for a camera.
Just my 2ยข.
Nov 20, 2018 13:08:26 #
B & H introduced me to Watson batteries for my Canon cameras. I have used both Canon OEM batteries and Watson. The Watson, for me, have outlasted the Canon OEM batteries. The Watson batteries charge just fine in the Canon chargers. Otherwise, there are tons of severe problems and camera damage caused by other after market batteries!
Nov 20, 2018 15:07:59 #
For me it is worth spending more to know I have the correct battery and get the correct readout on the camera.
I did purchase a battery for my 80D on eBay for about half of the retail cost after being assured it was a genuine Canon product. Figured I would roll the dice. Sure enough it is genuine and I cannot tell the difference from the battery I bought at Best Buy for full retail or the one that came with the camera.
As for eBay I think if one is careful to deal with sellers with a good track record and good feedback ratings we can save money.
I did purchase a battery for my 80D on eBay for about half of the retail cost after being assured it was a genuine Canon product. Figured I would roll the dice. Sure enough it is genuine and I cannot tell the difference from the battery I bought at Best Buy for full retail or the one that came with the camera.
As for eBay I think if one is careful to deal with sellers with a good track record and good feedback ratings we can save money.
Nov 20, 2018 17:11:54 #
sb wrote:
I have never had a problem charging off-brand batteries in a Canon charger and have never had an off-brand battery not inidcate remaining charge in the display.
Ah, but do you use LP-E17 batteries? I understand this is a practice just started by Canon, and thus would not apply to older cameras and batteries. I think it is petty and I will not let them manipulate me into paying $50 plus for a battery!! I don't even have my 77D yet, and already it is doing something I don't like !!
Nov 28, 2018 14:40:24 #
I just had to replace a Vivitar battery that I had for 6 years. It started to not hold a charge. But I had 6 years of good performance.
I purchased a Wasabi as a replacement. we will see how that one holds up.
I purchased a Wasabi as a replacement. we will see how that one holds up.
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