DeanS Loc: Capital City area of North Carolina

Again, in nearly 30 years of digital shooting, using proprietary and generic batteries, in a host of bodies sold by Olympus, Nikon, Pentax, Leica, and Canon, I have yet to suffer a failure due to battery damage. When this occurs, I will reconsider my choice of power supply.

joer Loc: Colorado/Illinois

Realize OEM camera manufacturers are not experts in battery chemistry so they rely on specialist for their expertise. Yes some OEM's have proprietary features added which have to do with furthering their band not battery constituents or performance. What incentive would cause a battery manufacture to provide a product superior to their own, even if they could.

Yes there may be variation between/in brands just as in all things, but the belief that the OEM's brand is superior is just a myth to get as much money from you as they can.

My entry into the digital camera era was the release of the Olympus D-500L. I have had more digital cameras of different brands over the years than I want to remember. Bought 3rd party batteries as replacement most of the time. Yes I've had some duds along the way but overall I have been well satisfied and saved some cash.

And during all that time only one camera failed...it was not related...recalled and repaired free of charge.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Did it occur to you that Canon might have programmed that message about third party batteries just to scare you into using only their batteries?
A few years back Canon and others had some cameras programmed to not work at all with third party batteries (chips in the OEM batteries were part of it) but they dropped that after Wasabi and others reverse engineered the chips and put chips in their batteries. So now some cameras tell you that the third party battery "MAY" not meet specs.* Thanks to their chips my Wasabi batteries are accepted with no messages etc. The camera cannot tell they are not OEM.

*Even the OEM batteries start to vary and may not perfectly meet specs after they get old.

juan_uy Loc: Uruguay

I think there are two different related topics being mixed.
One thing is if using third party batteries is "safe" or not, and other if ANY third party battery is "safe" or note.
I have always used third party batteries with my cameras, but as stated before I only buy certain brands that have some trust from the general public, good reviews, and now also good personal experiences for me.
Wasabi and RavPower are 100% trustable for me :)

I would never buy/use a third party battery of a brand I have never heard of and has 4 reviews in amazon.com

chrissybabe Loc: New Zealand

I hope all you people that insist on OEM batteries in your cameras also insist on using the recommended battery in your car plus always using the recommended oil brands and filters and wiper blades and will never allow any 3rd party components to be used ? Because it is exactly the same thing except the car cost a lot more than your camera.
And it is best to always stick with the recommended washing liquid to protect your washing machine and only use Everyready or Duracell batteries in your torches ?
etc. It is called FUD.
And I bet you probably own a Mac since they won't let you repair it when it fails.
If I ever come across a camera, or a powertool, that will only let me use that manfs battery then that device is history.

DeanS Loc: Capital City area of North Carolina

Bravo!!!

MDI Mainer

I have for several years now used three separate types of Kastar batteries (all purchased from Amazon) in my Sony SLRs, SLTs, and a6X00 bodies, and have found that they are indistinguishable from the original Sony batteries that came with the cameras.

RPaul3rd Loc: Arlington VA and Sarasota FL

I too have ordered batteries from Amazon (with their name on them) and can't tell the difference. Of course these are AAA and AA batteries. And there's no guarantee that OEM batteries won't vaporize my camera either. Old schoolish - what a word - but I'm a little timid in making the switch. Maybe i'll give Kastar a try. Thanks for the comment.