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Off-Brand Batteries
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May 14, 2019 12:04:10   #
Hassie Loc: Central Pennsylvania
 
I recently purchased a 5DMkIII which uses the same battery as my 60D, the LP-E6.
I ordered a battery charger to use in the car and it came with two batteries branded Vanon.
Has anyone used these in the past and should I jeopardize my camera with these unknown brands?
Thanks for any input.

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May 14, 2019 12:19:14   #
sloscheider Loc: Minnesota
 
I’m not familiar with Vanon but of the 8 batteries I have, roughly half are generic brands and they all work about the same. If there’s a functional difference I can’t tell.

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May 14, 2019 12:19:30   #
N97972 Loc: Chelan County, Washington
 
Hassie wrote:
I recently purchased a 5DMkIII which uses the same battery as my 60D, the LP-E6.
I ordered a battery charger to use in the car and it came with two batteries branded Vanon.
Has anyone used these in the past and should I jeopardize my camera with these unknown brands?
Thanks for any input.


Might be wise to do some google searches on Vanon. I just did, however I didn't find any easily found references to any camera batteries. I did pick up that they were "middle of the road" on their product.

Pete Karp
Cashmere, WA

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May 14, 2019 12:23:19   #
dick ranez
 
Quick test - go to the battery menu and it will show you the charge level, shutter actuations for that battery this use. If the battery won't communicate with the camera, I'd be cautious.

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May 14, 2019 12:29:43   #
marine73 Loc: Modesto California
 
You will find many opinions about third party batteries on this site. This subject seems to come up every couple of months. Do a search for the brand and read the reviews. Here is the link to there web site
https://www.vanonbatteries.com/pages/about-us-vanonbatteries, copy and paste in your browser. They are a new company out of Plainsfield Il started in 2015 if I am here remember correctly. I am here would use them. Wish I am here had known about them before extra batteries from Adaroma (sp)

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May 14, 2019 12:31:47   #
speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho
 
Hassie wrote:
I recently purchased a 5DMkIII which uses the same battery as my 60D, the LP-E6.
I ordered a battery charger to use in the car and it came with two batteries branded Vanon.
Has anyone used these in the past and should I jeopardize my camera with these unknown brands?
Thanks for any input.


Although I myself never used 3rd party batteries, there are many folks that use them and are happy with their performance. I think the Wasabi "brand" is liked among those, but I have never heard about Vanon. I use the same kind of battery, the LP-E6 and I have close to 20 of them, could never get myself to take the risk!

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May 14, 2019 12:41:27   #
Hassie Loc: Central Pennsylvania
 
dick ranez wrote:
Quick test - go to the battery menu and it will show you the charge level, shutter actuations for that battery this use. If the battery won't communicate with the camera, I'd be cautious.


I did put one of the batteries in my 60D and it looks like the same info I get with the Canon's.
I guess I'll just try it for a week and see what I can learn.

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May 14, 2019 14:15:51   #
robertjerl Loc: Corona, California
 
There are several good brands of third party batteries. I had never heard of Vanon. Articles I just googled seem to rate Vanon as good but not great. They are better known for batteries for power tools.
But that said, there are only a few companies that make high quality battery cores and all the other brands buy those, package them in their casings and brand them with their names. Kind of like not so long ago in spite of all the brand names on the shelves 90% of all aspirin in the US were made in one of Bayer's plants.
One site I looked at seemed to suspect Vanon used Samsung cores??????? Samsung is one of the good brands, not the top, but good.
I use Wasabi and they state that they use Japanese made cores. As far as I know the plants in Japan that make cores are in the top tier. The Wasabi Power brand has a good reputation. I own 8 of them for use in my 5DIV, 7DII and 80D (also used them in my 6D when I owned one). I also have 7 Canon batteries that came with cameras when I bought them. All three of my bodies use the same LP-E6 or LP-E6N battery as you use. I have never had any problems other than that my oldest Wasabi batteries don't have the chip to allow use with a Canon charger so I keep both Canon and Wasabi chargers, if necessary I can charge 7 batteries at once.

Reviews of third party camera batteries I have read almost always conclude that the better brands will not harm electronics, but some don't last at long or produce consistent power. But because they are so much cheaper they are still good bargains. Several years ago Consumer Reports rated Costco's Kirkland batteries as Best Buys because though they only lasted 60-75% as long as the name brands, they cost 1/3 to 1/2 what the name brands cost. Two Kirkland batteries cost the same as Brand X but between them lasted 150% as long.

Just make sure you get your batteries from a trusted retailer who will back them up. Really crappy counterfeit batteries (mostly made in China) marked as both name brands and third party have done damage to electronics, mostly by leaking while in use.

Good third party batteries can save money without risk. At least Vanon is a US Brand with headquarters in the US and thus subject to US consumer protection laws.

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May 14, 2019 14:39:13   #
juan_uy Loc: Uruguay
 
I have used and still use several third party brand batteries. Honestly the only original batteries that I have/had are/were the ones that came with the camera.

I have used Wasabi (for two different cameras) with great success in the past. I never tested battery life, but worst case I would say they were identical or over 95%.
I had a Vivitar one (EN-EL14) that came included in purchase and that one was good, but lasted like 60 to 70% of the original one.

My last purchase were RavPower ones, because they had good reviews and I trust the brand for other products (portable battery/chargers for electronics)

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May 14, 2019 17:04:23   #
toxdoc42
 
My local camera store, yes I do try to buy locally whenever possible, sold me A third party battery for my Nikon D3400. When I tried to use it, the camera said it wasn't the right battery.

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May 15, 2019 06:08:27   #
chrissybabe Loc: New Zealand
 
I have always been reasonably OK with 3rd party batteries. After this experience I might have to rethink my whole battery philosophy.
My wifes bike light battery (1 of them anyway) wasn't working. Turned out to be a broken cable inside the housing which was my fault. Anyway I decided to rebuild the battery because it had already been rebuilt once by me and I can now do a much better job. The 4 cells used for the first rebuild had been purchased about 2 years ago from our local auction site, Trademe, and when I received them they passed the weight test and seemed to have a reasonable capacity. When I rebuild cells I replace the outer heat shrink tubing as part of the process so I stripped it off one of the cells. I found a 2nd sleeve under the first. The outer sleeve claimed 3000mAh but the inner sleeve showed the cell was only rated 2000mAh. This is outright dishonesty and theft. If I remembered who I purchased them from I would go back there. This has almost certainly been done in a Chinese factory.



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May 15, 2019 06:54:23   #
johnst1001a Loc: West Chester, Ohio
 
i have been have issues for a while, seems they wont hold a charge. i would check the battery performance screen on my camera, some read ok, others not. i then looked at the batteries and found some were OEM, some third party but there was no apparent correlation between life and manufacturer.

Then my charger quit working. I bought a new OEM one and when i put the batteries in the charger they all showed a low charge but charge up completely based on the LED charge indicator, so hopefully the charger was failing to charge the batteries well enough.

In reading about the charger I bought, it the literature provided, it said do not use with non-OEM batteries. Well I guess I don't know why, 7.2 volts is 7.2 volts right? I am now going to test the voltage of the battery at full charge with the new charger and do this occasionally to make sure the battery is charged right. It should show over time that either the charger is bad or the battery is bad. I guess this is what the in camera performance screen does,

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May 15, 2019 06:54:34   #
johnst1001a Loc: West Chester, Ohio
 
i have been have issues for a while, seems they wont hold a charge. i would check the battery performance screen on my camera, some read ok, others not. i then looked at the batteries and found some were OEM, some third party but there was no apparent correlation between life and manufacturer.

Then my charger quit working. I bought a new OEM one and when i put the batteries in the charger they all showed a low charge but charge up completely based on the LED charge indicator, so hopefully the charger was failing to charge the batteries well enough.

In reading about the charger I bought, it the literature provided, it said do not use with non-OEM batteries. Well I guess I don't know why, 7.2 volts is 7.2 volts right? I am now going to test the voltage of the battery at full charge with the new charger and do this occasionally to make sure the battery is charged right. It should show over time that either the charger is bad or the battery is bad. I guess this is what the in camera performance screen does,

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May 15, 2019 06:54:57   #
mas24 Loc: Southern CA
 
China does lie about the MaH rates on some of their aftermarket batteries. This includes cell phone batteries. This is to impress the potential buyer. Thinking you are getting a higher MaH rate than the OEM batteries. I buy only Watson and Nikon batteries. However, I have read praise for Wasabi batteries in past months, on this forum. But, I don't own any. The price of any OEM battery will always be priced higher than the aftermarket ones. While you may not get as many charges from the aftermarket, as you would the OEM. The savings can still be worth it. Sooner or later, after excessive chargings, a battery will not be able to hold a charge. That's when it is time to replace them.

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May 15, 2019 06:59:25   #
OnDSnap Loc: NE New Jersey
 
Amazing how one can spend Hundreds if not Thousands on a camera body only to skimp on batteries. Sorry I just don't see the logic.

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