Li-ion Camera Batteries - High Quality!!!

DickRasmussen · **Posted:** Mon Sep 23, 2013 10:08 pm

What is a good source of high quality Canon NB-6L size/capacity Li-ion batteries? I don't want junk/counterfeits, etc. and would rather pay more for better quality but Canon wants almost $60 each for theirs . . . plus shipping assuming no one in Raleigh stocks them. Only need 1 or maybe 2 at this time as backups for the one that came with the camera.

The problem is determining which, if any, of the sub $10 to roughly $20 - $30 are actually any good.

Thanks!

JamesShort · **Posted:** Mon Sep 23, 2013 10:42 pm

Why would you not just buy the cheap ones you can find on amazon/newegg? My cheapies for my wife's DSLR (like $8 each) have lasted longer than Canon's $90 battery to add insult to injury. Anyway, I find that generic batteries cost usually 1/7-1/5th the cost of the new ones so you can buy 2-3 of them (still at a large discount relative to a single OEM battery) and even if one is a complete flop, statistics are on your side that the other 1-2 will be just as good as the OEM for still a significant bargain (assuming we're comparing equal voltage and mAh rating). If you start ripping stickers of your OEM Canon battery, you can probably figure out the sweatshop in China where the Canon one is made

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It's like BMW wants $1200 for the dual mass flywheel for my E46 and it says LUK on it and I can get the LUK branded one for like $500

.

DickRasmussen · **Posted:** Tue Sep 24, 2013 9:06 am

James -

Good to hear that you've had good performance from the "cheap" batteries and no problems either!

My "problem" is that I'm a retired product safety engineer (30 years at UL and 6 in industry) and I "know too much but not quite enough" about the fire hazard potential of Li-ion rechargeable batteries. Bottom line is that they need proper manufacturing and safety circuits and the really cheap ones may not have one or both. Remember these things will be sitting unattended at home, in cars, or in a charger a most of the time.

I want to find a brand and large retailer/seller who actually have some skin in the game so they are likely to screen their suppliers to some degree. The Lenmar brand which Newegg and others sell is looking like a good option at this point AND the batteries are currently about $15 with free shipping. Plus they match the Cannon 1000mAh rating.

Thanks!

JamesShort · **Posted:** Tue Sep 24, 2013 9:42 am

Quote:

My "problem" is that I'm a retired product safety engineer (30 years at UL and 6 in industry) and I "know too much but not quite enough" about the fire hazard potential of Li-ion rechargeable batteries. Bottom line is that they need proper manufacturing and safety circuits and the really cheap ones may not have one or both. Remember these things will be sitting unattended at home, in cars, or in a charger a most of the time.

I understand your point but my question is how do you know that even the $$$$$ Canon/Nikon batteries are even vetted? How do we know if they are just garbage with a Canon/Nikon sticker on them? We don't, that's my point. It's all a crap shoot.

FWIW, I bought CS Power batteries at newegg for my 50D and all 3 are still working 4 years later. The OEM Canon will make the OEM charger seem like it is charged from full drain to full charge in 2-3 minutes, which is clearly wrong, but it sort of charges if you keep it in the charger for about 2 hours (which is the full charge time for the CS Power batteries and the Canon back when it was brand new).

DickRasmussen · **Posted:** Tue Sep 24, 2013 10:43 am

James - You really don't know what/who made the "name brand" Canon or whomever or the extremely low price "others" and whether it was decent quality. Especially if there is no third party inspection mark like UL, ETL, etc. who do factory inspections regularly. The CE mark does not mean there was factory inspection by the way. All you can really hope for is that the bigger guys have enough to lose and enough profit margin in the sale price to do a pretty decent job of making sure the product is something they want their name on. Little or no quality control is likely in the extremely low price batteries so you may have been very lucky!

I ended up buying 2 Lenmar 1000mAh rated NB-6L replacements from Newegg for $15 each ($5.00 instant savings) including shipping. Seemed like a reasonable gamble/trade-off since the Canon's clearly are "over priced" to the extent that it seems like Canon really doesn't even want to try to be in the battery replacement market but "feel" like they should offer them and make sure the margin is really high to cover costs and to discourage sales. Obviously there isn't $60 battery "cost" to Canon in the Powershot SX280 HS we just bought on sale from Bestbuy (online price match at the store) for $269 including tax. :lol:

Thanks!

JamesShort · **Posted:** Tue Sep 24, 2013 11:08 am

I mean people thought the electronic components in Apple products like the iPhone and iPad were ordained with the tears of Jesus.......until it broke that those tears were actually from 7 year old Chinese children earning a few dimes a day.

I just think that the global electronics market has found that a degree of mediocrity in exchange for lightening fast and large volume manufacturing is worth the 1 in 10000 or 1 in 100000 people that will get a dud (a really bad dud...say battery that charges once and never again) and get really pissed off and tell 2-4 people and you might lose those 3-5 people as customers for life (until the brand changes and they buy a 'new' battery made in the same mfg. plant with the same practices).

Yes I'm very cynical about this topic

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Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Tue Sep 24, 2013 11:20 am

JamesShort wrote:

I mean people thought the electronic components in Apple products like the iPhone and iPad were ordained with the tears of Jesus.......until it broke that those tears were actually from 7 year old Chinese children earning a few dimes a day.

That is epic, and so true. The fanboi in the Apple crowd runs deep...REALLY deep.

Andrew Jonell · **Joined:** Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:43 pm **Posts:** 1350

I would expect the battery business to be much like the rest of the electronics business: Gets designed in the US, Korea, or Japan, gets built in a few select manufacturers in Korea, Japan, or more likely China. Examples: anything electronic ever. Less sarcastically: monitors, processors, individual electronic components, batteries.

Batteries fall more under manufacturing than the foundry business, but I would be surprised to not see a massive conglomerate or three as the basis of most battery manufacturing.

DickRasmussen · **Posted:** Tue Sep 24, 2013 7:21 pm

Andrew Jonell wrote:

Batteries fall more under manufacturing than the foundry business, but I would be surprised to not see a massive conglomerate or three as the basis of most battery manufacturing.

Maybe. Maybe not. I just checked the online UL certification directory for the basic components for Lithium batteries. About 278 separate companies and it appears from a few random checks a very large percentage of those companies have gone to the expense to obtain UL Recognition and pay the annual inspection fee for rechargeable Li-ion. Jason as a current UL employee can look to see if there are a lot of separate manufacturing locations or if the hundreds of companies with certification use common manufacturers and therefore only have to pay "paperwork" type fees to UL rather than testing and inspection fees.

Dick

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