Cheap Chinese camera batteries

[MikeK]

This is not a typical review, of a device, but rather an brief analysis of some digital camera batteries that I recently purchased from Amazon.  Although the batteries don't say it, the boxes they came in were marked "made in China".

I got my constant current dummy load working and controlled via a PIC.  All batteries were charged by the same charger under the same conditions and discharged with the same dummy load under the same conditions.  The 88mA just happened to be the current load for the first battery, so I kept the rest the same.

The new batteries have a rated capacity of 1200mAh, but all of them tested under 500mAh at the test current of 88mA.  The comparison battery was the original Canon (made in Japan) battery that came with the camera.  It has a rated capacity of 760mAh.  It is old and has seen much use, and it still did better (~650mAh) than the new Chinese batteries!

Surely, if the original battery is 760mAh and you see ones for sale marked 1200mAh either some revolutionary development has taken place (unlikely) or the 1200mAh claim is fraudulent.  Are they worth the $6 I paid?  I would say no.  It is not of much value to be constantly charging crappy batteries, but who wouldn't be tempted by the deal?

[Psi]

Surely, if the original battery is 760mAh and you see ones for sale marked 1200mAh either some revolutionary development has taken place (unlikely) or the 1200mAh claim is fraudulent.

hehe yeah, most of the time that's a good rule to follow.

Though sometimes companies sell their products with battery packs that have empty space inside, so they can market an extended battery later.
In those cases the china batteries sometimes do have more capacity than the original as they can fill all the room available.

And on rare occasions, the official company decides not to market the extended battery at all.

[westfw]

And is the official and original canon battery worth $100?
http://shop.usa.canon.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_10051_10051_202319_-1

I've also had bad luck with no-name batteries, but much better luck with "brand name" non-OEM batteries ("lenmar", for example.)

[T4P]

I've had better luck with no-name china ones, but yeah, they are crap
Mine got bloated in a year and the ratings is very odd because it's half the original voltage
( It's 1S, the original is 2S )

[Pat Pending]

How did the weight of the cheap NB-4L compare to the original?

I bought an LP-E5 (Not the NB-4L as is the case here) from eBay.
As advertised, it claimed twice the mAh of the stock Cannon battery, yet weighed a few grams lighter - Hmm.
It was warm to hold and bulged a bit after charging but fitted the camera Ok, however it would not slide out freely until it had cooled.
Shot wise it lasted for 280 snaps which was similar to the original.

[MikeK]

And is the official and original canon battery worth $100?

That's going through Canon.  You can buy Canon (made in Japan) batteries on eBay and Amazon for $10-$15 each.

How did the weight of the cheap NB-4L compare to the original?

I didn't think to weigh them until you brought it up.
Original: 17g
#1: 15g
#2: 16g
#3: 15g

The Chinese do cut corners every place they can, so it's possible there is less electrolyte inside.  But I wouldn't think it was enough to account for the big difference in performance, doing much worse than an old Japanese battery.

[SeanB]

Was looking at old printer cartridges today, and comparing the standard and xl ones, along with the regular and starter cartridges. The starter and standard ones have less than 1/4 of the fill of the xk and regular ones, some are 10% of the fill. They are not that much cheaper though, being possible 20% lower in cost.

Thank goodness I have all that I can refilled, every time at less than half the price of a new one. Often the refill lasts longer, has better print quality and denser print. Some have been refilled 15-20 times already, and are going strong. Of course you have to buy a printer that is refillable, but the printer cost is the lowest cost in the lifetime cost.

[G7PSK]

I bought a replacement LI/Ion battery for my Nikon camera that was made by or marketed by Duracell it failed to work in just over a year very suddenly. So I took it apart and found that one of the metal links inside had broken in two, so cleanly it looked like a cut, I soldered it up and charged it and it woks as well as when first purchased, I wonder how it was that the link should break in such a manner that it looked like it had been diagonally cut in two unless the link had been scored in that fashion by the manufacturers so that it would fail in time.

[T4P]

Was looking at old printer cartridges today, and comparing the standard and xl ones, along with the regular and starter cartridges. The starter and standard ones have less than 1/4 of the fill of the xk and regular ones, some are 10% of the fill. They are not that much cheaper though, being possible 20% lower in cost.

Thank goodness I have all that I can refilled, every time at less than half the price of a new one. Often the refill lasts longer, has better print quality and denser print. Some have been refilled 15-20 times already, and are going strong. Of course you have to buy a printer that is refillable, but the printer cost is the lowest cost in the lifetime cost.

It gave me some thought why epson would have the same cartridge for their LED printers (CX17NF in my case, the cartridge is really tiny)
Standard : 700 Extended : 2100 ...
Now i know why they only sell extended

I bought a replacement LI/Ion battery for my Nikon camera that was made by or marketed by Duracell it failed to work in just over a year very suddenly. So I took it apart and found that one of the metal links inside had broken in two, so cleanly it looked like a cut, I soldered it up and charged it and it woks as well as when first purchased, I wonder how it was that the link should break in such a manner that it looked like it had been diagonally cut in two unless the link had been scored in that fashion by the manufacturers so that it would fail in time.

Planned Obsolescence
In practice duracell's is always a POS

[amyk]

I bought a replacement LI/Ion battery for my Nikon camera that was made by or marketed by Duracell it failed to work in just over a year very suddenly. So I took it apart and found that one of the metal links inside had broken in two, so cleanly it looked like a cut, I soldered it up and charged it and it woks as well as when first purchased, I wonder how it was that the link should break in such a manner that it looked like it had been diagonally cut in two unless the link had been scored in that fashion by the manufacturers so that it would fail in time.

It might be a fuse to protect against short circuits.

But looking at the volume of the battery and typical energy densities of LiPo, ~500mAh for that seems average. The original battery may have been one of the highest densities available. You may want to try (carefully!) opening one to see if there's a capacity stamped on the cell inside, and/or what size the cell actually is (might be an 053040 like this: http://www.xl-battery.com/En/Product_show.asp?id=838, some manufacturers call that a 503040 instead).

[Pat Pending]

When charging the original Canon battery, the charger starts out with a red led light and then some time later, when fully charged, displays a green light for charge complete.

The cheap Chinese battery clone starts out with a red light, but then, after a time, all led lights go out and no green light is ever displayed although the battery does function as if fully charged.

Whats going on?

[MikeK]

You might want to start your own thread, as this one is about something else and your expected replies might get lost.

[amyk]

When charging the original Canon battery, the charger starts out with a red led light and then some time later, when fully charged, displays a green light for charge complete.

The cheap Chinese battery clone starts out with a red light, but then, after a time, all led lights go out and no green light is ever displayed although the battery does function as if fully charged.

Whats going on?

Two possible cases I can think of:

1. The capacity is much lower than the original, so the battery fills up unusually quickly and the charger thinks its a fault condition.

2. The capacity is much higher than the original, so it trips the safety timer before becoming completely full.

The time it takes compared to the original battery (both starting from completely discharged state) will give you an idea which one it is.

[Achilles]

Well, with Canon Batteries I had Luck. I bought several BP511 on amazon (Chinese ones) and they worked very well compared to the original. They may last slightly less, but I never really recognized that during my use. They still work fine, but my camera which uses them is lent on long term
With my Nikon I bought one chinese one and it failed after two charges. I used it once on a MTB-Race and it lasted as long as my old used Nikon Orig.
Then I recharged it and stored it in my camera bag as a spare (was fully charged). About two months later I checked it as I wanted to take it with me on a central america trip. The voltage was about 1.5V (spec. would be 11,1V).
So that one was really junk and pissed me off a bit.

[Fallingwater]

Surely, if the original battery is 760mAh and you see ones for sale marked 1200mAh either some revolutionary development has taken place (unlikely) or the 1200mAh claim is fraudulent.

This is commonplace in the world of Chinese gadgets and gear. It's so widespread that sites like dealextreme, who occasionally sell cells marked with unrealistically high ratings, sometimes test them and add the real rating to the product page. Typically for cheap 18650 cells rated at 3000 to 3500mAh you really get 2000 to 2200. Is it worth it? Well, if you pay for the "3Ah" cells what you'd expect to pay for 2.2Ah ones, yes. If you're paying more expecting higher capacity, then you have the right to feel swindled (the first time).

Camera packs are no different, but because their current delivery is so low a low-quality pack can keep you shooting for a while. As for laptop packs, I personally prefer to order bare 18650s (some of the cheap Chinese ones are surprisingly good) and re-cell them manually rather than buy whole packs filled with questionable cells.

Lastly, buying a "brand name" pack on eBay is no guarantee of quality; Chinese fakers have gotten better lately, and it's perfectly possible to buy properly packaged, properly stickered "Canon" batteries (or what have you) that have cheap guts in them.