Aftermarket Battery Life

Hey All,

I have a 7d2 with a Canon battery grip, and have always used the off brand batteries. They're going on 3 years old now, and while I used to get 700-800 shots from each battery now I'm only getting about 100 before they're dead, however they say 3 bars for recharge performance. Anyone ever have this experience with the off brand batteries?

 

Thanks!

Russell

I have Nikon, not Canon, but have Wasabi Batteries, oldest just 3 years old and still going as strong as the OEM. A couple of other after market batteries haven't fared as well, so I stick to Wasabi. Their chargers are great as well, small, fast with U.S., Car, and European adapters, and also a red light / green light indicator for charge completion.

I get good mileage with generic non-Canon batteries

No battery will last forever. What counts more than years of age is number of charge/discharge cycles. I have used 3rd-party batteries in my 300D, 30D, 50D, 7D, and now my G7X. All have worked well and lasted every bit as long as the Canon-brand ones. Get more than one spare battery and rotate them. But 3 years is a good lifetime for a battery.

Aging of a rechargeable battery means it's capacity will drop. And yes, it will signal being entirely full when it holds as much as it can hold.

There are various ways to kill a battery. - One is to not use it. I have a Pentax K20D the original battery seems doing OK; 2 generic spares bought on the side are completely dead. The original batteries in 3 more bodies of that kind seem doing OK too; the oldest of them is a 10 year old K10D. - FTR: I did not do excessive testing if these batteries hold 400 or more shots. I just keep using these cameras and recharge when I see a need like major event tomorrow or them signaling the battery being low. - I simply know these batteries are at least big enough for my shooting style.

With smaller ones like in CCD Leicas I am a bit harder pressed; 1 have 3 batteries for 2 bodies one of them generic and each of them gets me through a shift at work when fully charged; 200+x shots with a fair bit of chimping.

I fear there are bad generic batteries floating around. I worry even more about overspending on unneeded spare batteries again. I did not feel the urge to get a 3rd battery for my 2 Fujis yet. I did deplete one during an event by leaving that camera on all the time but in general I don't shoot enough with them to justify having another battery. For Canon I made the mistake and believed into their CIPA rating "900 shots" and bought a 2nd battery for the 5D IV. So far I took 2800 shots and still have "half full" in my display.

If your camera got as much use as an average cell phone, 3 years battery life seem quite fair. If you are shooting rather occasionally its maybe smart to buy a different brand next.

Another issue: Ideal living conditions for a lithium battery don't mean depleting it every cycle. - Every 10th seems more ideal. - Best use would be to use it just between 80 & 30% of it's capacity.

Batteries, at least after market, are not particularly expensive I have 2 plus the one in the camera for each modern camera and extras on the shelf for my film cameras. Though I have a regular routine of recharging at the end of a day of shooting, it is a joy to simply change batteries as needed. Life is short!

Thanks for the thoughts everyone. For clarity, what I'm seeing is the "recharge capacity" indicator - when you into the menu and choose Battery Info, it's the 3 icons below the battery percentage. When using Canon batteries, I have had batteries at 1 indicator that could still get at least 200 shots out of them. (With lens IS turned off, hotshoe flash.)

 

I shoot pretty regularly (from a few times a month to a 4-5 days a week - mainly sports, but a lot of events and festivals), and generally try to recharge around 25%. The fact these offbrand batteries are still showing the highest potential is what's confusing me... I'm not sure if it's an aftermarket thing where they just don't tell you, which would be logical.

Some third party batteries are better than others, I have bought third party two battery packs and gotten a new bad one out of the blister pack . I prefer original Canon, never had a bad one. I have had some third party batteries that have lasted and some that lost battery life within a year. Perhaps the quality of some are not as good as others. I have accumulated a good many batteries over the years having the 7D, 6D and 5D Mark IV, probably around 6 or 7 batteries in my bag now. I retired a third party that would not charge after two years, but I have some older Canon batteries that are hanging in there. I usually always have two batteries if I am out and about shooting and if I am doing serious shooting for a wedding, I have all the batteries with me. Just get extra batteries and don't worry about it. Third party batteries are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you will get. lol.

I've put over 100,000 cumulative clicks on several Canon batteries with no apparent deterioration. That's usually over two to three years, then I sell the body with those batteries.

 

Be careful with off-brand batteries. They are potential lithium fire bombs. I'd stick with brands like Duracell if I felt compelled to buy something other than Canon. It's a small price to pay to not burn your house down, or start a fire in your camera bag.

Yup, I guess, but not real likely if you store properly to prevent shorting. I secure the safety caps with strong rubberbands. -- 10 years & counting. I do buy strictly Wasabi Brand.

Yup, I guess, but not real likely if you store properly to prevent shorting. I secure the safety caps with strong rubberbands. -- 10 years & counting. I do buy strictly Wasabi Brand.

 

Yes, so save and use those orange contact guards that come with the Canon brand. Also, beware off-brand chargers, that may not have the overheating detection chips of the Canon brand. That's the most likely time to burn the house down.

Meh. The only actual, personally verifiable, exploding lithium-ion battery incident I've ever even heard of in a camera was a genuine OEM one. A local photog friend of mine shooting an event at HHI and it burned the &^$% out of her hand. Obv. the camera (and memory card) was a total loss. It was a Nikon (I think D300, but I could be wrong, it was some years ago). Generally, unless the environment is extreme (ie. well outside the specified operating range of the camera), batteries are at the most risk during charging, but I've had a charger melt into a smoking molten plastic block before (Canon charger), and not cause the (3rd party) LP-E6 battery to combust.

 

Needless to say, while I do not expect 3rd party batteries to yield as good results as OEM ones, since they 1/4-1/3 the price, 3 or 4 of them ALWAYS outlasts a single OEM battery. That said, I've had just as many OEM batts die, or become to weak to use for any practical shoot, as I've had 3rd party batts do the same... Of course I've probably owned 3x the number of 3rd party batts...

 

And even most of the cheap 3rd party batts come with contact guards...

Most of my clones have been fine—STK, Wasabi, etc.—just not as long lasting as the OEM versions. Out the gate, I had a new STK clone overheat and swell up in an Olympus Pen. It was really tough getting out! Sine 2003, not a single of my OEM batteries have gone thermal.

I use a mix of Canon and third party. I don't keep records of how many shots before I have to change it, but I frankly think that with about six batteries in use its unlikely I'm using any battery more than say 8-10 charges a year and some will be less. Mostly the batteries just sit in the camera bag decharging, which I don't imagine is the way to preserve performance best.. My perception is that I get 100-300 shots from each depending probably more depending on my usage patterns (long exposures, lots of checking images on my cards) that whether it is an OEM or an off-brand. I'd expect and will tolerate a slightly worse performance from 3rd party batteries- but I don't know that I get it consistently or not.

Another thing to remember is that only partially discharging the Li-Ion battery will dramatically increase the number of cycles you will get out of it. 3-500 Full discharges is a typical manufacturer specified lifespan of a LiIon battery pack (which is usually very conservative). However, is you average discharges to 40-50% of capacity (ie swap batteries when discharge indicator indicates 50-60% remaining), and you can easily multiple that expected lifespan by 5-6x. The best way to extend the service life of Li-Ion batteries (regardless of manufacturer) is to charge them up more frequently, and long before they are fully discharged. If you make this a habit (and depending on use), you could easily get a decade of use out of any particular battery pack. I have some el-cheapo 3rd party batts that are about that old (NB-2LHs). that still can do 3-400 exposures on the old XTI...