Third party batteries for 350D

[tjalf]

I'm travelling (backpacking) to China this summer and will visit

some remote areas in Sichuan and Gansu. At the moment I have only

one battery for my 350D and no battery pack. I'm not sure how often

I will be able to recharge the battery so I'm looking for some spare

batteries. As the Canon original is very expensive (EUR 54,-)I'm

looking for third party alternatives. I did some research but still

have some questions.

 

How many batteries would you take on 5 week trip and would you

recommend using canon originals or do third party batteries do as

well?

 

All the third party replacements are range from 580mAH to 1200mAH

while my Canon original states 720mAH. Do I need a 720mAH battery?

What are the pros and cons of batteries with a different mAH?

 

Do I need a NB-2LH battery or will a NB-2L do as well? What is the

difference between the two?

 

Can I charge third party batteries with my Canon charger?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Tjalf

[peterlyons]

Tjalf-

 

When I bought my 350D, I purchased a second battery with it; it's a 1000 mAh from Merkury Innovations. It's worked perfectly fine with both the charger and the camera. And for what it's worth, I like batteries with greater capacity!

 

Personally, I do not hesitate to buy third party batteries from reputable sources. (I've had similarly positive experiences with third party batteries for camcorders too.)

[davebell]

For example, 580mAh means that the battery can deliver 580mA for 1 hour. The current consumption of the 350D would be x (for the settings you have applied of course), thus the battery life would be 580mAh/x hours. In summary go for higher mAh batteries for longer battery life.

 

Dave

[peterlyons]

I'll add that this one is a NB-2LH. I don't know anything about the NB-2L.

[robert lee]

Look into the BG-E3 grip. It's got room for 6 AA cells, and these you can get anywhere on the planet. I don't know how well the camera works with alkaline or even the older carbon zinc chemistry, but disposable lithiums are light and have high energy density. Leave them in the camera bag as insurance.

 

You might think about carrying an old film body as backup as well. This also gives you another set of focal range options for your lenses. Buy used. An Elan is probably around $50.

[kin_lau]

I've have 1 original & 2 3rd party batteries for my 350D/XT for about 1 year now. I can't tell the difference in day to day use.

 

On a 5 week trip w/o power, you might want to get 10 batteries. If you can recharge once a week, then 3 or 4 should do. Shooting habits tend to change when we're on trips, so it's hard to measure this.

 

My 3rd party ones are listed as 740mAH.

 

I charge my 3rd party batteries with my regular Canon charger.

[buck_rogers1]

Get the battery grip and go for AA's. Yes, you also have the problem of finding places to charge the AA's (assuming you use rechargeables) But you can also simply buy some as you go, or just take a ton with you. If you have the access to modern convenieces like a power outlet, you will most likely have access to a store to buy AA's. Buying is quicker than witing to charge the batteries.<p>

In any event, if you have the time to charge, you can use rechargeable AA's and/or your canon battery. If you forget, you can pull out more fresh AA's as backups.

[pto189]

Don't buy factory batteries and toners at retail prices. Use search engine to find them. For example, Canon battery for 20D is $49. You can buy a third party one for at low as $10. The rechargable battery for my Nokia cell is $39. I bought 4 of genuine ones on eBay for $4.99 each. The imaging unit of my Minota copier is $475. I used search engine and found two genuine units for $125 each. A box of 4 toners listed at $32. I bought 10 boxes and paid $11 per box.<p>

You can find the batteries you need at<a href="http://www.sterlingtek.com"> Sterlingtek</a>. They sell reliable batteries. You don't need to buy a different charger. Just use the one that comes with your camera. The first time you charge your third party battery using Canon charger, check battery every 15 minutes. If the battery gets too warm, stop charging. You need a different charger. If no high temperature is detected after an hour, everything should be fine.

[bennyboy]

I bought a 3rd party battery and it was a duffer, wouldnt charge. YMMV.

 

Batteries with higher mAH will last longer that's all.

[tjalf]

Thanks for the quick responses. I have just ordered two third party batteries from SterlingTek.

[jespdj]

I have a 5D, with two original Canon BP-511A batteries ($50, 1350 mAh) and four SterlingTek equivalent batteries ($12, 1800 mAh).

 

I took them all with me on my holiday to Laos and Cambodia for a month. Six batteries was more than I needed. The SterlingTek batteries work very well, no problems with them at all.

[john_o4]

I have an idea. Could people post their experiences with third party batteries on this page. For example:<br>

<br><b>

<A href="http://www.sterlingtek.com/index.html"

title="Sterlingtek Homepage">Sterlingtek</A><br>

2 NB2L replacement batteries for Canon XT<br>

<A href="http://www.pricegrabber.com/user_sales_getprod.php?masterid=4180635&lot_id=888676"

title="Sterlingtek Pricegrabber Storefront Price">$10.49 currently</A><br>

Purchased 12/05<br>

Zero problems w/ camera and charger<br>

<br></b>

The batteries were advertised as 7.4V 1200mAh. The <A href="http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=4180635/sort_type=bottomline"

title="Pricegrabber Canon NB-2LH description">Canon batteries</A> are 720mah I believe. When I received my batteries they were actually labeled 7.4V 1500mAh. They last a lot longer than the Canon batteries. I have used them for about nine months in the <A href="http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Canon/canon_eos350d.asp"

title="dpreview.com Canon 350D/XT review article">Canon EOS 350D XT</A> and its charger with no problems. I actually use them more than the Canon battery because they last so long.<br>

<br>

They don't have the nifty battery cover that came with the Canon battery. They come in little blue plastic bags. Which isn't really a problem. Just don't discard the bags. You don't want to leave naked batteries floating around your camera bag.<br>

<br>

If you want a killer deal on these batteries use <A href="http://www.pricegrabber.com/user_sales_getprod.php?masterid=4180635&lot_id=888676"

title="Sterlingtek Pricegrabber Storefront">Sterlingtek's</A> pricegrabber storefront.

Its even better than their website. These babies are going for $10.49. Shipping within the US is $4.99 for the first battery and $1.99 for each additional IDENTICAL battery. So for $27.96 TOTAL I got two high capacity batteries for my Canon XT.<br>

<br>

I guess we should post all Canon EOS 3rd party battery experiences on this thread so that people who are thinking of upgrading or downgrading :( don't have to search all over creation for info.<br>

<br>

<strong><a href="http://www.alamy.com/stock-photography/B65ADD33-9FAE-4F26-A377-38FA683A4E51/John%2DMark+Odero.html" title="John-Mark Odero's images at Alamy"> -John O</a></strong><div></div>