NP-E3 Battery Clones....initial thoughts and comments

[SnJPhoto]

I got hold of a couple "cheap" NP-E3 batteries froma dealer in the San francisco bay area. these were advertised as replacement clones, 1800mAh batteries. At first look they seemed to be pretty stout little packages. I set them on the charger for a few ours to give them a bit of charge. First thing I notice is that they seem to get warmer to the touch than the OEM batteries during the charge cycle. After doing a charge I did a quick check of voltages and physical look see. Nothing really surprising there. I dropped on in the 1Ds and found the fit to be a bit poor. The contours of the battery are not as close to the camera body as is the OEM. Then on review, I also noticed the battery end cap (part with 1/4 turn fastener) seems a bit loose. there is a slight gap in the battery fit on both batteries. Also, the 2 step battery catch is really only one step on these. the little push pin that does the actual battery releaase (labeled 2 on the battery) is only for decoration. It doesn't actually do anything on this series of batteries.

overall, if I would not recommend these based upon the sloppy fit. I will use them purely as "spares" incase I run out of regular batteries on long trips.

Here is the ebay listing for the same ones I reviewed.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=3835044669&ssPage Name=STRK:MEWN:IT