Quote:
Originally Posted by Luke Cern
Ben
A battery is a battery! Manufacturing batteries is a very low tech industry, easily started in countries with low wage costs and no premises. Most batteries are made in China. Everythings made in China!!! The main difference between items is the label and the price!.
Chinese entrepreneurs follow the major brand representatives around into the factories and then negotiate secondary production using primary tools and technology.
The cellphone and laptop batteries (and power adaptors) that blew up included ones supplied by the original manufacturers Dell and Sony who don't manufacturer them anyway.
The Korean incident was an original equpment manufacturer (OEM) supplied item as well! If it's going to blow up, it will! ($50 more won't save you). How many batteries are in use worldwide?
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Luke,
What you are basically saying is that a battery is a battery is a battery. This is a very dangerous thing to say. I work for a battery company so i should know. a battery is NOT a low tech thing, and while most battery CELLS are made in China, Korea and Japan. There is a BIG difference between the best cell manufacturers and the worst. i'll narrow down the scope of this discussion to just LITHIUM batteries.
cells are made in china because they have a huge workforce and labour is cheap. the main difference is NOT "label and price" like you have said. the main difference is PERFORMANCE. for batteries very often you get what you pay for.
a battery pack like what we use in our cameras have several components. there are the cells, a protection circuit module (PCM) and then there is the casing and contacts. the PCM can affect the cost of the pack, as can the cells used in the pack. i have seen some chinese cells that look identical to their korean and japanese counterparts, but perform very differently. it's in the manufacturing process and the quality of the raw materials. a good cell with no impurities and a first class manufacturing facility that is very controlled will not have microscopic impurities that affect the cell perfoemance. the electrodes are often wound or folded. a small speck of conductive material like a metal shaving or a difference in the electrode lengths will affect the performance considerably. are the electrodes manually cut? what is the effect of human error in such a process? if the electrodes and the assembly process is automated, how often are the cutting blades changed? is there an inspection process to ensure the thickness of the electrode coating? it's definitely not a low tech process!
the PCM design will determine the voltage cutoff and the safety of the battery if overcharging occurs. if temperature goes beyond a safe limit, the PCM must cut off at the right values to protect the battery and the user. some manufacturers cut cost by reusing PCMs in different models. during a short circuit test larger cells can produce enough current to burn the mosfets on some PCMs meant for smaller cells and eventually this can cause catastrophic failure of the battery. some manufacturers just don't care and they declare the battery safe to use. the governing bodies cannot check every battery that goes on sale in the market so it's basically up to the battery manufacturer to declare if a battery is safe to use. the question now becomes "Do you trust that manufacturer?"
last i counted there are over 150 battery packers in China alone, packing batteries made by dozens of cell manufacturers. just because a cell manufacturer is big doesn't mean they are good. a cell manfacturer making cells for some cheap-assed electronics device is focused on making money and they will not care if someone burns to death. they will declare bankruptcy and then open a new factory right next door under a different name. if they're making electric kite batteries then consistency is not high up on their priority list. top dollar cameras, mobile phones and notebooks i would rank close to medical devices in terms of required quality and reliability. they are used by people at close range. every time you take a shot you put the camera to your face.
companies like canon cannot afford to do business with these manufacturers, so they have to pay top dollar for battery companies that stand by their product and should a battery explode it becomes a very serious thing as Dell and Sony have found out.
i don't think it's fair or even right to say "if it's going to blow up, it will" and that "paying $50 more won't make a difference". I've seen some really horrible batteries in China where the bare lithium cell is connected to the battery contacts and the casing looks just like an original from the outside but there is no safety protection. overcharge the battery and it WILL explode. then there are batteries where cheaper cells are used in place of the better quality options. the cells are not matched, and they go out of balance and the batteries don't last nearly as long as the original stuff. people buy these dangerous batteries because they don't know better.
i'm not saying all 3rd party batteries are bad. i use them myself and i look closely to see how much cost cutting is done in terms of materials, fit, finish etc.. generally if the 5DMkII compatible battery does not have the same features as the original like fuel gauging or charge counting or serial number then you can safely assume this was left out of the compatible battery design.
based on the cost of the battery you can also figure out what type of cells are in the battery. i have to say.. you do get what you pay for, and it's up to the consumer to decide if they want to take the risk or not but there IS a DIFFERENCE.
Kevin