Camera batteries

Some may find it interesting.

I always strongly suspected that Canon does not make batteries. Finally, being sick at home I found time, and did a little research. The LP-E6 battery for many Canon cameras is made by Panasonic. Canon sells them for $62, NewEgg - for $14. http://www.newegg.com …-9SIA4VH2W36539-_-Product

How to check, you may ask? Look at the UL certification logo on Canon's battery, and the number next to it. Go to UL's Online Certification Directory, and check this number. You will get to this page http://database.ul.com …_id=1073984456&​sequence=1, and you will see that number and the model number, LP-E6.

Hmm, looks like my "Nikon" EN-EL18's are also made by Sanyo/Panasonic. Not terribly surprising though - there's only so many battery manufacturers out there. I wouldn't be surprised if Panasonic sources the cells from other suppliers too

I notice the new egg photo has "2012 07" printed on the label.
Could be an old product photo, if not it could suggest they are selling old stock.

Although I never had proof, I long suspected that Canon did not make their own batteries. It makes complete sense that they would outsource the manufacturing of such an item, and it never made any sense for me to pay 4 times the price for a battery just because it had the word "Canon" printed on it. Instead, I have been buying Sterling Tek and Wasabi batteries for many years.

Thanks for the heads up! Anything to save a few shekels!...............

I did this research because I read many times here on POTN statements that people wanted to buy only Canon because they are more reliable. I knew it could not be so, there are not many electronics companies that make their own, but was too lazy to check. It is when a battery in my camera went bad, I needed a replacement (yesterday), and I knew how to check, I went out and did it.

And a recommendation: Never buy a battery that does not have at least one of the regulatory approval marks, such as UL, ETL, or TUV. Those without the marks may not be safe to operate (in terms of fire or spills).

Just like TV's only a few people make the actual cells. Where Canon differs from all the 3rd party manufacturers is in the firmware chip that allows the camera to read the info from the battery. I use a lot of Wasabi batteries and when I got my 6D the camera couldn't read the battery. Wasabi had to upgrade their chips through reverse engineering like all 3rd parties.

flowrider wrote in post #17606685
Just like TV's only a few people make the actual cells. Where Canon differs from all the 3rd party manufacturers is in the firmware chip that allows the camera to read the info from the battery. I use a lot of Wasabi batteries and when I got my 6D the camera couldn't read the battery. Wasabi had to upgrade their chips through reverse engineering like all 3rd parties.

I had one third party battery that would not work in my 5D3 when the firmware to the camera was updated. Considering the outrageous price that Canon charges for "their" batteries, I was still much further ahead financially just replacing that one battery than if I had bought all "Canon" batteries. I simply gave the offending battery to the person who bought my old 7D, as the original Canon battery for that camera had long since died.

For what it's worth (and this is hardly scientific) my stock BP-511 type batteries (300D, 30D, 5D, 50D) have been dying off over the last year or so - and it's the 3rd-party batteries that are dying first. My Canon-branded ones are still going. Some of this, I'm sure, is becase the 3rd-party batteries were higher capacity and so tended to get more of the work. But I also suspect that the Canon-branded ones might be built to higher specifications, no matter who they were manufactured by. The 'test' isn't fair, as noted above, but it's hard to get past the fact that all my 3rd-party batteries have gone, while my Canon-branded ones keep working (so far).

...Mike

My experience with third party batteries has not been great. At the end, I ended up buying Canon batteries and tossing the third party branded battery. This was 6 or 7 years ago...

I have had exactly the opposite experience. My OEM Canon batteries get cycled through the cameras at the same rate as the third party ones and the very first battery to show degradation of recharge performance was a Canon. After less than 2 years and moderate use.

Buy a quality item like the STK or Wasabi and you'll never miss the OEM batteries.

Lbsimon wrote in post #17606635
And a recommendation: Never buy a battery that does not have at least one of the regulatory approval marks, such as UL, ETL, or TUV. Those without the marks may not be safe to operate (in terms of fire or spills).

Regulatory labels can be counterfeit as well. UL is changing their labels to make them more difficult to counterfeit, incorporating some of the tech found in printing currency. I don't know if or when these changes will show up on batteries, but the mere presence of a regulatory logo on a battery label doesn't guarantee anything, unfortunately.

GregDunn wrote in post #17607237
I have had exactly the opposite experience. My OEM Canon batteries get cycled through the cameras at the same rate as the third party ones and the very first battery to show degradation of recharge performance was a Canon. After less than 2 years and moderate use.

Buy a quality item like the STK or Wasabi and you'll never miss the OEM batteries.

That has been my experience as well. However, even if the third party batteries did not last as long as Canon batteries, you would still be further ahead financially unless the Canon batteries lasted four times longer.

GregDunn wrote in post #17607237
Buy a quality item like the STK or Wasabi and you'll never miss the OEM batteries.

I'd also like to add that when you buy STK or Wasabi buy directly from the importer as opposed to places like Amazon or even a local store. This will help insure you are getting fresh stock that if chipped will be current. Depending on how many batteries are sold, some vendors may have batteries that were manufactured long in the past then issues may arise with recognition by the camera.

pknight wrote in post #17607356
Regulatory labels can be counterfeit as well. UL is changing their labels to make them more difficult to counterfeit, incorporating some of the tech found in printing currency. I don't know if or when these changes will show up on batteries, but the mere presence of a regulatory logo on a battery label doesn't guarantee anything, unfortunately.

This site may help you if you're buying what you think is an actual Canon battery.