Battery question

Hello there.

Here is my question/problem:

I have a Canon S30 Digital 3.2 Megapixels camera. The camera is about 3 or 4 years old. I love it and it has done me right. But i need to buy a spare battery now, for the first time, and i wonder what kind i should buy. I have shopped around a bit and here is what i have found.

Canon batteries are more expensive than other brand batteries

1. Is it ok to use generic (or made in China) batteries in my Canon Digital camera? Is it safe?
2. I have been told that the company AP makes good batteries. Is it true?

Next, the battery that came with the camera has this info listed on the back.
Battery Pack NB-2L
7.4V
570mAh

One salesman showed me a battery with this info on it:
7.4V
720 mAh
He said that this is a longer lasting battery pack. It will give me a longer charge. Is this true? Is that what 720 mAh means? Is this battery ok to use in my camera? It is generic and made in China.

Another salesman showed me a battery with this info on it:
AP Company
7.2V
800mAh
Is this battery ok to use in my camera? The salesman said AP is a good reliable reputable company. Is this true? I am worried about the 7.2V, since my current camera battery is 7.4V. The salesman said it was fine. Is it? What do you think?

My main concern is that these batteries wont blow out my camera. I want a good battery and longer life would be nice too. again is it ok to use a 7.2V battery in my camera, even though the current battery is 7.4V?

Generally speaking, what advise can you offer on buying a battery?

Thank you so very much for reading all that. Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Hi flashcard

I'm not familiar with the AP brand but I'm sure it will be ok. I use non OEM batteries which are the same as yours with no problems.
The 7.2 v won't harm your camera, it is just frictionally down on the volts which means it wont last as long. Having said that it has a higher mah which will balance that out. The mah stands for milli amp hours, which indicates how long the battery will last at a given power drain. ie if your camera uses 800milliamps to operate, it will last 1 hour. Equally if it uses 10ma to operate it will last 80hrs. Your camera manual may tell you how many photos it will take on a fully charged batery. So yes the salesman is correct in saying it will last longer.

hum... some say 7.2V "No Way!" and some say 7.2V "It's Ok" i wonder which ones to follow. of course i can just be safe and go with 7.4, like my current battery is...

thanks for you reply.

Try Sterlingtek always well recommended on this site.

Suck it and see. The battery want harm your camera. At worst it will run down sooner. Canon do not make their own batteries, they are made by others who specalise in only batteries. Same as micro chips are made for all the major companies by a few manufactures. Canon probable pay more for their quality control during "their run" of batteries than say a smaller firm. This then reflects on the consumer price. I have worked in time and motion in the past and observed food manufactures package the exact same food for the top shops as the budget ones and the only difference is the bag it's in... and of course the price.

Hey Marshall, what is Sterlingtek? Is that a brand of battery?

Thanks.

Recently bought a battery plus mini tripod from ebay - seller was resurs2 <info@resurs2.com>

The battery was an NB2LH which is a higher capacity version of the NB2L. I think it was 1200mah so much longer lasting than your original. It works fine with my 350D. The battery & tripod plus shipping from NYC USA was £10.41 UK sterling. Arrived in 13 days

http://www.sterlingtek​.com/ is a vendor of camera accessories. I have no experience with them, but they have been recommended by others on this forum quite a bit.

Be carefull using the 7.2V battery. If the battery that came with your camera is 7.4V using the 7.2V battery could be dangerous. It will be fine in the camera, the issue is with charging. There are two different types of Li-On batts, one charges at a higher voltage than the other. The 7.2V batts may be damaged if charged in a 7.4V charger. Best case, they work fine and maybe just lose a few cycles off their life expectancy. Worst case, they get damaged and stop working. Really bad case, they explode, catch fire, etc.

I work for a place that makes small handheld computers and we have had "clone" batts explode/go on fire because they were not the right cells. You sometimes hear of cell phone batts doing this, it's usally clone batts that are at fault. So be carefull when using non-Canon batteries, while Canon does not make the batts, they do make sure the ones with the Canon name on them are compatible with thier chargers.

Having said that, the 7.4V batts would be the safer choice. Bear in mind that if you use higher capacity cells, they will last longer in the camera, but will also take longer to charge.

RossW wrote:
http://www.sterlingtek​.com/ is a vendor of camera accessories. I have no experience with them, but they have been recommended by others on this forum quite a bit.

Thanks RossW, you could be my P.A !