Eneloops vs LP-E8s in grip ?

I have a "Costco" pack of Eneloops. Never used them until Thursday, and it seems that 6 eneloops in a battery grip hold the charge as well or better than my 2 x LP-E8 batteries (one OEM that's a few months old, another Diamondback that's about 1.5 yrs old). I did kids' school performance (about 25 min of combined video), kids' karate testing two days later (about 20-30 min of combined video), as well as a few dozen shots with stabilized lenses and some with a built-in flash, and it still shows good charge.

So, the question... is there anyone using them instead of "proper" Canon photo batteries ? Any pros/cons (other than the obvious need to use the grip at all times) ? One major advantage I see is that if I use them & forget the charger (happened to me more than once on trips), the AA grip insert is already there and I can just buy regular batteries instead of running around a strange place trying to find a photo store carrying Canon charger at somewhat reasonable price.

If anyone have been using them for a while, can you share your experiences. I am especially interested to know how long can I expect them to hold up, i.e. be able to recharge & still get good service out of them. The Canon photo batteries seem to hold up pretty well, when I sold my XTi after 3 years of use my original OEM battery was still pretty useful.

The answer is no.... maybe as a back up in case you forget to charge the oem batteries....

The AA batteries are more of an emergency "I'm in the middle of nowhere and can't charge but I can buy some alkalines" thing.

Since you already have the stuff, try it for a few weeks and report back. Might be a nice option to consider for those of us with grips. One downside is I suspect it would be quite a bit heavier, no?

Not that much heavier. I barely see the difference.

I will use then for a while. Right now, a pack of Eneloops seems to hold the charge very well, but I will see how it performs in a long run. The biggest advantage for me is never having to worry again about forgetting to pack the charger, or running out of juice sooner than expected and not having a fully charged replacement.

Yeah, I hear you. I like the idea. I don't have any Eneloops currently, but I'll buy some if you report it's a nice option. I don't carry the AA caddy with me usually, but I fear the day I arrive to shoot with weak batteries, so this is a great peace of mind idea.

I have been using sanyo eneloops for a while now and they seem to last longer than 2 lp-e6's. The one difference I notice is that when the eneloops run out of juice -- it's almost instantaneous where as the lp-e6's gradually run out of juice. Another reason I use eneloops is because I have 140 of them.