3rd party batteries

I was looking for a second battery for my K5II, so after having a look around this forum and other places I decided to have a punt on some 3rd party batteries, given the fact the Pentax ones wee @ £60 ish.
I was very conscious of some of the reports about batteries being over voltage, I picked a battery which looked as close to the Pentax original as possible.. (simplistic I know)
Anyway I purchased 3 of these...


From Amazon, by DSTE, the fully charged voltage is 0.01v lower than the Pentax original, and uses the Pentax charger OK. charging light works as well...
After 3 months of use I have had no issues at all.....
And at a little less than £5.00 each, they seem to be a damn good buy.

My spare bought last year is identical. No discernable difference to the rip off branded one. Hahnel (sold in the past by SRS and currently LCE) are good if you really want to pay more for a brand.

Looks good, what's the actual capacity? How many recharge cycles is it specified for?

I have 2x Maxsima batteries as my spares, and to date they seem to last just as long as the Pentax original. They're more expensive that the DTSE ones that you have, but still a lot cheaper than Pentax originals.

it is 2800 mAh, measures at 8.36Vdc fully charged, (Pentax measures 8.37Vdc) lasts just as well as the original, not sure on the cycles yet as I've not really had them long enough, but so far so good, and for less than a fiver a go......

You measured the capacity or read it?
The original is 1950mAh and I'd be surprised if a £5 cell manages gat much more.


Unfortunately with things like batteries only time will tell whether they are any good. I always put "so far so good" on feedback.

2800mAh is the advertised capacity, although I'd be surprised if it actually attained that, the O/P voltage is the measured voltage, at full charge.

In use there is no noticeable difference in the longevity of original and the 3rd party units.
Bear in mind that they are 1/12 the cost of a Pentax battery.......

When it was tested, only the Pentax batteries actually met the specification. I wouldn't use anything else as without battery power the cameras are useless.

At worst, if a battery leaks or overheats (Lithium is having a hard time at the moment in terms of safety) then a non-Pentax battery would certainly invalidate warranty.

Some low cost batteries may be fine, but we have no means of telling which ones.

Any significant increase in power needs a corresponding increase in physical battery size. A 40% increase just isn't possible in the same size of casing regardless of price. If you accept that a battery may say one thing but deliver less then at least you're not fooling yourself when you spend money on it.
My own way of thinking is that ok it's only 80% as good as the original but, it's one twelfth of the price so still value for money. As John says above there's a safety issue too but you can keep an eye on the battery at first to make sure it's performing properly.

I'm an advocate of 3rd party batteries but as above, you get what you pay for.

I use 3rd party and keep the original Pentax in as good condition as possible.

TBH I tend to keep the Pentax original in the camera body and utilize the other 3rd party battery in my BG4 grip, so its easy to change and won't damage the camera perchance it should leak.
Best of both worlds....

It's a classic discussion on here - the old 3rd party battery question.

I reckon it comes down to what you're willing to pay for with regards to peace of mind. There is no doubt that the 3rd party batteries are far cheaper - what is uncertain is how well they perform (or in extreme cases, whether they are prone to catastrophic failure).

As long as they perform reasonably closely (and not 1/10th of the power) then arguably you have more bang for your buck.

Personally I have used 3rd party batteries for years and the performance has always been broadly equivalent to the OEM batteries (to the point I can't recognise a difference in the field). None have ever exploded or leaked. If I had bought Pentax originals I would have spent over £200 more on batteries.

HOWEVER: I've never had a problem. If a battery did fail then I'm sure I'd have a different point of view. Hence why it comes down to peace of mind. Personally I've never seen any statistics on batteries failing. It mainly seems to be annecdotal but maybe I'm wrong.

Aside from the sticker the batteries APPEAR to be identical,
both are CE marked, and are sourced from UK suppliers, so there is a modicum of peace of mind there...
Bloody good job Pentax don't do the AA's for the flashguns.......

The plastic case on the batteries is an outer case that surrounds the cells and provides another level of protection against leakage.

In recent years I have had a few AA cells leak - Duracell and Energiser but not, as far as I can remember other cheap brands. So, is the brand name a guarantee of case integrity? Not really.

That said, I keep the Pentax original in the camera and an Inov8 battery in the grip.

Gamka,
Ditto That...