3rd party battery - K5

I use Energizer DLi90 batteries - same specification as Pentax at a third of the price and, so far, quite satisfactory.

Roger.

Now we all know you have too much money john!

Seriously though... Rotation systems were essential for eneloop rotation when I had a K-x but I also always turned one upsidedown in the case when they were spent....

I have all my batteries numbered and both my Pentax K20 chargers are lettered (the same system goes for each and every camera I have ever owned). It then becomes much easier to identify any rogue item.

[IMG]http://i740.photobucket.com/albums/xx49/df8/6e32ca1a.jpg[/IMG]

The comparison link is just what I thought.
Unlike John, I do use 3rd party batteries. Having said that, the only 3rd party batteries I will buy are the Hahnel ones. Any others I won't consider.
But thats me.

I'm always interested in these threads and a lot of experiences on here are VERY different to my own.

I suspect it's a bit of a lottery with camera batteries.

My won experiences are vasttly different:

a) for my Canon 50D's a canon original battery costs a baragainous £90 (how do they make a profit on this) when looking for additional batteries I found, on ebay, some duracell equivalents..well known brand ..worth a go so I bought 4 of them.

My experience with these ? They well outperform the Canon original !!! They give more shots per charged battery and hold charge longer if charged and then not inserted in a camera .

Price for the ruracells ? £ 12.50

b) for my K5 ... looked around on ebay and went for the really cheap ones ...might as well have thrown my money down the drain. They are terrible..charge does not hold at all well when not inserted in camera and the indicator starts dropping after around 15 or 20 shots and is empty in less than a fifth the time of the pentax original.

I also do check for the higher rated ones that should last longer but these did not.

Maybe I should look at some Hahnel ones

Millions of cameras out there and I've never heard of a battery killing one. I'm sure it's happened though.

There's lot more chance of being killed while driving, but most of us still drive. Presumably we value our lives more than our cameras?


The other issue is that Pentax don't make batteries. They outsource them. It's highly likely that some 3rd party batteries come from the same factory and are identical.

Who knows?

All I know is that my 3rd party £7 batteries of Ebay perform just as well as the £55 pentax batteries.

Even of Pentax batteries were better than 3rd party ones, they are never goign to be 7.5 times better, and that's the price ration

Looks like you got lucky with yours smeggy ...I certainly did not...my cheapies are ****

going to look at adding a couple of hahnel's to the collection I think

The full battery test article is at:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/post/37224059

Content for now with Pentax & Energiser versions (though my K10 Hahnel spare had a cover).

Could well be. But if it is luck it's a trend. All the 3rd party batteries I've had for my K10D, K20D, 12x K-5s and two Sony Cybershots. about 20 batteries in total have all been fine.e

Interesting test.

I'd be concerned about the variation of the Hahnel in the Fast
test, it didn't look very consistent and the last three cycles
showed the capacity to be falling 1250 - 1196 - 1178

-

I have 4 batteries for my K5. The second Pentax battery cost me an arm and a leg. the 2 others are inexpensive Ebay batteries.
It seems to me, that i am one of the lucky ones. the Ebay batteries last as long as the Pentax types.
I have numbered them 1-4. every time I take an exhausted battery out of the camera, I replace it with the following number. This saves any confusion.
By the way, If you paid $7.50 or so on Ebay and the battery is a dud, just get another. You’re still way ahead in costs.
Regards, Horst

Same as Smeggy, no duff ebay camera batteries yet. You might want to check the way you evaluate sellers and/or look at the way you keep your batteries?

I am surprised that after all the years of discussing batteries that
no ones actually taken any apart to see exactly what's inside
and taken a few photos

People have Algi, and pictures have been posted on the forum before now as well. I'm not sure it advances the arguments though.

In the end, everyone will do what they are comfortable with.