Buying a spare battery

Hi,]
Digi Quik have a K-7 battery for £9.99-
link (just noticed it's out of stock).

But I'm wondering from people who have bought batteries from similar places (or Ebay) how they faired for you?
they're a lot cheaper than £60+ but
do they drain quicker, any noticable downsides to them?
Can anyone recommend another site for a cheap spare battery please?
(I'm doing two weddings this year so want back up batteries).

Have used many non Pentax batteries in all models, performed as genuine Pentax ones. Go for it.

Never had any issues with compatible batteries. Buy one and try it using the pentax as your spare

7dayshop pentax compatibles have also served me well - the pentax branded battery may last a bit longer, but I'd prefer 2 non-pentax spares and keep the change!

Only downside is you have more money left to buy something else!!!

I'll support all the other comments as I've used 'compatible' batteries from 7DayShop & Amazon in a number of different cameras for many years and never had any problems. Likewise, I too found that some had slightly shorter life than 'originals' but as I always carry the second battery fully charged this has never been a problem.

Go ahead and get the cheap one ! (But don't blame me !!!)

Peter

"...why spend £1000 (£719) on a camera to balk (sic) at £50 for a battery?"

I use batteryguru.co.uk and have never had any trouble with them at all, (six for K10D one for K5) at quite reasonable cost as well. Hope this helps.

Same reason you might spend £125 on a 35mm f2.4 rather than £400 on the 35mm f2.8 macro

I add another vote for the 7dayshop one. For the £6 I paid, it is a bargain and works perfectly for my needs, which is to provide power to keep the camera going if the battery runs out unexpectedly (which has never happened to me, it only goes flat in a day if I forget to charge it up). At the end of the day I am happy to have the additional £54 to go towards my DA15 dream.

I buy reasonable branded 3rd party (Uniross) batteries for my K10D / GX20 and they are at least as good as the official battery, if not better. I don't think I'd buy the cheapest ebay ones though.

I am firmly in the OEM battery camp, and the reason is that I want to ensure all the batteries are the same and they are all up to spec. I have three Pentax batteries for my K-5 and they are rotated in use. This also reduces the usage on any one particular battery. In a week's holiday I will be on the second battery by the end of it.

In the end, we all do what we are comfortable with, but there has been proper evidence that the original Pentax battery does perform better. Many cheaper batteries do not deliver their rated output.

Another happy customer of 7 Day Shop. They're so cheap you can buy several for holidays etc. In use I never notice whether I am using them or the original Pentax one - both the OEM battery and the 7 Day Shop ones last for days and days.

Personally - I would not dream of wasting money on a Pentax original battery - I have bought cheap compatibles from ebay for every digital camera ever owned - and have had no problems with any. The 2 I have for the k5 claim on the boxes to last 100% longer than the originals. All I can say with certainty is that they most certainly last at least as long - and they cost me £5 each!

Carl

I've had no problems with the compatibles I've had. I think I bought them from ebay.

There are different capacity batteries available but if you buy one close to the same mA rating as the original, I don't think you can go wrong. The other thing is, you can afford a few more!

Don't forget, any make(including the pentax branded) need 2 or 3 charge/discharge cycles before they get their full capacity. Might be relevant if you are doing a Wedding.