K7 Replacement/spare Battery Question

Hi,

I'm after a replacement/spare battery for my K7.

There seems to be loads on eBay, has anyone had any experience with aftermarket K7 batteries.

Are some better than others, or could anyone recommend one please.

Also looking for one for my Samsung GX10 too.

Regards, Chris.

You've spent a lot of money on your DSLR, so why not buy the proper Pentax battery. These batteries last so long you probably only need one spare and it might as well be the real thing.

I have an ebay bought battery for my k10 and I don't notice any difference in the capacity or use from the Pentax one. I think it was around £7 as opposed to £50!
I don't see why the K7 replacements should be any different.

To be quite honest, when you think that Pentax are asking for 9% of the price of a k7 body for a battery to fit it, you start think in terms of rip off! I think the K10 battery was originally for a Minolta camera anyway, so it's not even their design.

Even SRS offer a cheaper alternative to the hugely inflated price of the Pentax branded item.

Hi Chris, I bought mine for my K10D + grip from batteryguru.co.uk and 5 of them cost less than 1 Pentax one and they all work fine. I also bought a battery for my Dell laptop and several for my cordless drills for work and they all work perfectly well. Hope this helps

Regards John

As you know I've just ordered a K-5. In advance I've just ordered two spare batteries for it. £12.50 for two. £6.25 each. There's no point in spending over £55 for a battery when you can get the same but non branded for £6.

I've also ordered a £10 spare charger. This means I can fire up my K-5 as soon as it arrives without waiting for the proprietary battery to charge.

Because they are a total rip off.

I have two Di-Li50 pentax batteries that came with my K10D and K20D. I have 5 non branded versions. All 7 work just as well as each other. I expect no different with the Di-Li90 for the K-5/K-7

Individuals will have to do what they are comfortable with.

Hi John,

I did buy a spare 'proper' Pentax battery when I bought my grip. So I think for the time being I'll stick with the 2 I have.

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Thanks to everyone for the info, I will be getting a spare aftermarket battery for my GX10 though.

Regards, Chris.

Does anyone know why the k-7/K-5 batteries have 3 terminals? Is it to provide a +ve - 0 - -ve supply?

Hi again,

sorry I forgot to ask in my last post about battery mAh.

My original GX10 battery is 7.4v 1620 mAh.

Just been looking on eBay and there are quite a few with varying mAh.

Can I use on with less or more mAh's.

Regards, Chris.

And does anyone know why the K-r battery has 4 terminals?

3rd contact is temperature measurement.

link

4th terminal will be same with discrete ground contact.

Best regards

The rating is how much current the battery can supply for an hour.

i,e IIRC if the load draws 1620mA then the battery will last an hour. I think the calculation is more complex that that though

Yes. The "mAh" rating is the capacity of your battery. An increase will allow you to take more pictures and vice versa. An analogy would putting a larger or smaller petrol tank in your car.

Another possible use for the third and fourth contacts is balancing the charge in the cells. There are two cells in our 7.4V batteries and they are connected in such a way that an ordinary charger will shut down when the first cell is fully charged. Some more sophisticated chargers can charge each cell individually.