Stupid K10D battery prices

I decided I should have a spare battery so I went a-Googling.

http://www.morrisphoto.co.uk/productdetails~ProductID~6417~selection~696.html

Good grief!

Suddenly, I'm going to have to make do with just the one for now.

Have a look here.

I ordered two and can confirm that they're fine. HTH

Ray.

I bought two from here:

http://www.digitalmediastore.co.uk

They are slightly lower power 1500mAh than the Pentax original 1620mAh. Same 7.4V so I assume they will just have shorter usage times, ~ £22 for 2 batteries I thought it was well worth it.

We bought a Pentax spare battery each - the logic is the same as for buying any other Pentax branded accessory. Why spoil things for the sake of a few pounds that will be long forgotten by the time the camera has reached the end of its life?

It's a bit like buying an expensive film camera and then filling it with cheap own-brand film and having it processed and printed at the newsagents.....

Just my opinion of course!

A poor comparison, in my opinion. A cheap battery may not last as long as an expensive one but it isn't going to affect picture quality. (Let us assume the camera is smart enough to shutdown when the voltage is inadequate.)

Thanks for the links, everyone. Once you know the equivalent models, you can avoid getting ripped-off.

Cheers.

Yes, not the best comparison, but the only one that sprang to mind to make the point why spoil the ship for a halfpence worth of tar?

In context, if the batteries fail to deliver the same performance or do not last as long (in terms of operational life) they may well prove to be more expensive than the proper item.

This of course is a longer term view, and we have found that it generally borne out over a wide variety of situations.

It may be worth pointing out that the battery on offer from the morrisphoto link was also listed as 1500mAh and it is supposed to be a Pentax battery, either morrisphot have got it wrong or Pentax are offering the battery in two "sizes"

At the moment i'm with lenscape, I'll manage with the one for now (could probably manage all the time anyway), and if Argee doesn't post any tales of woe about leaking/exploding/poor performance batteries then I may follow his suggestion and buy a cheap back up.

No you're not . I ordered one from 7dayshop for £7.

Interesting to note that the RRP of this battery is £45 which means that either 7dayshop got a fantastic bargain from their suppliers or other resellers are running their 4x4s off sales to unwitting customers.

Noname batteries are cheap for a reason. Now I don't know what the reason is but I'm assuming the manufacturer uses inferior chemicals/materials.

I bought a second (noname 'n cheap) battery for my Fuji F810 P&S go everywhere camera because like most others here, I wanted the peace of mind of having a backup.

I religiously switched them over every few months or so to ensure neither one got more or less use than the other.

The noname battery died a long time ago fter just about 12 months use and I'm still using the original Fuji labelled battery which is now about 4 years old.

The moral of this story:- One branded battery at £x works out cheaper in the long term than 4 x noname batteries at £1/3x (one third x - or so)

£45 is a silly price for a small LI battery. The much bigger ones in computers cost about £80-100. This is a variation on the razorblade marketing model. Cut the price of the main item to the bone and then make money on the accesories. E.g flimsy plastic camera cases for £25, or a battery grip which is not much more than a lump of plastic with a few dials and swithces for £180, or a cable release which is switch on a piece of wire for £25.

Or even a flashgun that costs almost as much as a basic studio lighting kit (I'll live without swivel on 360fgz for the time being)

They are more expensive to up Pentax profit margins, not because they are that much better. I'm happy for Pentax to make a profit, and if the Pentax batteries had been £20 I would have probably bought one rather then the one I got for 7.99 from 7dayshop. But I refuse to pay £45. That is rather more than a 1/2p of tar!!!

I too have been pondering the merits of buying a Pentax replacement battery or a cheaper alternative and had, as of yet, still not decided which way to go.

Clearly the Pentax branded battery is grossly overpriced, but like with ink cartridges for your printer, you always wonder what happens if something goes wrong with the camera, you claim on the warranty and they refuse to honour it saying that you used a power source that was not recommended and therefore broke the conditions of use under the warranty? Having said that, I doubt that they would be able to determine what battery was in use at the time, unlike the printer manufacturers who can tell, when assessing it for repair, if you have been using a cheap ink cartridge and will refuse to honour the warranty.

Therefore my conclusion, if only for peace of mind, is to bite the bullet and fork out the full price of a Pentax replacement battery, although I may wait a while to see if they come down in price and manage with one for the time being.

Philip

The problem with managing with one battery, is that all of the batteries i have run down quickly with no warning. One minute you have full battery indicated, then it's half, a few seconds later it's dead.

I'd hate to be in the middle of a walk and the scenery is great, the clouds are scudding over and the light is glorious (as it was yesterday and I didn't take my camera!!) and then the battery dies.

You walk home thinking 'if only'.

The cheap ones I've bought have the same power output but less capacity than Pentax 'branded' batteries, so I'm presuming the cheapies won't last as long.

BTW, do Pentax actually make thier own batteries or outsource them?

My reasoning is that a cheap battery that lasts for maybe 300 shots (as opposed to ~ 500 for Pentax) is better than walking around with a dead camera.

I'd be willing to bet most of them are made by Hahnel anyway.

None of us had the first worry about running our *ist series cameras off any old AA's, why the sudden concern just 'cause it's a Li-Ion and its a funny shape?

It's just a standard Li-Ion battery pack, and at £6.99 each they've got to die pretty darned quickly to justify £45 for a Pentax one.

My experience of 7dayshop brand Li-Ion packs is they are at least as good as the Panasonic one which came with my Lumix (which by the way is exactly the same as a Pentax Dli .

If these batteries caused actual physical problems the KM crowd would be shouting about it all over the internet by now. They aren't. Therefore the only possible problem with them is useful lifespan, and they've only got to manage 1/6th the life of the original to remain cheaper overall.

I think you're spot on.

My reasoning too. Currently, my 7dayshop cheapie has taken 408 shots and is still showing "full." Like the other lithium batteries I've got (power tools), I'm expecting a sudden power drop - which is why I bought spares in the first place, so I'm not "caught out."

Ray.