Alternatives to Canon NB-5L Batteries???

[Himself]

Hello-

I have a Powershot SD700 camera which takes a Canon NB-5L battery with a rated capacity of 1120mAh. These cost about $40 each.

Are there suitable alternative batteries with either a higher capacity or a lower price, whether manufactured by Canon or someone else?

Thank you.

 

[lerroy]

there are a few generic types on ebay

I purchased a few for my G10 and i have a official Canon, cant complain about battery life very much the same as canon and they are still going after many charges

Here is a link to a 1400 mAh on ebay

 

[M_Bipartitus]

I've also used some generic batteries from ebay. I have had no problems with my 5D or digital rebels.

 

[Taxgeek]

I got some generic batteries from Amazon for my g10 (Power2000 - I would guess they probably make batteries for other cameras as well). Read the amazon reviews and the people seemed happy with them. I actually did a huge semi-scientific comparison because I was buying a bunch of them for a 16 day trip without electricity. I tested how many minutes of video each battery (canon and generic) would take before running out of juice. Fresh from the charger, the cannon batteries could do 191 minutes and the generics did 132 minutes (even though the mAh rating was much higher on the generics). Then I did a test where I charged the batteries and let them sit for 16 days (to simulate my 16 day trip). The canon dropped to 175 minutes, but the generic only dropped to 128 minutes.

So it seemed like the initial capacity of the canon was a good bit higher, but the generic held its charge better over limited amounts of time.

Furthermore, the generic was 1/5 the price of the canon, and lasted way more than 1/5 the time . . . worth it, in my book.

 

[bvanant]

You certainly can get generic batteries from a number of sources including Thomas distributing and Ebay. You can get good ones and ones that aren't so good. If you take taxgeek's example you see that the generic battery was listed as higher capacity than the canon but was actually less so take the higher mAh ratings with a big grain of salt. Also, sometimes generic batteries stop working when you least want them too and sometimes won't charge. Going on a $5000 once in a lifetime trip to Indonesia, lets save $20 on a battery but halfway through the trip stop recording images because the battery quit? On the other hand, going to dive Anacapa for the 143rd time take the generic. The one thing that Canon and other name guys do is have repeatable processes, while the cheap generic guys don't and probably don't care. I am always amazed that folks will spend $1000 on a camera and housing and want to save $12 on a battery that makes the thing work. Are Canon batteries overpriced? Probably but not enough to risk a trip on to save $15. Properly charged these batteries will last for at least 8000 photos so that is a half cent per pic I think.

Bill

 

[Taxgeek]

Thought of something else to add - I got Duracell brand batteries for my 5D, and they work splendidly, at least as good as the Canons. Don't know if Duracell makes batteries for your camera, but if they do, you might try them.

 

[ft.lauderdale diver]

go on ebay. I had a sd550 and got a couple of batteries for dirt cheap relative to canon brand. Worked perfectly fine.