Canon S90 Batteries from China

[britishseapowerman]

Has anyone else ordered S90 batteries from Chinese suppliers on ebay and if so what are your opinions of them? I have just received mine and they certainly appear genuine enough, they are not an exact match to the one I got with the camera but very close and they came in very official looking canon packaging complete with holograms - the proof will be when I try shooting with them I suppose but would be keen to hear anyone elses experience with them.

Thanks

 

[skynscuba]

I ordered a couple from Amazon for about $4 each plus shipping; supposed to be same mAhr as OEM, 1000mAhr. My tests show that they last about 62% as long as the battery that came with the camera.

Ordered a couple from newegg.com, brand Zeikos, $10 each. Supposed to be 1400mAhr. They look and perform like the others (except one was mechanically defective), about 60-64% capacity of the Canon battery. So marketed as 1400mAhr, but really a bit over 600.

They easily lasted two dive before needing recharging, but that will depend on how many shots you take. I usually had the flash on low -- used to trigger my external strobes.

 

[shoturtle]

I have order batteries for my T1i and epl-1 on ebay form a US supplier that comes form China, and they work fine. And they last longer then the stock batteries with the higher ahm

 

[tarekaly]

Hope you try it and get us the feedback already the original batteries last only for a day upon intensive use.

Also what to search for to find the ebay seller you purchased from?

Cheers

 

[swee sin]

Last time i used to had few of them for my G7.
Those batt even they branded made from japan will not perform same as canon original.
They start to deteriorate after few charge and they do get hot when in used.

 

[SFLDiver3445]

Even though I do not shoot an S90, I've personally purchased several different brand aftermarket batteries for my cameras. The batteries that have given me the best results are the Wasabi Brand Japanese Cell Batteries.

I've been using them for my G9 for almost two years now (and I dive regularly) and have always gotten better performance than the OEM battery, and have yet to experience any degrading of battery life over time.

Not sure if they ship outside the U.S., but here's the link to the equivalent battery (NB-6L) for the S90 from the place where I buy mine:

Blue Nook - Canon NB-6L Replacement Battery (1300 mAh - Japanese Cells)

BTW, this site sells cheaper (non-Japanese cell) batteries for each camera as well, but I've always spent the extra money and purchased their Japanes cell / higher mAh batteries and always been extremely satisfied.

FYI

 

[skynscuba]

Another thing about knockoff batteries:

The 3rd terminal is for the charger to be able to monitor the temperature of the battery during charging, so as not to damage it. Both the Zeikos and the other Chinese battery had a fixed resistor (doesn't change with temperature) from that terminal to the Minus terminal, so they can't really be monitored. The Canon battery had a thermistor, as it should. You can verify this with an ohm meter -- measure the value, then measure again after sticking it in your freezer for 2 minutes.

I guess that is okay, since many cheap aftermarket chargers don't even have the 3rd terminal!

 

[Nemrod]

I have two 1.4 ah replacement batteries and they definitely run longer than my Canon NB-6L. They are made with Japanese cells. But, the Canon pack is fine, runs plenty long for two dives shooting tons of flash. Of course, I am shooting with the camera strobe in low power setting and running my strobes in EA mode. The sTTL would require the camera strobe to be set in auto and that would definitely increase battery drain.

N

 

[tarekaly]

Thank you SFLDiver3445 for the info.

I found out that there is additional 22$ for battery. I accept that if it performs well as you mentioned.

But just confirm that this is the difference you mentioned.

 

[SFLDiver3445]

Thank you SFLDiver3445 for the info.

I found out that there is additional 22$ for battery. I accept that if it performs well as you mentioned.

But just confirm that this is the difference you mentioned.

It's difficult to do an apples-to-apples comparison, because everyone sets their camera differently (i.e., flash mode, flash output, display brightness, camera power down timer, display off timer, etc.) and that can affect the duration of the battery. Also, each photographers diving/shooting habits (i.e., duration of dives, time between shots, etc.) are different, and that too can affect the duration of the battery. However, with all that in mind, in my experience, the Japanese Cell Wasabi Power batteries I purchased from Blue Nook for my G9 have significantly outperformed both the OEM and other aftermarket batteries I own and have used on my G9 underwater.

Also, I recently purchased an extra set of the batteries, because I figured that after two years it is probably time to switch them out, but I have yet to use the new ones, because I have yet to notice any degradation at all in the batteries I am using.

One other note, regardless of what batteries you ultimately use in your camera, make sure that you are setting your camera to the most power efficient flash output setting for the type of shooting you are doing, because as Nemrod previously indicated within his posting, that will significantly increase the power consumption of the battery.