Off-brand Batteries

[Kryssa]

Considering picking up an STK battery on Amazon for my S100 as it's 1/3 the price of the Canon battery. Reviews are pretty positive, but I'm curious if any one here has had experience with STK batteries.

Thanks!

 

[Interceptor121]

With few exceptions non original batteries last much less than original ones despite nominal higher capacity
There are some interesting graphs on the web
Wasabi might be an exception but batteries are not were you want to save some cents

 

[muzikbiz22]

+1 for Wasabi Japanese cell batteries.

 

[tridacna]

Had a really bad experience with an STK for my 7D. It lasted about 4 charges. Then would not charge past 35%. You get what you pay for...

 

[Damselfish]

Don't know about that specific battery, but my husband has tried some cheaper non-OEM batteries in his Canons and I think they generally had a shorter lifespan and possibly he was getting fewer shots on each charge. But some may be worth the price/quality tradeoff, especially if they're for a camera you've had for awhile and maybe don't plan to keep long term. Just hard to tell for sure in advance. Do look for reviews from people who have been using a battery heavily/longer term, rather than from someone who just got it and seems to be a casual user - "stuck it in my camera and seems to work fine" - since most batteries will do at least that much.

 

[bvanant]

We have extensively looked at name brand vs. non oem batteries. In general (Canon/Olympus/Sony) the brand names come right in at their expected capacity and hold charges for quite a long time. In general non-name batteries have much wider variability, some are as good as the name brands, some are a bit (20-30%) less so and some just suck (20% of stated capacity, very high internal discharge). If you can afford to go diving with a camera you can afford the name brand batteries (likely you will just need 2 batteries total for each camera). If you are willing to take a 30% hit on capacity and run time (not the same thing at all) then getting a 70% battery for 30% dollars is a good trade but you might have to buy three to get 2 OK ones. Reviews are not worth too much in the case of batteries where battery to battery variability is quite large unless the reviewer has tested 20 or more of batteries from a single vendor.

Bill