New Aftermarket Camera Batteries

Digital photography has changed the way photographers go about image capture.  Gone are the days of 36 exposures, and now it’s not unusual to have a memory card that gives you 3,600 exposures or more. 

The only issue then becomes having sufficient battery power to shoot all day.  Many photographers like to stick to OEM batteries (original equipment manufacturer).  OEM batteries can be on the pricey side, however.  For example, the Canon high-capacity batteries now cost over $100 apiece. I can understand photographers being leery of aftermarket batteries as often they were of poor quality.

Thankfully that has changed and some of the new aftermarket batteries are now even better than OEM batteries.

(Before we go further, this is not a commercial for any one product, no company gave me their batteries to write this)

There are new batteries that have the ability to be charged without a charger, using just a USB cord, which means in a pinch you can charge the battery in your car or even from a portable battery pack. 

 

There are several models that also have a button you can push that will tell you how much charge the battery currently has. 

So, how do you decide what battery to select? 

First off, check the mAh (milliampere-hours) rating on your current OEM battery.   You don’t want one lower rated than that. 

For example, I shoot with a Canon R5 and those OEM batteries are the LP-E6NH and have a mAh rating of 2130mAh, so I wouldn’t want something with a rating below that as it wouldn’t last as long.  So, I found a set of batteries with a mAh rating of 2350mAh.  The nice part is a set of two was $40, whereas two Canon LP-E6NH batteries would run $218.00 

So let me do the math $40,…….. $218, ..hmm sounds like a decent deal.  

So I ordered them and they arrived 2 days later.  Other than not being black like my OEM batteries they looked the same, except for the USB-C port on them.

So I decided to charge them using the USB cable that was included with them.  As soon as I plugged them in a small red light appeared letting me know it was charging.  That red light changed to green when it was fully charged, and it did not take very long.

I put it in my R5 and the camera did not notice any difference, the camera read it just like it was the OEM battery.

You’ll notice that the battery shows down one notch, that was after shooting over 100 frames.

So, yes I took it out for a shoot and the battery seems to be working at least as well as the OEM battery and at 1/5 the price. 

And the great part was on the drive back I plugged it into the same cord I use for my cellphone in my car and recharged it.

I am thrilled with my decision to try an aftermarket battery. And in choosing this one, I did what most people do, I read the reviews on the product.  

So, what do you think?  Are you gonna try an aftermarket battery?

Leave me a comment below.