Monday, March 29, 2010

Cheap China Batteries for Canon 5D and 7D

I bought a couple of Li-ion batteries from a Chinese vendor on eBay for about $20 for charger and batteries. They came in about 12 days.
This vendor had good feedback from other Canon EOS purchasers who bought these batteries, so I thought I would give it a try.
Upon careful inspection the charger looks cheaply made. The contacts to charge the battery are thin tin or some other material. I had to straighten them out some with needle nose pliers.
The batteries also have cheap contacts. What is disturbing about the contacts is they are not 'all contact' contacts, but rather two plates with two small pin size dimples pointing inward. I tested it to see if they were sharp by running an exacto knife in them and seeing it the blade was scratched. It wasn't, but I wanted to be sure before I stick these things in my 7D. I don't say this is the best test as blades are pretty hard metal and hard to scratch anyway.
The next thing I did after charging them up was check the voltage. 5D and 7D runs off of 7.4VDC. These batteries were measured at 8.4VDC even though they are listed as 7.4VDC. I'm hoping and thinking there is overvoltage protection in the 7D. One would think this high end circuitry would have that. It may be also that the voltage will drop to something more the 7D and 5D uses upon receiving it's load.
I have not put them in my camera yet, but I will since I haven't heard of any trouble from other users on them.
It's a risk I know, but so is life.

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