Buyer Beware

[nestork]

I found out today that the Li-ion battery for my digital camera is dying, so I phoned a photo shop that sells Sony cameras here in Winnipeg to find out what a new Sony NP-FR1 battery would cost me.

I was told it would be $70something, and was almost floored by that price. And, the guy on the phone told me I should snap it up while I had the chance because Sony had discontinued that battery.

So I phoned up a number of places that sell batteries and rebuild battery packs for tools, and the best price I could get was a generic Li-ion battery that's a replacement for the FR1 called the DSO 004 for $30.99

And, at the same time, I was told that Sony didn't make any of their own batteries, and that whichever company had been making them for Sony would undoubtedly continue to make them.

So I went online to Google Sony NP-FR1, and was able to find

'BattDepot.ca - Specialize in selling aftermarket batteries and adapters for laptop / notebook computers , camcorders , digital cameras , smart phones, Apple iPods and PDA's.'

that was selling the DSO 004 battery for $7.99 each.

'BattDepot.ca - Specialize in selling aftermarket batteries and adapters for laptop / notebook computers , camcorders , digital cameras , smart phones, Apple iPods and PDA's.'

So, I ordered three of them. I often need to take lots of pictures when a tenant moves out and leaves damages and/or their apartment uncleaned. I figure I can charge up all three batteries in the days before the tenant vacates so they're all charged up for when I need them.

I just hope I'm getting a good deal, and don't end up regretting this purchase.

Just thought I'd spread the word if someone is looking for Li-Ion batteries cheap.

[gregz]

I bought one for my older Sony camcorder. Turns out it was cheap and had very high capacity. Worked well.

Greg

[Hello]

...

Organization: DIYbanter.com

Jesus christ - are you kidding?

You're posting through diybanter?

Are you that lame or stupid that you don't know how to use a real usenet client?

Not only that, you can't even form a proper Subject line - one that at least conveys some idea of WHAT THE FUCK you're post is about.

My god - are people really getting so lazy and stupid?

[krw]

Pretty good price. I generally use batteries4less.com but they're about twice that price. I probably would have bought one and then more if that worked out but at $8, you can lose.

[Tim Watts]

On Friday 01 March 2013 00:54 nestork wrote in alt.home.repair:

"Cheap" is usually a big mistake with these things. But it is possible to get "good value". I boughtt a spare for my Canon G3 in 2003 - by Ansmann.

Perfect fit, more capacity and outlived the Canon original by several years. And rather less money!

[Han]

nestork wrote in news: [e-mail]:

So far I can't see a difference in behavior between the original Canon Powershot S100 battery and this one

[Frank]

Happened to me a few years ago with a garden set of hedge clipper and weed wacker that cost $95 with 2 batteries. Replacement batteries were $50 each so I threw out the set.

[hrhofmann]

Were the $50 batteries the price from the original manufacturer, or the cheapie replacement batteries cost?

[Frank]

OEM, Homelite, did not offer any. It was only battery I found on the web. Did not consider rebuilt at the time. It was nice equipment for doing light garden work but I replaced them with corded units. Hated to throw out perfectly good tools but I guess I got 5 years out of them so it was not that bad.

OP might consider same about his camera. Electronic equipment gets antiquated fast. I had to toss a nice camera as too expensive to fix but new camera could hold maybe 100X as many pictures in memory.

[Doug]

Thanks. I use my camera (different brand) for the same reason. I'll see if they carry my batteries too. Thanks again.

[nestork]

I am so terribly sorry.

I shall strive to do better by your assessment in future.

[Keith]

I've been buying camera batteries on ebay for years with great luck. I never had a Sony camera, but HP, Canon, NIkon and Olympus. I looked at your NP-FR1s and they go from about 3 bucks each for a pair or around 5 for a single unit. Or you can get them for 50c each if you buy a crate. Original Sony batteries are going for 10 dollars flat. You might consider a spare charger too, as they go for three or four bucks.

... Keith

[nestork]

Thanks, Keith, but going from $70something and "you better buy it while you can cuz it's discontinued" to "$8 a pop, and they'll be around forever", I'm happy with the deal I made.

[Vic Smith]

I stay away from "proprietary" batteries when I can, and look for having AA in cameras and similar. My wireless phones are an exception. Don't know if they come with AA's, but since the ones I have were all gifts from work anniversaries I had no choice anyway. Anyway I just bought new batteries for my Uniden phone set. Saw prices ranging from 16 bucks each to 5 bucks for 2. Reviews said the cheap ones were fine, so I got the 2 for 5 bucks. The connector housing is a bit smaller, but a small folded piece of paper fixed that. I get a kick out of the on-line reviews. One woman complained these batteries went dead after 4 days. With the phone off the base station. Even batteries that were supposed to be proprietary are pretty much a commodity now, so it pays to shop around. The internet has maybe spurred more price competition than anything before it.

[nestork]

Well, long story short, the three DSO004 batteries I got from BattDepot simply aren't as good as the Sony NP-FR1 batteries specified for my camera.

On my Sony DSC-V3 camera, the LCD screen will give you an estimate of battery life remaining as the battery charge is used up. When the batteries are fully charged, it'll tell me I have about 195 minutes of time left.

I charged all three of the DSO004 batteries I got from Battery Depot on the same charger I use for the Sony NP-FR1 batteries, and all three of them only charged up to about half the power of the FR1's. When I put them in my camera, in all three cases it tells me I only have about 95 minutes of usage time available.

So, I'm disappointed, but not completely bummed out.

[Sjouke Burry]

nestork wrote in news:nestork.b7ffbc8 @diybanter.com:

Calculation of remaining power might be wrong. The new batteries might have a slightly different "full" voltage. Lead batts for example:old type differs from gel types, and agn batts have yet a somewhat different voltage. That does not mean that their charge state differs, but it might fool testers.

[Robert Green]

That's not surprising. I've found very few aftermarket batteries that will hold as much of a charge as the originals. Additionally, I find that they won't hold the charge for nearly as long either. Batteries I bought for my cell phones and video cameras have been 1/8 the price of the originals for about 1/2 the performance. In some uses, that's OK because I'll charge up three or four batteries for a trip and they'll serve their purposes. But the batteries I bought for my D70 Nikon will lose their charge sitting on the shelf for a month. Ditto for some cell phone batteries although others have been fine.

The DSC series (a great camera, BTW, with superb IR capabilities) as well as a lot of other Sony gear, uses "InfoLithium" batteries.

I've bought some aftermarket packs that won't even load because the Sony InfoLithium battery gauge circuitry does not accept them. Others have noticed similar problems with at least some aftermarket batteries.

Two things come to mind. One is that the cells need to be charged/discharged and recharged a few times to reach their full capacity. The other is to test them in real life without using the meter. The estimate of their capacity could easily be misrepresented. Testing capacity is a lot harder with a still camera than it is with a video camera, but it's still doable. With my Sony Handicam I just turn on the onboard white LEDs, the NightShot IR LEDs and then set it to record at EP. It's a good way to measure actual battery life under load and convenient, too. The footage counter gives you a good relative index of battery life. A fully charged Sony battery will give me about 1.5 hours of recording time. The aftermarkets did much better when new, but after about 20 uses they are not holding a charge anywhere near as long as the OEM battery packs.

I should note that I've had some packs go dead and drop below useful voltage after just a few charging cycles leading me to wonder about the battery's chemical composition. It's a crap shoot when it comes to aftermarket batteries.

The recent 787 battery problems should serve as a reminder of the power of lithium cells "gone wild." I suspect that cheap lithium ion cells probably present an even greater potential fire hazard than OEM cells for a number of reasons. I am building a charging station out of an old surplus .50 cal ammo box to contain any potential fire or explosion from a charger or battery that was defective. I've seen the force involved when even lithium coin cells explode. The packs for SLRs and other lithium powered gear around the house have at least 20 times the electrical capacity of coin cells and probably a similar explosive capacity. )-: