Hi Folks.
Hopefully this might be of some interest to some who visit the site.
Some time back there were warnings about counterfeit Canon products and how they might be damaging or even dangerous.
Suffice to say I got caught by that old “if it looks too good to be true it probably is” adage! I bought a cheap “genuine” charger so as to have 2 available for charging a pair of batteries for a grip, the second I opened the package I knew it was fake! : :
Then someone gave me his failed charger after we had confirmed it was the charger and not the battery by putting his “too flat to wake the camera” battery (which had been on his charger for hours) on my charger where it started to recover within minutes.
So here are some shots of the innards of each, can you tell the difference?
4X3Z7495_DxO by Graham Stretch, on Flickr
4X3Z7501_DxO by Graham Stretch, on Flickr
4X3Z7508_DxO by Graham Stretch, on Flickr
4X3Z7505_DxO by Graham Stretch, on Flickr
Now I’m no electronics expert but it seems one is a lot busier than the other, the first clue is the weight, the counterfeit is very noticeably lighter than the genuine item then there is the shortage of components on both sides of the pcb.
Notwithstanding that some of this stuff might be to do with telling the battery how well it is charging, 3, 2, or 1 green square I’m going to guess that a lot of it is to do with the safety of charging the battery.
I’m sure that some of you will know what a lot of this stuff does and might be able to explain some or all of this circuit, if you feel inclined to share that would be really great and I’m sure I won’t be the only one to find it interesting!
Oh, I’m sure by now that most if not all of you will have worked out that the top 2 are the fake, the bottom 2 the real thing.
Cheers, Graham.
PS. I’m sorry the shots are not entirely sharp, it was a hurried setup whilst I had a short time slot, I’m hoping the fact that one side or the other was out of focus is because the camera might not have been true to the plane of the subject and not due to a tilted element on my 24-105 which I have dropped from waist height on to longish grass on a 45deg slope, the lens tumbled down the slope a short distance before stopping and I’m hoping that the grass with the slope and tumbling was more of a deceleration than an element shifting stop!
Lesson, don’t jam lenses in pants pockets that are not big enough to safely stow a lens and then start to walk!
Hopefully this might be of some interest to some who visit the site.
Some time back there were warnings about counterfeit Canon products and how they might be damaging or even dangerous.
Suffice to say I got caught by that old “if it looks too good to be true it probably is” adage! I bought a cheap “genuine” charger so as to have 2 available for charging a pair of batteries for a grip, the second I opened the package I knew it was fake! : :
Then someone gave me his failed charger after we had confirmed it was the charger and not the battery by putting his “too flat to wake the camera” battery (which had been on his charger for hours) on my charger where it started to recover within minutes.
So here are some shots of the innards of each, can you tell the difference?
4X3Z7495_DxO by Graham Stretch, on Flickr
4X3Z7501_DxO by Graham Stretch, on Flickr
4X3Z7508_DxO by Graham Stretch, on Flickr
4X3Z7505_DxO by Graham Stretch, on Flickr
Now I’m no electronics expert but it seems one is a lot busier than the other, the first clue is the weight, the counterfeit is very noticeably lighter than the genuine item then there is the shortage of components on both sides of the pcb.
Notwithstanding that some of this stuff might be to do with telling the battery how well it is charging, 3, 2, or 1 green square I’m going to guess that a lot of it is to do with the safety of charging the battery.
I’m sure that some of you will know what a lot of this stuff does and might be able to explain some or all of this circuit, if you feel inclined to share that would be really great and I’m sure I won’t be the only one to find it interesting!
Oh, I’m sure by now that most if not all of you will have worked out that the top 2 are the fake, the bottom 2 the real thing.
Cheers, Graham.
PS. I’m sorry the shots are not entirely sharp, it was a hurried setup whilst I had a short time slot, I’m hoping the fact that one side or the other was out of focus is because the camera might not have been true to the plane of the subject and not due to a tilted element on my 24-105 which I have dropped from waist height on to longish grass on a 45deg slope, the lens tumbled down the slope a short distance before stopping and I’m hoping that the grass with the slope and tumbling was more of a deceleration than an element shifting stop!
Lesson, don’t jam lenses in pants pockets that are not big enough to safely stow a lens and then start to walk!