EOS 5D Mark III & Third Party Batteries

[unfocused]

Re: EOS 5D Mark III & Third Party Batteries

No offense or insult intended, but who is "Jon" on Amazon 's review and how reliable is this only single review? I would like to see others report success with this battery before I get any. And, of course, Canon may issue a firmware update in the future that with eliminate communication with these newer non-Canon batteries.

Yeah, I'm trying to figure out who the heck "Jon" is as well. Is it the same "Jon"as the guy on Amazon or is this another "Jon." And, where's the full story? Is this a CR0 or a CR1 story?

 

[WPJ]

Re: EOS 5D Mark III & Third Party Batteries

How are you taking a chance if you buy a battery from a good company you should be fine. Now the cheap 5$ china version I would not touch.

this however would be solved is canon charges a normal fee and,not 5 times what the battery is worth.

 

[kphoto99]

Re: EOS 5D Mark III & Third Party Batteries

Next step for Canon is to make sure that the SD/CF card is manufactured by Canon. After all the other brands can damage the camera.

 

[WPJ]

Re: EOS 5D Mark III & Third Party Batteries

Next step for Canon is to make sure that the SD/CF card is manufactured by Canon. After all the other brands can damage the camera.

after that, you will have to ensure that there,is a canon logo in your exposure or it won't capture the raw file to the card. Hahaha

 

[RustyTheGeek]

Re: EOS 5D Mark III & Third Party Batteries

I noticed this new phenomenon when I got my new 6D last year. And I posted comments on it then. In general, I pretty much agree with dgatwood. Using an expensive piece of technology like a 5D3 to punish the buyer for choosing a 3rd party battery is sleazy and an abuse of the manufacturer's power.

I also feel like noncho has the best point about Canon simply making their OEM batteries more affordable to begin with. That would solve everything. (Hmm, Canon battery for $35 or cheap Chinese knock-off for $20? Easy choice!) Instead Canon has decided to spend more R&D time, money and lose customer good will over protecting what amounts to unfair profit in the first place. And in the process, use of genuine batteries potentially is affected. I had this same attitude in the 80's with VHS tape copy protection that didn't work and ruined the picture for everyone and then in the 90's when MP3 files started taking off and the record companies started suing teenagers for downloading MP3 files. Really? If the movie/music companies, (aka: the most greedy/sleazy entities on the planet) had simply made their movies/music more affordable from the beginning, no one would have wanted to go to all the trouble to copy or download inferior music files to get around the high cost. As of today, they still haven't learned their lesson even after many have gone bankrupt trying to fight a losing battle. And let's not forget how Apple treats people that try to circumvent their controls. Anyone remember all the BRICKED IPHONES Apple intentionally damaged with an update back in 2007 when folks tried to jailbreak their phones? Hope Canon doesn't try THAT!! But I digress...

I agree slightly with the counterfeit protection excuse simply because there are many examples of true counterfeit Canon batteries out there that are almost perfect copies, cost more than established 3rd party batteries and are crap. So I'm all for some kind of message that tells me it's not a true Canon battery but don't punish me by shutting off all the battery data exchange and/or crippling the camera performance. That's just crappy.

Also, let's not forget that in 5+ years when Canon stops making these batteries or making them in enough quantity, you'll be stuck with 3rd party batteries as your only choice and won't that be lovely?

So in summary, Canon needs to stop with the battery gestapo crap, make their batteries more reasonably priced to begin with (thus solving the problem entirely) and just stick to making good cameras instead of trying to piss everyone off with stupid ideas they learned from the movie/music industry and Apple.

 

[Skirball]

Re: EOS 5D Mark III & Third Party Batteries

IMO, it's not up to Canon keep the third party guys happy.

Agreed, it’s not, but this isn’t about keeping the third party guys happy, it’s about spending dollars researching (futile) ways to force them out of the game. You could write up a laundry list of firm ware fixes that people would like to see, but when they finally getting around to pushing out a release what’s in it? A speedbump for third party battery manufactures.

 

[RustyTheGeek]

Re: EOS 5D Mark III & Third Party Batteries

Next step for Canon is to make sure that the SD/CF card is manufactured by Canon. After all the other brands can damage the camera.

If Canon really cared about us as they say with their battery scheme in the firmware, they would add a feature to test the media card in camera for bad memory sectors and transfer rate. Counterfeit memory is a big problem and Canon could help. "Media Verify" would be a welcome feature to have a way to verify media anytime someone wanted to in the field. But noooo, let's just focus on the possibility that a battery could cause trouble since that has been such a big problem for soooo many people over the past 10 years.

 

[RustyTheGeek]

Re: EOS 5D Mark III & Third Party Batteries

IMO, it's not up to Canon keep the third party guys happy.

Agreed, it’s not, but this isn’t about keeping the third party guys happy, it’s about spending dollars researching (futile) ways to force them out of the game. You could write up a laundry list of firm ware fixes that people would like to see, but when they finally getting around to pushing out a release what’s in it? A speedbump for third party battery manufactures.

Totally agree Skirball. Exactly what I was thinking. Of all the things we want, need and Canon should feel obligated to address, this is what they focus on. Pathetic. Meanwhile, other things like having a red focus confirmation indicator in the viewfinder while in AiServo goes unchanged. Thanks heaps Canon and Merry Christmas to you too.

 

[Skirball]

Re: EOS 5D Mark III & Third Party Batteries

If the movie/music companies, (aka: the most greedy/sleazy entities on the planet) had simply made their movies/music more affordable from the beginning, no one would have wanted to go to all the trouble to copy or download inferior music files to get around the high cost.

As much as I’d like to bash the record companies, I’m going to have to disagree. People steal music because it’s free and easy. People steal crap music that they’ll hardly listen to, because they can. People steal music that they’ll hardly listen to, because like all their specialty lenses camera components that they hardly use, people get into collecting useless crap because they want to have a big collection they can tell people about. People can definitely afford to buy the songs that they really enjoy listening to, but they don’t, because people don’t see it as stealing from these big bad record companies.

Cost doesn’t have much to do with it. I see kids at Starbucks getting $5 coffees, on iPhones with unlimited data plans, driving fancy cars that they can afford to fill at $4 a gallon. They can afford a $15 album or $1 song if they wanted, but why pay when you can just steal it for free. Sorry to digress, but lets compare apples to apples.

 

[Skirball]

Re: EOS 5D Mark III & Third Party Batteries

Next step for Canon is to make sure that the SD/CF card is manufactured by Canon. After all the other brands can damage the camera.

I was just going to say that. What if Canon bought out Lexar and made it so only their cards worked. Certainly people would have a problem with that?

 

[unfocused]

Re: EOS 5D Mark III & Third Party Batteries

How are you taking a chance if you buy a battery from a good company you should be fine. Now the cheap 5$ china version I would not touch.

This however would be solved is canon charges a normal fee and,not 5 times what the battery is worth.

Along the same lines. I have a Energizer battery in my 7D grip (along with a Canon). Works perfectly in tandem with the Canon as far as I can tell. I've got to think that Energizer has too much to lose to manufacture the battery without some agreement with Canon. Of course, it's only $10 cheaper than the Canon, which may mean Canon's are not as overpriced as we think.

Also wondering if Canon even makes their own batteries. I doubt it. I wouldn't be surprised if Energizer makes them for Canon and it's the same battery. Does Canon really have its own manufacturing facility for all the various permutations of batteries their cameras use? That seems like a waste of company resources and Canon doesn't seem like the type of company to waste resources.

 

[jeffa4444]

Re: EOS 5D Mark III & Third Party Batteries

If Im going to purchase a $2000-$3000 camera Im certainly not going to compromise it with a third party battery that Im not sure how it was made and to what standard. Ive seen what batteries can do if they have a thermal runaway (as poorly made Lithium Ion batteries can do) and its not pleasant.
I recently bought a Canon battery for my 6d (which I could have bought cheaper on-line) for £ 40.00 ($65) in my local camera store, on Amazon I could get third party as low as £ 10.00 ($16) but for such a vast difference you know corners have been cut.

 

[WPJ]

Re: EOS 5D Mark III & Third Party Batteries

If the movie/music companies, (aka: the most greedy/sleazy entities on the planet) had simply made their movies/music more affordable from the beginning, no one would have wanted to go to all the trouble to copy or download inferior music files to get around the high cost.

As much as I’d like to bash the record companies, I’m going to have to disagree. People steal music because it’s free and easy. People steal crap music that they’ll hardly listen to, because they can. People steal music that they’ll hardly listen to, because like all their specialty lenses camera components that they hardly use, people get into collecting useless crap because they want to have a big collection they can tell people about. People can definitely afford to buy the songs that they really enjoy listening to, but they don’t, because people don’t see it as stealing from these big bad record companies.

Cost doesn’t have much to do with it. I see kids at Starbucks getting $5 coffees, on iPhones with unlimited data plans, driving fancy cars that they can afford to fill at $4 a gallon. They can afford a $15 album or $1 song if they wanted, but why pay when you can just steal it for free. Sorry to digress, but lets compare apples to apples.

we,can agree,to disagree on this but the cost has not gone,down in,sorry but paying 15-20 for a cd digital edition is absurd I'm sorry but that industry it way to over priced a cd should be in the 5-10$ range mot double triple that

 

[RustyTheGeek]

Re: EOS 5D Mark III & Third Party Batteries

If the movie/music companies, (aka: the most greedy/sleazy entities on the planet) had simply made their movies/music more affordable from the beginning, no one would have wanted to go to all the trouble to copy or download inferior music files to get around the high cost.

As much as I’d like to bash the record companies, I’m going to have to disagree. People steal music because it’s free and easy. People steal crap music that they’ll hardly listen to, because they can. People steal music that they’ll hardly listen to, because like all their specialty lenses camera components that they hardly use, people get into collecting useless crap because they want to have a big collection they can tell people about. People can definitely afford to buy the songs that they really enjoy listening to, but they don’t, because people don’t see it as stealing from these big bad record companies.

Cost doesn’t have much to do with it. I see kids at Starbucks getting $5 coffees, on iPhones with unlimited data plans, driving fancy cars that they can afford to fill at $4 a gallon. They can afford a $15 album or $1 song if they wanted, but why pay when you can just steal it for free. Sorry to digress, but lets compare apples to apples.

Eh. We'll have to agree to disagree. I guess it could be seen that way if you grew up in the last 20 years since the Internet has been in place, credit has been easy and consumer affluency has been so high. But I assure you that in the decades leading up to the 90's, people didn't collect as much stuff or have as much disposable money. And the recording industries were as greedy or more so. Most of the artists making the content were shafted, screwed and left in the cold along with the consumers being shafted on the other end with high prices and ultra cheap cassettes and 8 track tapes.

I will agree that many folks tend to collect/amass things that are free simply because they can, esp kids with lots of free time. But I don't think that necc supports the reason why MP3 music was created or became popular in the first place. The battles between artists/consumers and the recording industry is a long one. In our family, we download pirated TV shows for one reason, convenience. We want to watch something at another time or in a series all together and sometimes it doesn't get recorded on the DVR and isn't available online or on DVD yet. We rent or purchase a lot of online content, music CDs, DVDs, Blu-Rays, etc but when things aren't provided by the legitimate providers, we will occasionally download something because it's not available any other way. The content providers should understand this and use it to their advantage, not fight it.

I'm not sure what circles you run in but I don't see a large percentage of the population able to afford most of what you say they are buying at Starbucks, luxury car dealerships, etc. But unfortunately it happens anyway because there are no controls on what anyone does with their entitlement money from the government. Believe me, my wife works in a county hospital, she sees a lot of "poor" people with nicer manicures, phones and clothes than our family has and that's just sad. Our landscaper's daughter drives a Hummer but she can only afford to drive it on the weekends. The phenomenon of poor folks spending money in all the wrong places has been going on for a long time as well. Probably as long as govt assistance has been around and then probably longer still.

It's truly a strange world and it's getting stranger every year.

 

[Zlyden]

Re: EOS 5D Mark III & Third Party Batteries

The Canon 6D has been doing this since it was launched. The 6D charger doesn't charge any of my 3rd party batteries either.

Then this rumor is probably outdated and looks more like 'YoKool' advertising: 'Need cheap 3rd party batteries? Buy these form us directly! Satisfaction guaranteed!'

I got two 3rd party batteries after purchasing 6D few months ago, and all them work fine (with current firmware version).

I'm a bit afraid to buy butteries with 'Canon' brand on them, because in our parts these either cost around $150 (3rd parties are closer to $30), or could be fakes (mentioned in the rumor) that will die in a month or so (did bought these years ago for other Canon cameras)...

 

[RustyTheGeek]

Re: EOS 5D Mark III & Third Party Batteries

If the movie/music companies, (aka: the most greedy/sleazy entities on the planet) had simply made their movies/music more affordable from the beginning, no one would have wanted to go to all the trouble to copy or download inferior music files to get around the high cost.

As much as I’d like to bash the record companies, I’m going to have to disagree. People steal music because it’s free and easy. People steal crap music that they’ll hardly listen to, because they can. People steal music that they’ll hardly listen to, because like all their specialty lenses camera components that they hardly use, people get into collecting useless crap because they want to have a big collection they can tell people about. People can definitely afford to buy the songs that they really enjoy listening to, but they don’t, because people don’t see it as stealing from these big bad record companies.

Cost doesn’t have much to do with it. I see kids at Starbucks getting $5 coffees, on iPhones with unlimited data plans, driving fancy cars that they can afford to fill at $4 a gallon. They can afford a $15 album or $1 song if they wanted, but why pay when you can just steal it for free. Sorry to digress, but lets compare apples to apples.

we,can agree,to disagree on this but the cost has not gone,down in,sorry but paying 15-20 for a cd digital edition is absurd I'm sorry but that industry it way to over priced a cd should be in the 5-10$ range mot double triple that

Yep. I see it all the time. When something is priced higher than the market can bear, alternatives will become available. It's only natural. If anyone sells something desirable for a fair price that the market prefers, the alternatives will suffer. If Canon offered their batteries for $30 - $35, I'd own 3 or 4 for each of my cameras instead of the 2 Canon batteries per camera I own and the rest 3rd party. (I shoot outdoors a lot over several days.) I would prefer to own all Canon batteries but not for the $65+ price they charge. I didn't buy the cheapest alternative, I bought trusted alternative brands from both online and legitimate camera stores and they have all served me well.

I said over and over back in the 90's that if CDs were $5, no one would bother with MP3s, at least not the way they did at the time. But at $13 - $20 each, people not only wanted to get around that high CD price, they wanted to retaliate against the greedy music/movie industry. And as it turns out, digital technology and social media finally allowed the artists to circumvent the industry and market directly to the consumer. If the decades that led up to the Internet had been positive between consumers, artists and the entertainment industry I think things would have been different, more positive and probably much higher quality without all the problems we are still enduring with copy protection mechanisms, digital rights management, etc.

 

[RustyTheGeek]

Re: EOS 5D Mark III & Third Party Batteries

Just for the record, we are big Amazon consumers in this house. So for $20, I bought one of these 'JoeCool' batteries just for the hell of it. I'll let you know how good or bad it is, if it charges, throws an error or simply catches on fire while in flight.

 

[WPJ]

Re: EOS 5D Mark III & Third Party Batteries

or simply catches on fire while in flight.

Love it..,.,.

 

[dstppy]

Re: EOS 5D Mark III & Third Party Batteries

I saw "I don't want to pay $100 for a battery" from someone, in a $1700 camera? I don't get it . . . get your camera at the best price possible, then you can afford genuine accessories.

Are there any improvements that come with these batteries, or is it all a price game?

Do any of these, for example:
charge faster?
take more of a charge?
last longer (more charge cycles)?
operate in more extreme temperatures?

 

[GuyF]

Re: EOS 5D Mark III & Third Party Batteries

From what I gather, the Hahnel Extreme Li-ion batteries out-perform the Canon ones.

http://www.hahnel.ie/index.cfm?page=digitalcamerabatteries&vId=2&pId=853