Eforcity Replacement Canon NP-E3 Compatible Ni-MH Battery

I purchased this battery for my 1Ds because I just could not swallow paying well over $100 for a genuine Canon battery. My experience is that it is a really good battery. In testing, I got over 800 shutter actuations from the battery, well within what one is supposed to expect from a new battery. It fits perfectly and the rubber seals are great. (Both issues that I have heard about from generic batteries for the 1Ds.) The only issue I have had is that the release handle on the end is rather loose and therefore falls down and sticks out when shooting. This is a very minor issue and certainly not something worth $100 to me. I can certainly imagine that the Canon battery would last longer, but this one lasts several times longer than the old battery I got with the camera and, again, the price is absolutely incredible. I have purchased two and will buy more if I am going to use my camera enough to need them.
Rating: 55 / 5

When I first purchased 4 of these about 5 months ago, one of them came to me DOA and wouldn’t even charge – but it was very easy to get a replacement shipped to me fast and at no cost – the replacement worked fine, and continues to work after many charge/use cycles

A note about the replacement that I got … Eforcity takes a while to respond to emails … it took me 4-5 emails to get a reply, but after they finally got back to me, they immediately took care of it in a very professional and nice way … I would buy from them again

Now that I’ve been using these for 5 months, I feel that I have a good understanding of how they operate – they are now `broken in’ and are much more reliable and stable than they were when they were brand new, which can be expected of many batteries, generic or OEM

These batteries will definitely never last as long as a OEM Canon battery (my 2 OEM Canon brand batteries are 3.5 years old now and still last much longer than these brand new generic ones) … also, there have been times that these generic batteries will discharge if not used for a couple weeks, where the OEM batteries will hold their full charge for months … if you get one of these, try to put it on the charger before you use it, their performance has always seemed best directly after a full charge

Also, these batteries don’t exactly fit like the original NP-E3’s – I have a Canon 1d and a 1DsMk2 and 1 of the generic batteries is a very tight fit (so much that it peeled off part of the decal on the battery the first time I loaded it into my camera), while another 1 is a little loose – 2 of them fit similarly to the OEM batteries – but once they are in the camera, they make the power connection and work fine

Also, I’ve found that the locking mechanism doesn’t work the same way as in the OEM batteries – there is a button on the original Canon battery that you push to eject it, but none of the `buttons’ on the generic batteries are functional – they still lock into place just fine with the twist lock lever, but the eject button is inoperative … this isn’t anything that affects the mounting or dismounting of the battery, and it doesn’t hurt the weatherproof integrity – they seem to seal and lock just fine without the eject button being operable – minor point, but I thought I would mention it as a FYI

I’ve heard of complaints of these non-OEM batteries not connecting properly with the charger, and some electric and charging contact interface problems in general, but I haven’t noticed any trouble at all with hooking these up to my charger, I also haven’t had any trouble with them `seating’ and interfacing with the power hookups inside of the camera – I’ve never had to reload or wiggle the battery to get them to work

These batteries DO have the rubber seal which maintains the weatherproof design of the camera to an extent, although since the fit isn’t exactly the same from one battery to the other (even though they are the same brand, and were purchased at the same time) I won’t trust my $7000 camera in the rain unless I have an original Canon battery in it

I’ve found that some of the 4 that I own work better than others, and they take different amounts of time to charge – it’s obvious that the advanced quality control that is used in the Canon brand batteries isn’t nearly the same as the various aftermarket batteries

As far as longevity, with my 1DsMk2, I get 1700-2100 shots with the OEM Canon NP-E3 battery (that’s almost 4 years old

With this aftermarket battery, depending on which one I use, I get 400-1500 shots when used in a Canon 1Ds Mark II

If you are using these batteries in a Canon 1D Mark I, you will definitely notice that they don’t last nearly as long – because of the power-hungry sensor in the 1D, expect to get 300-700 shots with the generic brand NP-E3, compared to 800-1300 with the OEM Canon NP-E3

All in all, it was worth the money, because they are much cheaper than the Canon brand OEM NP-E3 – you can buy 4 of these batteries for the same price as 1 of the OEM Canon batteries – it’s hard to complain about the lower performance when the cost is so low – so as far as a good value, I would say that they are

If you are looking to replace a lost or dead original NP-E3, do yourself a HUGE favor and get at least one original Canon battery to use as your primary battery – these non-OEM batteries are good for spares, but I wouldn’t rely on them to get the job done all the time
Rating: 35 / 5