2200mAh Batteries by Power2000
 

I located batteries rated at 2200mAh by Power2000, model NB-2L22 for very little cost. I purchased four of them and performed three tests on two of them. The testing showed they only had about a third more power than the stock Canon 1200mAh. They fit perfectly and I find they extend beyond the viewfinder enough to support against my cheek so that the viewfinder is the perfect distance from my eye. They balance the camera much better and I shoot smoother video with them. Just wish they were more than a third more powerful than the stock Canon battery, but at less than half the price I could not go wrong.

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TEST 1:
*Idle "play" Mode
*LCD Brightness High

Original Canon BP-2L13 7.4V 1200mAh:
Total Time: 3:09

Power2000 NB-2L22 7.4V 2200mAh:
Total Time: 4:05

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TEST 2:
*Live Tape Recording
*Image Stabilization Off
*Manual Focus On White Object
*LCD Brightness High

Original Canon BP-2L13 7.4V 1200mAh:
Total Time: 1:55

Power2000 NB-2L22 7.4V 2200mAh #1:
Total Time: 2:36

Power2000 NB-2L22 7.4V 2200mAh #2:
Total Time: 2:21

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I would like to add that the extended playing / recording time is only a small part of the total story.

For starters......the total of recycles available may be far fewer than the Canon battery.....

second, the ability to continue delivering the extended play and record time may drop off much more quickly than the standard Canon battery.....

third, the Power2000 brand may also have other issues with leakage, high temperatures, low temperatures, voltage stability, and other things.

The fact that they claim to have nearly twice the energy capacity (2200 versus 1200) yet only deliver a third more power tells me that their marketing people rather than their engineers are in charge.....

As a hardware design electrical engineer, I am here to tell you that usually something claimed to be half the price and twice the performance is lying at least once in their promise, and brands like Canon put much more weight on stating their specs honestly and conservatively than a lot of 3rd party battery 'makers' who are basically making whatever claims they feel they can get away with using products which are often duds, rejects, poorly designed, or just plain junk.

Therefore, I would say......caveat emptor.....buyer beware.....


Larry

That is precisely my belief, but when I saw a very notable video dealer offering another battery by Power2000 as a replacement for other batteries I did some reading and found that this brand is considered popular and dependable by photo and video enthusiasts. I've read that the stated ratings were accurate with their other batteries. In light of this and the fact that I like how they balance the HV20 I will be keeping them.

For years I've successfully used generic camera batteries whose pricetags are much much less than their branded counterparts and had no problems.

Paying full retail to have a brand name stamped on a plastic housing that holds a handful of cells is silly, IMO.

Thanks for the information and the tests. I'll probably be getting some of these. I have also used generic batteries with success. I'm a RF hardware engineer and know that brand-name does in fact enable a company to charge more for a similar product.

Glad to be of assistance. In a second perusal of comments about the Power2000 brand I see mixed reviews but with many still swearing by them. I read where one person got longer recording times after the first few cycles but I wouldn't bet on that for myself. The more I use them, the more I like them better for the added feel. I'm sure there are others that would give a longer recording time and it appears that SterlingTek is a more common non-OEM brand that's very well liked. I'm interested in hearing from others that have non-OEM batteries for the HV20.

My comments earlier were merely a warning to readers of this threead who saw the first and only post which existed when I replied and came away thinking that "batteries are batteries" and are all created equal, and those Power2000's selling at half the price and claiming twice the performance were the correct choice. I wanted to dispel this gush of enthusiasm mostly because many 3rd party batteries are poor subsititutes, and buyers who gush when first buying them have an entirely different story 6 months or a year later.

Speaking for myself, I would feel much more comfortable buying a Duracell or Energizer subsititute versus a Power2000 brand. And I would expect that a claim of 2200 (versus 1200) maH would not yield the nearly double endurance you would expect betweem 2200 versus 1000 because such claims are very often specious and exaggerated since they are uncertified using any standard testing methods.

If, however, there are many satisfied users and anecdotal evidence to demonstrate that they hold up well from long time owners (none of which was originally claimed in the original post) then they may indeed be a good value. Many generic batteries are not.

I think the same warning still very much applies however, which is that the buyer should beware...


Larry

I really should have titled this "Let's get to the bottom of non-OEM batteries for the HV-20" because I was interested in revealing any truths about them, specifically to possibly determine if there are viable alternatives to the cost of OEM batteries for the benefit of anyone using the HV20. That is why I posted my simple tests. It must be acknowledged that a company such as Canon would have much more to loose than a non-OEM company if they sold an unreliable product so when you buy Canon you already know you have reliability. If there is other more cost effective reliability out there, by sharing experiences we may learn about them. I've *read* that old-timers consider Sterlingtek to be very reliable in the long run. Your input was helpful in rounding out the discussion Larry. Wish I could change the title.

Regardless of price and source, most 3rd party batteries are ok
 

I've used dozens of 3rd party batteries off eBay.com for weddings and events for my camcorders, and they've all performed fine and have given me at least the same amount of runtime as a regular OEM battery. And I've never had a problem with them regardless of whether they've come from no-name, dirt-cheap China made sources, or even 3rd party Energizer-branded.

Fact is, it's pretty simple technology here -- a couple of battery cells in a plastic enclosure, with overcharging circuitry added as needed. That's pretty much it. Take one apart and you'll see that there's really nothing much in these battery packs, so they're easy to duplicate.

Same goes for the cell phone and laptop batteries out there -- numerous 3rd party batteries dirt-cheap, and they all run just fine w/o a problem for the numerous buyers out there. It's mostly the same makers of OEM batteries and such simply trying to make more money by releasing 3rd party no-names -- after all, they've already got the plants in China making truck loads of OEM batteries. So why not make more $$ by making batteries off-label? Either way, they're making the money, and laughing to the bank.

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Here's a good tip.

When you do get the 3rd party battery, charge it up all the way,then record something and use it until it's gone. Do this a few times and see if the battery lasts. If it does, you're 99% sure it'll work fine for a long time. Otherwise, just exchange it (the rare dead battery, whether OEM or 3rd party, does exist). You not only make sure you know how much run time the battery will give you, but you also fully cycle the battery to give you the maximum runtime from them.

(Same goes for laptop and cell phone batteries!)

Some are good and some are not, and the Internet newsgroups and forums and retailers webpages like Amazon are filled with both favorable and unfavorable comments.

Contrary to your opinion (and I speak as an electrical engineer) the design of batteries are not simply "battery cells in an enclosure" and thus all alike.

The cells are filled with a variety of chemical pastes, electrodes of differing types, outside shells which may or may not be sealed well, vents which may or may not properly relieve gas pressure, and so on. Some are made to exacting specifications and wind up in pacemakers. Some are duds pulled off of assembly lines and put in blister packs to be sold to uninformed buyers as "a bargain" at a discount price.

You are certainly entitled to make your claim that 3rd party batteries are mostly good, and that your experiences have been very favorable, but the original post to this thread taken alone was, like your comments, not the whole story.

My intention was, and is, to provide some balance.

Larry

Tell that to Sony,Dell,Apple etc....
Im sure they loved replacing the cheap in bulk ones over the years, Plus the Court fees.....

For our internal use we got a lot of non OEM batteries (more than 20) from one of the EBAY vendors. We did not need them to be high capacity, just consistent performers as they are being used for equipment testing, not in the cameras.

None of them test even close to their sticker capacity, mostly delivering 60-70% of their claimed numbers. About 20% of them were DOA, and were replaced. A few (2-3) lasted a limited number of cycles, and then died.

One can say that this particular EBAY vendor sells poor batteries, while all the others are good... I doubt that

I use unbranded AA's in my Fuji S3 - no problem
Unbranded Li-ion in my old Nokia 6630 - no problem
Unbranded high capacity on my old works XM2 - no problem
Unbranded high capacity on my old Pana GS280 - no problem

So guess what I'll be buying for my HV-20 :D

PS: The Dell / Sony / Apple exploding batteries thing - out of how many millions of 3rd party batts did this happen?

Two years ago, I made a battery out of 6 cells from a dead laptop battery. When these die, usually only 1 or 2 cells are affected. I connect it to the camcorder using the charger connector, not through battery contacts. The drawback is, I don't know when the battery will run out, but with 5400mAh, I really don't care. I'm planning on doing the same thing for the HV20 when it arrives. Does the power connector on HV20 look standard? I really don't want to chop the cable off the Canon charger. Sorry for the OT.

Yeah I poke a few electrodes into a potato with a shunt regulating zener diode, gets me about the same mAh as you ;)

EDIT: It appears standard, diagram on HV20 shows negative outside, positive in.