RD1s battery

[Mark Norton]

This thread is all about availability of spare batteries for the R-D1, not which supplier you happen to want to buy them from. I have gone to some effort to suggest a source of supply and measure the capacity of the battery against the Epson original just for the benefit of people reading this thread which apparently counts for nothing.

It's not my problem that wintoid had a bad experience of 7dayshop.com but we don't have their side of the story so it's tough to be objective. They might very well say that he is the customer from hell. My own experience with them has been entirely positive and I daresay these batteries are available from other suppliers. The key thing to note from all of this is that batteries of comparable quality to the Epson are available from other sources and that you don't have to submit to the extortionate prices Epson would like to charge. End of Story.

 

[garethc]

You gave your opinion and he gave his. The difference was that you reacted somewhat harshly.

Anyway, as you said you have given many people a great cheap option. One which I, even with wintoids experience, have gratefully taken, so many thanks for that.

 

[Kim Coxon]

It would appear that yours is not a view shared with many others in this thread. 😉

Kim

This thread is all about availability of spare batteries for the R-D1, not which supplier you happen to want to buy them from. I have gone to some effort to suggest a source of supply and measure the capacity of the battery against the Epson original just for the benefit of people reading this thread which apparently counts for nothing.

It's not my problem that wintoid had a bad experience of 7dayshop.com but we don't have their side of the story so it's tough to be objective. They might very well say that he is the customer from hell. My own experience with them has been entirely positive and I daresay these batteries are available from other suppliers. The key thing to note from all of this is that batteries of comparable quality to the Epson are available from other sources and that you don't have to submit to the extortionate prices Epson would like to charge. End of Story.

 

[wintoid]

Mark I am not trying to invalidate your opinion. I'm the original poster of this thread. You have helped me (and other people) by informing me of a source of 3rd party batteries. I am grateful for that. The fact I won't deal with 7dayshop was not meant to be a rejection of your advice, but as the original poster of the thread, it's somewhat relevant.

I don't appreciate the way you've dealt with this.

 

[cyberguy]

Fuji N-80

Fuji N-80

Genuine Fuji N-80 batteries are rated at 3.7 volts rather than 3.6. I have several of them from my other cameras and they do work fine! This company: http://store.bargainbasementbatteries.com/bc1015.html, advertises their third party battery to be 3.7 volt.
Hope this helps!

 

[iUser]

Jim,

The cells are rated 3.7v 1500mAh, same as the Epson. I've no reason to believe that they are anything different and the cells inside are probably made by the same company anyway.

They come in plain packaging, no 16-language instruction leaflet telling you not to feed them to your children but they've charged normally and I've just been out with one, all fine.

So, all in all, recommended, the Epson price is just ridiculous. I've just ordered 6more for less than the price, including shipping, of a single Epson one.

there is a little more to cells than mAh and volts. i know for a fact 3rd party batts can lock the shutter and some get a little too warm for my liking. but if you're happy with popping a £5 cell made by god knows who into a £2000 camera, more power to you.

 

[pfogle]

there is a little more to cells than mAh and volts. i know for a fact 3rd party batts can lock the shutter and some get a little too warm for my liking. but if you're happy with popping a £5 cell made by god knows who into a £2000 camera, more power to you.

...or less, as the case might be 😉

 

[Didier]

there is a little more to cells than mAh and volts. i know for a fact 3rd party batts can lock the shutter and some get a little too warm for my liking. but if you're happy with popping a £5 cell made by god knows who into a £2000 camera, more power to you.

Agree. I don't want to risk to damage my new aquisiton and bought three additional Epson accus. Epson Switzerland offered me 10% reduction and free shipping.

Didier

 

[sevres_babylone]

and some get a little too warm for my liking

I've noticed a heat issue, and will try to note if it just happens with the generics. In the meantime, I have been pleased with the epson equivalent I bought from the link mentioned by cyberguy above. I only bought that after Epson Canada did not reply to my e-mail asking if I could get an Epson battery from their Epson store, since the American store won't ship to Canadians (Maybe I should try Europe; I'm starting to get the impression Epson Europe is more supportive of the camera). Of course, Epson had no problem getting me onto their e-mail list; I guess it's just human interaction which is problematical. Back to generics: as a backup I had been using the generic, not exactly equivalent, I bought from B&H when I bought the camera. I have never had a problem with shutter lock (touch wood). I don't understand why Epson makes it so difficult to buy their batteries. They charge enough for them--almost as much as the discounted printers they e-mail me about.

 

[Donald Mann]

A friend of mine who is a battery pundit, says that the mAh ratings are nominal, so a 1300mAh battery is effectively the same as a 1500mAh battery. (Same goes for the voltage . . . 3.6=3.7) He said you will find just as much variation within brands as between brands, and most batteries probably come from the same plant!

 

[sevres_babylone]

the mAh ratings are nominal

I wonder if it is a case of being nominal, or if there is fibbing that goes on.

That said, I always got better longevity with the 1500mAh Epson than with the 1300mAh CTA (from B&H), and apparently at least as good longevity with the 1500mAh generic as I get with the genuine Epson.

 

[Donald Mann]

I thinks it's probably a quality-control/tolerances issue, from all suppliers.

 

[pfogle]

As I understand it, the voltage is a multiple of the voltage produced by the material in the cell, which is constant, times the number of cells. So if the nominal cell voltage is 1.2, then a 3 cell battery is 3.6. It's a bit more when freshly charged and measured without a load (ie no current flowing through the battery) so that's where the 3.7 comes from.

With load, you get both voltage drop and heat from the current flowing through the cell, due to it's internal resistance. So a cell which reads a lower voltage when discharging may well produce more heat.

AFAIK the capacity is up to the manufacturer, so may well vary.

ps I bought 2 Epson batteries when I got the camera (18 months?) and they're still fine. I got interested in this thread so I bought 3 generic batteries to try out, but so far it's too early to comment. They do seem to have a slightly shorter life (they're rated at 1450mAh), but I'll report back when I've used them a few times.

By the way, does anyone know if Li-ion batteries take a few cycles to come up to full capacity, or are they good from the get-go?

 

[wintoid]

According to www.batteryuniversity.com they should be fine after the initial charge.

 

[fgianni]

When my first RD-1 failed (shutter failure) Epson asked me if I had used third party batteries with it, I said yes, and they told me tha tthey had several cases of similar failures, and in all the cases a third part battery was used, they also said that they could not determine exactly the cause, so they could not issue an official warning.
After the RD-1 came back repaired, I have only used Epson batteries with it.

 

[Jim Watts]

----------------------------------
Originally Posted by Mark Norton
"Jim,
The cells are rated 3.7v 1500mAh, same as the Epson. I've no reason to believe that they are anything different and the cells inside are probably made by the same company anyway.

They come in plain packaging, no 16-language instruction leaflet telling you not to feed them to your children but they've charged normally and I've just been out with one, all fine.

So, all in all, recommended, the Epson price is just ridiculous. I've just ordered 6more for less than the price, including shipping, of a single Epson one."
--------------------------------------------------------------------
there is a little more to cells than mAh and volts. i know for a fact 3rd party batts can lock the shutter and some get a little too warm for my liking. but if you're happy with popping a £5 cell made by god knows who into a £2000 camera, more power to you.

I have two batteries one Epson (1500) & one Uniross (1300). The Uniross only gives about 3/4 of the shots of the Epson, but otherwise has been fine. I had intended after updating the Firmware to buy two more Epsons (to be on the safe side) from Robert White because of reports of reduced battery life after the firmware change and because occassionaly 2 batteries have not seen me through a day. RW was charging 29 GBP but has increased this to 35 GBP +vat = 42.12. I know its a 2K camera, but it seemed a bit over the top for the batteries, which are almost certainly sourced from one of the main battery manufacturers in any case. 7dayshop claim their 5.99 GBP battery is normally about 29 GBP, about what I paid for the Uniross at the time I brought the camera as no further Epson ones were available at the time and as I I had had no problems with the Uniross (and 7dayshop are agressive price cutters) they seem like a good buy.

I have not purchased yet and now I'm not so sure, because on the weekend I shot draining both batteries fully for the first time since the firmware upgrade. The Epson was fine, but I think at the end of the charge life of the Uniross I think I was experiencing some shutter lock up problems (for the first time) as mentioned.

I was in a bit of a rush so I'm going to try the Uniross under more controlled conditions to be sure before deciding which route to take. Missing the shots would be bad enough and would make me avoid Generics if this is the case, but given what Fgianni was told by Epson I certainly wouldn't risk the camera especially now mine is out of Warranty no matter what I think of Epson's battery pricing.

Jim

 

[pfogle]

Sorry to sound skeptical, but I can't see how a battery with a lower voltage could possible damage a camera. I can see that the shutter might not fire, but surely you'd just change the battery? Maybe I'm missing something.

I do know that all manufacturers of electronic equipment using proprietary batteries will say that the warrenty is void if you use 3rd party batteries, so Epson's story there is hardly surprising.

I've begun using the 3rd party batteries now, as well as the Epson ones, but I don't ever run the battery below 3/4 in any case, as I don't want to get caught running out of juice. So perhaps for that reason, I've not seen any difference between the different makes. For me, I'd rather carry 4 cheap batteries than 2 expensive ones, and I can't help but think that soon that may be the only option, the way things are going with Epson!

 

[iUser]

It's true it's a high price, but you wouldn't fill your new sports car full of cheap fuel from a bloke down the pub.

 

[Mark Norton]

The battery in a digital camera does not drive the electronic directly. The electronics typically requires a number of different supply rail voltages and the sensor typically needs to have the votages applied and removed in a defined sequence. The raw battery voltage is used to power a power converter which generates the required voltages and is designed to be quite tolerant of the actual battery voltage.

Consequenlty I am quite comfortable using an OEM battery; I now have 8 of these batteries without a hint of trouble.

This picture is of the back of the circuit board in a Leica Digilux 2, the small black circular components are small inductors used in this type of power supply.

 

[RichC]

you wouldn't fill your new sports car full of cheap fuel from a bloke down the pub.

I used to run my Yamaha on my mum's Spry Crisp 'n Dry cooking oil when I was poor student - honestly!

It ran fine, but smelt a bit strange... 😛