Battery charger question

[Murray Warner]

Hi all
I am very new here and new to digital photography but I see I will have lottsa reading in the beginners page. It looks like lots of good information. I have a point and shoot and recently bought a Fugi S1800 and yesterday bought a used Canon Rebel XS for $50.00 so I could not refuse. I am in the process of ordering a battery and a charger for the Rebel. The charger spec are 500 mA where the battery is 950 mAh so does this mean the charger will only 1/2 charge the battery? Thanks for viewing and /or answering
Murray

[Izzy]

In your instance one is charge rate and the other is battery life until dead. Notice one is mAh (milli amp hour) and the other is mA (miliamps)

When buying chargers and batteries know that you can buy batteries for about $4 each and a charger for about $6 if you are willing to wait a few weeks to get them out of Hong Kong from eBay. I now have 5 batteries, 2 chargers, and a host of other accessories doing it this way. I think the longest I have waited is 2 weeks for an item. These batteries work every bit as good as the OE ones. You can even find 1300mAh batteries which equate to almost double the shooting time. Combine this with a dual battery - battery grip as I have ($25 free shipping) and your shooting times will last so long you might lose track of your battery charger. Plus it makes the camera look cool as well as add a real function to it.

The battery number you are looking for is LP-E5

[Murray Warner]

Thanks Izzy for the information. The ebay site for the batteries and charger sound very interesting. Maybe you could give me a site link. I have to order these for now but I will order more later from the ebay site. Do they have lenses and tripods etc??

[Jim Bryant]

Originally Posted by Murray Warner

Thanks Izzy for the information. The ebay site for the batteries and charger sound very interesting. Maybe you could give me a site link. I have to order these for now but I will order more later from the ebay site. Do they have lenses and tripods etc??

Sometimes those batteries are made by other companies (Chinese made) other than Canon. Our director of photographer wanted to save money and instead of purchasing the EOS Digital batteries for $125.00 he purchased the Delkin batteries instead. After hearing us bitch for about a month about the batteries not holding full charge or the lock breaking off, he went out and purchased the canon made batteries.

[sk66]

I've tried the E-bay batteries...
They are "OK". They don't hold a charge as long even with a higher rating....The chargers tend to be "dumb" which I think affects the batteries quickly.
FWIW, I still use an E-bay battery as backup and this one seems good (I use the OEM charger with it though)

[Murray Warner]

For personal use these are worth the saving I would think. Batteries here are about 80.00 each and Walmart maybe getting these very batteries, whose to say. I guess it won't hurt to get a couple. Good to know what other users experiences have been.

[milosh]

Capacity of batteries is given in mAh (mili ampers per hour).
Capacity of your battery is 950 mAh which means that your battery is capable of giving the power of it's rated voltage with a current of 950 mA for one hour.

On the other hand, your charger gives it's output voltage with current of 500 mA.
If you charge your battery for 2 hours the charger will put out 1A of current into your battery (2x500 mA = 1000 mA = 1A)

Most of the batteries nowadays are supposed to be charged a bit more than their rated capacity, maybe 20 to 30%. So, for your battery that would be around 1200-1300 mA which is equal to 2.4 to 2.6 hours. You can use that as a guideline (if you're charger doesn't have a built in charging indicator).

[WVCoalMiner]

Buy the Opteka batteries, low cost and great performance. I have 6 of them for my 2 Canon 5D's and they work better than the OE batteries.

[vsa]

Around here the canon batteries for similar body go for 45€. For that price I got a battery grip and 2 batteries from eBay and the batteries hold charge just as good as the original. At least as far as I see it. If you're just shooting for a hobby you're better of buying tons of third party batteries than one that was made by canon (as long as you're buying from a reputable seller).