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Reliable 3rd party batteries for GM1/GM5

V

Vivek

Guest
Recommendations based on experience would be greatly appreciated!

TIA!
 

tbhv55

New member
Recommendations based on experience would be greatly appreciated!

TIA!
I have had excellent service from this company: digi-Quick.co.uk - Camera and Camcorder Accessories over the past 1½-2 years. From them, I have purchased two or three non-OEM batteries for Sony cameras, one for a Panasonic camera, and one for a Fuji camera. Each has proved to be reliable in-use, and I have had no problems with any of them, and each has performed at least as well as its respective OEM counterpart. Their prices are very competitive (in the UK at least), and on each occasion the order was dispatched very quickly. Of course, as always, caveat emptor applies - but I'm simply describing my experience with them.:)

I know that they send internationally, but I have no knowledge of their charges for this - one would have to e-mail them for that information.

Disclaimer: I have no connection with this company, other than as a satisfied customer.
 

hot

Active member
For my cameras I only use 3rd party batteries - why pay 8x price for "originals"? Often they come out of SAME machines .. most of my "Japanese or Korean originals" are "Made in China" (batteries, cameras, lenses etc. ... Panasonic, Samsung ... TOOOOO!)

 
V

Vivek

Guest
Let me rephrase my query. Do Panasonic allow the use of 3rd party batteries on G1/5? I can not foget how sneakily they disabled 3rd party battery use on the G1 while offering a FW "update".
 

hot

Active member
haha, some of them say, 3rd party batteries may explode ... and other fairy tales ... crazy ... to make firmware updates to avoid use of non-original batteries!

From my batteries only ONE was bad quality, all others are okay - I threw away the bad one ... why cry for lost $8.

Printer manufacturers tried same with ink, built in chips, hidden infrared diodes, "loss" of warranty ... all to earn more money.
I use excellent (Canon) printers, but why pay € 12.99 to € 18.99 for tiny ink cartridge - I get them in same quality (with chip) for € 1 ... or refilling/chip reseting = € 0.29!


Even Sony made firmware against no-name batteries, but after short time "China" corrected this - with hacked chips. :)
 

tbhv55

New member
Let me rephrase my query. Do Panasonic allow the use of 3rd party batteries on G1/5? I can not foget how sneakily they disabled 3rd party battery use on the G1 while offering a FW "update".
In addition to the battery referred to in my previous post (which was for a Panasonic G6), about five years ago, I bought a battery for a Panasonic G1 from here: www.7dayshop.com. The battery was absolutely fine, and worked just as well as the OEM battery.
 
V

Vivek

Guest
Thanks. It was for GM1/GM5. I have a bunch of batteries from years ago for the G1.

Incidentally, the GM1 is about the same size as two of G1's batteries. Finally, a camera that fits the size of the sensor! :clap:
 

tbhv55

New member
Finally, a camera that fits the size of the sensor! :clap:
Indeed!

BTW, I have read about a problem that apparently exists with some non-OEM brands in Panasonic cameras i.e. that the battery power indicator is not displayed. Thankfully, none of the non-OEM batteries that I have purchased have had that problem.:thumbup:
 

Lars

Active member
I got two cheap batteries off Amazon for my new GM5, under the DSTE brand.

I my experience it takes 3-5 deep discharges to get 3rd party batteries to fully reach their capacity (if it's ok to generalize). So far these batteries reach about 85% of the battery life of the Lumix battery - even though they are labeled as having 50% more capacity (1000 mAh).
-Lars
 

Lars

Active member
Some additional input: As I mentioned, I purchased a two-pack of 3rd-party batteries for my GM5 marked DSTE.
Nominal capacity 1000 mAh, compared to 680 mAh on the original Lumix battery.
Now, some tests after 10+ cycles gave the following measurements:
Lumix: 120
DSTE-1: 113
DSTE-2: 70
Obviously the "nominal" marking is unrelated to reality - no surprises there.
More troublesome is the sample variations between the two DSTE cells that presumably were from the same batch.
Still, one good out of two still means substantial savings compared to OEM.

Bottom line: I think it's OK to use 3rd-party batteries but it's probably a good idea to actually test them for capacity.

- - - Updated - - -

Some additional input: As I mentioned, I purchased a two-pack of 3rd-party batteries for my GM5 marked DSTE.
Nominal capacity of DSTE 1000 mAh, compared to 680 mAh on the original Lumix battery.
Now, some tests after 10+ cycles gave the following measurements (more is better):
Lumix: 120
DSTE-1: 113
DSTE-2: 70
Obviously the "nominal" marking is unrelated to reality - no surprises there.
More troublesome is the sample variations between the two DSTE cells that presumably were from the same batch.
Still, one good out of two still means substantial savings compared to OEM.

Bottom line: I think it's OK to use 3rd-party batteries but it's probably a good idea to actually test them for capacity.
 
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