09Aug Canon LP-E8 generic battery road test.
I finally had a chance to give some of these Generic LP-E8 batteries a proper road test. Two full days of filming with over 100 GB of footage and they kept up better then I expected. I ended up averaging about 2 to 2 1/2 hours of filming with two batteries in my Zeikos battery grip. The battery life was a little shorter then the Canon Branded LP-E8 batteries I own, but only by about 20 min.
My tests weren’t very scientific. I started with 2 Canon brand batteries in the morning, filmed as needed, and noted the time I ran out of power. The Canon brand batteries made it the longest at 2 1/2 hours. The second set was the decoded LP-E8 batteries I picked up on ebay awhile back which had a slightly shorter run time of about 2 hours 10 minutes. The surprise came when I switched over to the Power2000 1500mAh batteries. Both Canon’s batteries and the decoded generic batteries are rated at 1120mAh so I was expecting these 1500mAh batteries to keep up with or out pace the other battery packs. They only actually made it about an 1 hour and 50 minutes which isn’t horrible, but the price is actually slightly more then the Generic decoded LP-E8 batteries.
This picture is missing one of my Canon LP-E8 batteries because it’s actually in the camera i’m taking the picture with, but this kind of gives you an idea of what they all look like. On the left are 5 Generic Decoded LP-E8 batteries, on the right are the Power2000 batteries and at the top is a Canon brand battery. The current prices (at the time of this writing) are $15.77 for 2 Decoded LP-E8 batteries ($7.88 a peace), $9.50 for the Power2000 batteries, and $49.99 for Canon brand batteries.
Again, my tests weren’t scientific and I have no idea how many hours of video footage was actually recorded on each set of batteries. My impression is that the Generic decoded LP-E8 batteries are the best bang for the buck, but the Canon brand batteries did seem to last the longest.
August 10th, 2011 at 8:37 am
Great thanks for the very thorough review as usual.
Ordered the decoded generics today.
Joel
ps Is there such thing as a multiple LPE8 battery charger – like a 4 bay or 6 bay?
August 13th, 2011 at 4:28 pm
Thanks for the review.
I saw many other reviewers on amazon, ebay, B&H etc. saying that these Decoded LP-E8 batteries ran out without warming on the battery icon on the camera. Was that the case for you?
August 17th, 2011 at 2:58 pm
The Decoded batteries didn’t seem to have this problem, but the generic none decoded batteries did.
March 11th, 2012 at 11:19 am
Love this site!
so much useful info!
Does your battery grip come with the extra tray that allows use of AA batteries and if so, have you done any tests on battery life?
Keep on rockin!
March 11th, 2012 at 11:26 am
Here a full review of the battery grip. It does come with the extra battery tray. Running on AA batteries doesn’t last as long as the LP-E8 batteries but it will get you by in a pinch.