Site Supporter Registered: April, 2015 Posts: 3,520
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: June 25, 2021 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | For its size very good, way superior to after-market types | | Cons: | expensive ($55, not 80!) | |
I cannot understand negative reviews based on limited or no understanding.
This Li-Ion has just 1050mAh due to its size!
It cannot have more capacity for that very reason but the quality of the cells is very good.
Size matters for being able to built smaller bodies than the K7/5/3/1 etc.
That is why the KP, K70, K-S2 and particular the K-S1 don't allow the use of the AA-Adapter for Eneloops or other AA's because this would add size and weight.
So reviewing a D-LI109 (and particular with the D-BV109 charger) can only be done against 3-rd party batteries and their chargers and only based on long-term use!
Then I will notice that almost every aftermarket Li-Ion lasts not much longer that 2 years compared to the original Pentax. Now in the year 2021 I still have D-LI109's manufactured in 2012 and they still last quite well!
But pretty much every aftermarket battery was more or less useless.
The original Pentax D-LI109 battery has a 10kOhm@20°C NTC temperature sensor inside (the 3rd T-Contact plus a 4th D-contact for measuring Data due to Japanese regulations).
3-rd party chargers have only 2 contacts. Clone-batteries could not even be charged with the original Pentax charger if they wouldn't have a 10kohm resistor to cheat the Pentaxcharger!
Here a photo of the electronic board of a clone D-LI109:
R3 is the 10k resistor for the cheat.
They use the obligatory centertap for voltage-monitoring and have the obligatory surge-protection.
Thats the cheap way and in the clones surge-protection is done usually just with U2, the 8-legged double MOSFET which shuts off PLUS in case of a too high surge.
Hardly any of the clones use a polyswitch (resettable fuse, i.e. a polymeric positive temperature coefficient device = PPTC) which anyway is quite slow in reaction but at least better than nothing.
U1 is the battery controller.
But it comes worse:
A few aftermarket batteries started to swell. One could only get them out of the batterycompartment with the help of pliers! Well, if one likes suprise fireworks, go ahead!
Here a photo of the original Pentax D-LI109, it is 1,4cm thick:
Here a photo of a swollen Wasabi-clone and 1,48cm thickness:
I had worse swollen ones but didn't think of taking photos (also because I right away got rid of them!)
The batteryhook of all Pentaxbodies which use the D-LI109 is more fragile than the one in the K7/5/3/1 etc.
If one tries to get such a swollen battery out, the result looks like this:
As this batteryhook is no longer sold by uscameras.com and others, one better avoids such a problem!
One should only use the original Pentax charger:
All after-market chargers have just 2 contacts and are quick-chargers: This will weaken batterylife quite a bit and warm up particular those cheap made aftermarket batteries. The reason why they swell!
Anybody who has opened those aftermarket batteries can study that they are made much cheaper.
Comparing Li-Ions to AA's also isn't correct:
a) AA's are heavier and if they leak, they attack the contacts (but have other pro's)
b) AA's can only be used via an adapter within the K-r*, K30/50/500 but not K-S1/K-S2 and K70
c) Only Eneloop AA's really work fine and won't lose capacity!
*The K-r had a problematic powersupply taken over from the K-x. It wasn't ready for the Li-Ion-technology. This often lead to mirror-flop and could not be solved.
AA's have a stronger surge-power and often helped to bridge the problem with stuck solenoids for a time but rarely solved the problem. This is due to the nature of good rechargeable AA's (only those manufactured hitherto, i.e. 2022 by Panasonic and Fujitsu, the latter being the only ones "made in Japan")
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Senior Member Registered: December, 2012 Location: Wild-Nord-East Hungary Posts: 149 | | Review Date: January 11, 2018 | Not Recommended | Price: $80.00
| Rating: 3 |
| Pros: | Basic accessory | | Cons: | Poor, but very expensive | |
K-30 accessory. But I use the bh109-aa battery holder with Sanyo Eneloop 2000mAh AA batteries - which it is unfortunate that it can not be used for newer cameras.
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Senior Member Registered: April, 2014 Posts: 136 | | Review Date: November 24, 2014 | Not Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 5 |
| Pros: | Lasts through many recharges | | Cons: | Massively overpriced | |
The mere existence of this item puzzles me. I have some of the AA battery adapters for my K-r and I get a much better life from a set of good AA rechargeables, so why didn't Pentax just make the K-r so it took those AA batteries directly? Very odd.
OK, it exists, so is it any good? Well I've been using mine for years and it it still takes a full charge, powering the camera for pretty much the same number of shots that it did when it was new. If it's capacity has dropped, it hasn't dropped much. In addition, I can charge it and leave the camera in the cupboard for a few weeks and it will still pack a charge when I get it out, and that's not true of all rechargeable batteries. All in all, it seems like a quality item.
The price, however, is outrageous. In the UK at the time of writing it's £59.99, which is over $93 US at today's rates. I can buy a lot of low-self-discharge AA batteries for that money, and a set of 4 of those lasts longer. Lower the price to £10.00 or so and it might be reasonable, but £59.99? Pentax can keep it, when mine dies I'll just use AA batteries.
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Senior Member Registered: September, 2012 Posts: 107
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: September 15, 2012 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Long life | | Cons: | none | |
Battery often holds charge beyond its posted rating. After over a year of use I haven't noticed a significant drop-off in performance.
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Veteran Member Registered: July, 2010 Location: New York Posts: 1,071 | | Review Date: April 27, 2012 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Good battery life | | Cons: | None significant | |
Part of K-r kit. Battery life is good, often exceeding the CIPA rating, but had wore down somewhat after 18 months of use.
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