[mccririck]

Are there some that are known to be good quality?

[officiousbystander]

Wasabi seem to have a good reputation. They've also been around for awhile so they're an established brand.

[UncleVanya]

Wasabi seem to have a good reputation. They've also been around for awhile so they're an established brand.

Agreed

[aaacb]

I had DSTE spares when I had a k10d (bought used), and they were holding up well. Now I got Wasabi spares for the gr, they also seem fine compared to the Ricoh original. If you're only getting one spare, consider also the Pentax original, at least for the GR spares there are minor fit and finish differences that betray that these cheaper batteries are... cheaper, but capacity seems on par and the charger works well. The equivalent Ricoh setup (two batteries and external charger) would have been $120 so no, I'm not doing that. Either way, I would stay away from third party batteries that look suspiciously cheap compared to more popular third party brands, Wasabi for example.

[Fenwoodian]

.
I read a study by a lab recently that compared a number of commonly available batteries for Fuji X digital cameras. The only cheap third-party battery that was rated as high as native Fuji batteries were called "WATSON" batteries. This study showed that for whatever reason, One interesting finding that caught my eye was that Watson batteries do not build up heat like most other cheaper third party batteries. Besides OEM batteries, the only other camera batteries that I purchase these days are WATSON batteries from B&H.


The Wasabi batteries mentioned above were one of the lowest rated batteries in this study.

[Docrwm]

Funny, but I have owned Wasabi batteries for 3 cameras and have had nothing but great performance from the (with the OEM battery as the benchmark). I'm often left scratching my head when I read "laboratory" results because for camera gear they often bear no resemblance to my real world experience.

[Fenwoodian]

Funny, but I have owned Wasabi batteries for 3 cameras and have had nothing but great performance from the (with the OEM battery as the benchmark). I'm often left scratching my head when I read "laboratory" results because for camera gear they often bear no resemblance to my real world experience.

I believe the torture test this lab put the batteries through was lengthy 4K video shooting - obviously a much more rigorous situation than most "stills shooters" would ever put their batteries through.

[PePe]

I have found Hähnel to be one of the best third party battery suppliers.

[pepperberry farm]

I've purchased the Watson brand from B&H and cannot tell the difference in performance between them and my OEM batteries...

[Docrwm]

I believe the torture test this lab put the batteries through was lengthy 4K video shooting - obviously a much more rigorous situation than most "stills shooters" would ever put their batteries through.

Not being a video shooter I can't say, but I can say that Live View puts a more significant drain, and appears to require higher steady output from the battery. Very happy with my Wasabi batteries at 25% the cost and 80-90% the use.

[mccririck]

Can you get Watson in the UK?

[ramseybuckeye]

I've got some Newmowa that I'm happy with, and Wasabi too.

[Sluggo]

Among the cheaper brands, my best experience has been with Kastar. In the K-01 it's perfectly usable with maybe 80% of the capacity of the original Pentax battery. My worst experience (in contrast to aaacb's account above) was with DSTE; I got a pair of those on Amazon because they were really inexpensive, and found they wouldn't hold much juice even when new.

While there may or may not be much difference in the internal electronics, as I understand it everybody uses the same type of internal cells; still I'd be unsurprised to learn that some manufacturers use worn-out cells from recyclers, or new cells that have failed quality control elsewhere. Also the capacity specs of the off brands are simply not to be believed. I'm looking right now at an original Pentax D-LI90 battery that claims 1860 mAh, and a DSTE knockoff that claims 2100 mAh. The Pentax spec could be accurate, but the DSTE number is nonsense - my samples might have been capable of 800mAh or so.

Based on my better experience with Kastar I've also picked up a few of their version of the Pentax Q batteries, which seem to be about as good as the original.

[gump]

I've purchased the Watson brand from B&H and cannot tell the difference in performance between them and my OEM batteries...

This has been my experience (one year).

[mccririck]

In the UK I can't find a supplier of Watson, and one of the best on Amazon in terms of review ratings is DSTE.