Any experience with LP-E17 battery and alternative (R8/RP)?

Guenther_Film said:

ENEGON LP E17:

"capacity:1500mAh" is technically impossible for that form factor.

regards.

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I don't necessarily disagree with that statement, but I would be interested in the technical explanation of it.

For comparison, in the 18650 form factor, you can get batteries from 1200 to 3600 mah from the big four suppliers. (LG, Samsung, Sanyo, and Sony) Obviously, battery designers can cram a lot of extra power into a battery. Cramming another 42% (actually less than that because Artman rates theirs at 7.4v instead of 7.2v) into the E17 doesn't seem like that much of a stretch, particurly if you suspect that Canon might use thicker walls, etc. to ensure longevity.

The official Canon E17 battery is listed as 7.2v and 1040 mah. My Artman batteries are 7.4v and 1300 mah and physically weigh a little more. Perhaps leaving out the decoder circuits gives a little extra space inside for battery? I rotate through all three of my batteries, and performance seems equivalent. All of them last longer than I normally shoot at an event, and the tiny batteries are small enough that I can easily throw a spare into my pocket JIC. Even the watch pocket on my jeans.

Yep. From my sl1, sl2, m5 m50 sl3 rp. Tried several alternatives. Most were crap right away and all others were so so and crapped after a year. 2 from a "trusted" aftermarket almost killed my sl3 and rp. After one week in the camera that I didnt use they expanded enough to give me haertburn getting them out. For me only oem since then. I scrapped all my aftermarket batteries then. For the z5 the fz1000m2 rx100m5a rx100m7 rx104 omd em 1iii. They all had one or more problems. So for me only oem. In the end they continue to work reliably for years.

I've got I think 13 altogether, which is a silly number, but I've been using them for some time (7 years since I bought an EOS M3, have used M5, M6, M6 II and RP since then), and have bought some used cameras with multiple batteries. 9 are Canon, 2 are Neewer and I don't even know what the other 2 are - they came with a USB charger. I did have another Canon one which died at the end of last year, but if that was my original EOS M3 one, no complaints.

I don't use the Canon charger, always USB ones, so charger incompatibility isn't an issue for me, and I always carry one or 2 spares so I've never been that bothered about accurate reporting - even the originals aren't exactly spot on in this area anyway.

Glad you didn't ask about LP-E6 variants...

JoeSchmoe007 said:

I got this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08P1DHL1X/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Works without errors with Canon EOS RP. It is detected as a DR-E18 Canon DC Coupler ("dummy battery") and not as a battery. Consequently, it doesn't give any warning when battery gets low - just says "Replace the battery" when battery is depleted. Charges via USB-C (has both Micro-USB and USB-C connectors).

Artman charger charges OEM LP-E17 batteries from Canon. *** However, the opposite is not true: Artman batteries cannot be charged by Canon charger - when you put Artman battery in Canon charger the LED on Canon charger doesn't light up. ***

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I have two Watsons and two genuine Canon LP-E17s. Here is my experience.

I bought a used camera (don't recall what) from UsedPhotoPro a couple of years ago that came with a generic universal battery charger. At that time, they were shipping this charger with many different cameras. I foolishly put a genuine Canon Lp E17 in it to charge. I don't think it charged the battery, but even worse, ever since, the camera (an RP) does not recognize it as a genuine Canon battery. I have to go through two questions every time I turn the camera on: 1) is it a Canon battery? ( you answer NO because if you say YES, it tells you it is damaged and will not let you proceed) and as I recall (I am away from home and do not have the camera with me) 2) is it damaged? (answer NO). It then works fine but there is no usage info until it is at zero charge.

With the Watson batteries, which otherwise work fine by the way, you have to use the Watson charger and the while there are no error messages from the camera when you power on, there is no battery charge status data. When it runs out, the camera just gives a message in red about the battery being exhausted and shuts down.

When you are doing a lot of shooting at a fast pace, the red shutdown message always comes at the worst time. And it is hard to determine if you are getting close to empty., so you cannot manage around the problem easily.

I have had good experience with Watson and other third party brands in the past, but the diverse charging methods (Canon via USB cable or Canon charger and off brands by their own unique charger) is very much less than ideal. At an event recently, I had two extra batteries and when I put the third battery in the camera, it turned out to be empty because of my lack of attention to using the right charger. So the camera was dead for the rest of the evening. I always use two cameras and my 6D was still at about 50% or better), so all was not lost.

So at this point, I probably have to buy additional Canon LP-17 batteries (at about 3 times the price) in order to monitor battery usage and to consolidate on one charging solution. This will be especially true if I replace the 6D with another RP.

Of note, when searching LP-17 batteries at B&H Photo last week, they listed several brands of generic chargers but only one brand of non-Canon battery, which happened to be a name I had never heard of and no longer recall. I am guessing they don't want to get involved with these compatibility issues.

Patona Platinum LP-E17 article number is

4055655225335

Seems that those show up suddenly in Cenbtral Europe and then disappear for many weeks.

Battery is shown on my beloved M3; but the bars do not show actual condition. All bars visible, suddenly 1 bar visible. OK for me.

Cheers.

Full decoded LP-E17s are at shelves, again. Was able to buy two at 25 Euros each.

Will check them out. And report.

Guenther_Film said:

Full decoded LP-E17s are at shelves, again. Was able to buy two at 25 Euros each.

Will check them out. And report.

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Could you please provide a link?

New revision of "full-decoded" LP-E17 showed up August 2023. Patona-brand.

Was able to buy one a long time ago for 22 Euros - then offers disappeared.

The new ones:

Canon loader works with those.

My M3 shows ALWAYS 2 bars; after xxx shots it shows RED; 5-10 shots available. Then it shuts down. OK for me.

European sellers take 25-35 Euros.

Cheers.

Had sl1, then 77d and now RP. Tried some third party batteries (non-decoded). They worked fine for a while but started dying off on client shoots which was a no-go for me. So I bought a second original Canon and keep one of the third-party(the last one alive) as a last resort backup just in case.

I think Canon goes after manufacturers of decoded batteries just as it goes after third-party unlicensed RF mount lens manufacturers. Not happy with it and given other problems I had with canon gear, mainly printers, I am considering ditching them until they start doing things right.

Still happy with those LP-E17 from Pat.

Bought one in 2021, and two in 2023. They have disappeared for a long time.

They load in original Canon-charger and show sort of remaining battery. And none of them was over 25 Euros.

My experience with my beloved M3.

I have had these for three years. I rotate them with the original Canon battery in my RP. I have not noticed any difference between them except for the battery gauge. I run them all until they show the battery warning and pop in the next one.

No sample of LP E17 will output 1300mAh. What they state is impossible.

Guenther_Film said:

No sample of LP E17 will output 1300mAh. What they state is impossible.

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That may well be true, but I don't even care. They perform comparably to OEM Canon batteries that would have cost me $120. ($60 apiece.) I wasn't expecting longer battery life.

I am a fan of the OEM batteries but they are expensive and I have tried some third party batteries and I’ve been very happy with them, they perform very similarly to the OEM batteries I have.