Customer Reviews

Canon NB2L Battery Pack for Elura 40MC/50, Optura 400/500 Camcorders & S30/S40/S50/S60/S70/Rebel XT Digital Cameras

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is a proprietary battery almost exclusively for the Canon Powershot S-series (S30/40/45/50) line of digital cameras. If you don't own a Powershot S-, this is not for you. If you do, read on...

The Canon Powershot cameras were designed to be powered by a proprietary battery - the NB-2L Lithium Ion - and cannot be powered by standard disposable or rechargeable batteries/battery packs. So if you want a spare battery, the NB-2L is it.

DO YOU NEED AN EXTRA BATTERY? Most digital cameras eat up battery power quickly, especially with the LCD on, so even the casual photographer could find a use for a second battery (e.g. if you are going out for the full day and don't want to get stuck with a dead battery in the middle of junior's baseball game).

WHICH ONE SHOULD I GET? There are only a handful of other manufacturers that make a compatible NB-2L and from what I've seen you're bound to save maybe a 10 spot at the most over the Canon. In one sense, a battery is a battery is a battery - if it has the same voltage and amp rating, there probably won't be significant performance differences (no, the bunny doesn't go longer on the Energizer than it does on the Duracell - that's marketing, sorry to burst your bubble). So by getting the Canon you pay a little more for the same product but maybe get a little peace of mind that you have the same battery as originally came with your camera.

But wait, there is one other option. The Canon and most other NB-2L batteries are rated at 7.4 volts and 570 mAh. The volts measures how much power at one time the battery delivers - this has to be standard so your camera will not blow up. The mAh, or milliamperes per hour, measures the total storage capacity of the battery. There is one manufacturer out there that makes an NB-2L that is rated at 650 mAh, thus suggesting you will get 14% more life out of this battery than the Canon (I'll be nice and not mention where to get it, but search the web - you will find it). Whether this holds true, I'm not sure as I'm not an electrical engineer but maybe you are, so it's one option. To be fair, I bought the Canon cause I have a low risk tolerance and I like to see the Canon name on my battery.

BOTTOM LINE: A safe bet if you need a proprietary NB-2L for the Canon Powershot cameras - you'll only save a few bucks maybe with a third party battery.

The Canon NB-2L Battery Pack is just ok but it serves my needs.
It is recommend that you buy a spare battery or even two spare batteries.

Positives:
* The NB-2L charges very fast. It charges fully in a little over an hour.
* You can take a decent number of pictures without having to recharge the battery. I took about 95 at the 2048x1536 resolution in the fine mode on my Canon S30 in about 3 hours of shooting time and that was with the display on. If you turn the display off this time will be extended significantly.

Negatives:
* The charge does not last very long, usually less than a day. This is why that spare battery is mandatory.
* The NB-2L battery is very limiting. It can only be used with Canon S30, S40, S45 and S50 Digital Cameras & Elura 40MC Camcorders. I could understand if it could be used with the whole line of Canon digital cameras but no, it can only be used with those models. The other Canon cameras have there own batteries such as the NB-1L. I don't know why this is. Maybe it's a money thing with Canon.
* It's expensive. Though the price has gone down significantly from when it was first introduced a few years ago, it's still costly. Since you must buy a spare battery, it's hard on the wallet to buy one of these let alone two.

Overall if you have any of the above model cameras you will need this battery even with all its flaws. The fact that this battery takes little or no time to charge is indeed the upside. So even if you can't afford a spare battery you will not have to wait forever to get it back up and running to take some more pictures.

After getting a Canon Powershot S50, I decided to get extra batteries for it. Not wanting to spend around $50 for one, I checked around. Since thomasdistributing.com has been highly recommended by several digital camera review websites (steves-digicams.com is one) as a good source of rechargeable batteries (particularly NiMH, of which I did have a good experience there), I bought two Powermax NB-2L replacement batteries there. One seemed to work OK, however noticeably faster to go out of juice, compared to the Canon's. The second one, after ten minutes or so on the Canon charger, blinked red and green alternately. Leaving it longer on the charger did not help. After a few minutes with it in the camera, the low battery indicator came up. A few cycles charge and discharge in the camera (by leaving the back display on) as recommended by thomasdistributing customer service gave no improvement. A replacement came about a week later, and seemed to be OK at first, but did not get much use. After two months, this replacement now exhibits the same behavior as the one it replaced!
All the while the Canon brand battery that came with the camera still holds charge, and lasts the longest of all three under use. It costs a lot more (more than twice) than other brand. Yet, the quality is clearly superior. I also own a Canon Elura camcorder for a few years now. Its battery and a higher capacity Canon battery for it are still going strong.

Foot Note: I just got another NB-2L "impersonnator" from batteryspace.com for $17. (Have not learned my lesson yet, I guess!) So far it appears to be better than the Powermax.

Make sure you keep an eye out for the off brand ones. Some of them has very recharge cycles, in which this original has about 600 charges, the off brand ones sometimes have around 300-400 recharge cycles. That's pretty bad. :(

If you can find any that are "Lithium Ion Polymer", snatch it up! The difference is the Polymer, which is better and safer for the environment, which uses gel layered cels vs liquid layered cels, which requires more insulation and packaging. These have excellent recharge cycles (over 1000) and has a higher power rating than the oroginal Canon.

There's a common message here folks. The Canon batteries last. I bought a 900 mAh for $12.99, guaranteed for a year. After 3 months it died. Then the place I bought it from refused to replace it. My original Canon battery is not holding a full charge but it is a year old and works better than my fancy new powerful one. I wish I would have read these reviews before I purchased a generic. I just ordered 2 new Canon brand batteries from a reputable source.

The Canon NB-2L is an OK battery, however, you can do much better by purchasing an aftermarket product. Specifically, Sterlingtek makes a replacement with a rating of 1100mah which is almost double that of the Canon's. The price on the Sterlingtek is only $19.99 (shipping is $6.99 but is free for orders over $60). The price difference is more than just a "few bucks" as another review claimed. Their web site is www.sterlingtek.com

I have a Canon S30, and I am still using my original canon NB-2L battery. I also bought 3 additional generic batteries as spares. Of these 3 generics, one would not fully charge after 3 weeks, second one just died completely (seller would not offer refund or replacement. Now I am left with the 3rd generic and my original. Both are working fine still (the generic is 650Mah and actually allow me to use my camera for a longer time than the originals.

My review is just to share my experience with generic batteries versus original. Personally I would recommend buying the orginal since two of my generics died...and I always take good care of my belongings, so it's about quality control problems...

However, if you have to resort to generic (currently running at around 15-20 per battery) I wish you all are lucky to get a good one! (try to find seller that offer 1 yr warranty)

If you're taking your digital Canon on a trip, you're going to want to have an extra battery or two with you, especially if you won't have the opportunity to recharge the one that comes with the camera. You know it, and I know it, and you can bet the farm that Canon knows it, which is surely the only reason why these things cost so ridiculously much. According to many reviews here, the other brand of battery which fits these particular cameras is next to useless, so it appears that you don't have a lot of choice. However, do remember that if you are very judicious in your use of the camera's digital display you can get quite a lot more life out of the battery than if you leave the display on continuously. I took my S40 on a dive trip, and you have to turn the camera on before you seal it in the underwater housing. But by keeping the display off except for when I was actually shooting, I was able to get about 3 hours out of it. (And I got some great shots, too!)

I'm knocking it down 1 star for costing as much as it does... In regard to the performance of the battery... it performed much better than expected on my recent trip to Japan. After all the negative reviews saying the charge does not last a long time, I was expecting to have to use my second battery everyday. The battery didn't die on me once, and I used it on average for 2 days at a time before recharging (about 70 pics a day)... never even got the low battery indication. Though, I did have the lcd off unless I was taking a picture. Worked great for me!

Update jun 2005: if you are using the battery when temperatures are below 40 degrees, the battery will drain faster, but pretty much all batteries of this type do... the charge will return when warmed up, though.... still a very good battery.

Size is nice and small. Lithium battery have no memory so you can charge it anytime. Biggest problem is the battery life. You need to buy an extra 1 or 2 so you can keep taking pictures at an event.