Generic battery in an a77?

Alan

I originally took issue with your rudeness to another poster and now you've insulted me so I'm not prepared to continue. I will however respond to your last points in case you feel you need my final opinion. Please feel free to stop reading whenever you want.

I don't remember the Sony battery explosions. I tend not to keep up with current affairs, I have plenty of my own problems without taking on everyone else's.

Thank you for the electronics lesson though I should point out its not really needed as I spent the first decade of my working life as an electronics and mechanical engineer. With regard to the camera not being able to know the difference between what's supplying it's power I'm certain it can. The A77 charger can certainly tell.

If you would have read some of my other comments you would have realised I do use 3rd party batteries in my NEX 5 and Canon video camera. I have nothing against them but I will not put one in my 1000+ quid A77 at least until the warranty has finished and maybe never. If the false sense of security does go wrong and wrecks the camera I feel sure Sony will repair it and supply a new battery. Can the same be said for a generic? I'm sure they'd repair it and tell you to send the bill to the battery supplier. That's why I choose to "waste my money" All 20 quid a year (38.5 pence a week) of it.

And now to the insult. "Smart photographers don't buy OEM batteries" Wow! What percentage of Dyxum membership have you just offended?

I do have decent glass, a quality tripod and the best light source available. I shoot almost exclusively outdoors and in daylight so I use the sun. I believe we're called natural light photographers. Studio photography doesn't appeal to me. If one day it does then I will invest in lighting.

I don't know if you realise it but I'm not anti generic batteries or anti generic anything. I'm just putting my side of the discussion across. If you want to use generics then good for you. I don't. But is that really an excuse to insult me. It's my after tax cash that I'm wasting and I wouldn't be so presumptuous to advise you how to spend yours or even think that you were wasting it. I really can't understand why it bugs you enough to lose your temper. I have no children, I don't drink, smoke, eat out regularly or go on luxury holidays to exotic places (I have a caravan on a farm in Cornwall) Photography is what I do and it's what I put my cash into so I like to have the best I can afford. I don't resent anybody for having better or look down on anybody who has worse.

Now I'd like to stop this silliness as its ruining my whole Dyxum experience at the moment and my involvement with this wonderful site and the amazing people on it is very important to me. I suggest we go our seperate ways and agree to disagree on this occasion.

Kind regards and happy shooting,

John.

Dear Dyxumers,

Although the thread is opened again for discussion I would like you to keep in mind what the original problem was and that the resolution to this problem has already been posted (thanks mojoest and adrichardson).

Should you feel any temptation to continue the (off-topic) discussion about battery pricing policy of Sony (or any other camera vendor for that matter) please take a deep breath, go out and take a few shots, or just wait until this temptation passes away.

In other words: discussion about why Sony's new charger does not like generic batteries is OK whereas discussion why originals cost (twice|thrice|four times) more than generics is not.

Best regards,
MiPr

No.

Thanks, that saves me a cool 60 euros :)

Sub: Try 7dayshop for batteries. Very cheap and come recommended by many on Dyxum, myself included. However, if you read this thread you will find I've chosen not to use generics on my A77. This is personal choice however.

NP-FM500H compatible from 7dayshop

As a note, the A100 actually used a different battery from the A200, A700, A77 etc. They were very similar but there was some sort of compatibility issue. I think it may have been some sort of size problem but I don't know for certain. I'm sure somebody will fill in the gaps.

Edited by russellsbags - 16 February 2012 at 13:51

Quick update re the 7dayshop batteries - spent 5 days shooting in below 0 temperatures and they compared very favourably to the genuine Sony battery. Near as I could tell, battery life is identical.

On the charger front, I think everything from the a100 to the a580 uses the same charger, which should work fine with generic batteries.