I’m supposed to be getting my video camera sometime soon and I’m thinking it’d be a good idea to get a couple of spare batteries for it.
Is it a good idea to buy them off e-bay? Like here? Anyone has any experience with that? They all seem to be from Hong Kong. Why is that, I wonder…
Could a bad battery damage the camera?
Go for it I have ordered loads off stuff and its come from hong kong I ordered a £100 helicopter once and it came in less than a week. It will most likly be fine.
I’m an ‘authentic parts’ kinda guy.
If you do go for generics, just make sure all the technical bits are right.
Voltage and all those complicated bits.
Compare what you paid for the camera to what you’re saving on buying the e-bay batteries.
How many batteries you’d have to buy to justify having to replace your camera?
I don’t actually know, go ask a camera professional, I’m just spouting opinions here.
That’s what I’m trying to find out. If buying batteries off e-bay is dodgy, then I’d rather go for authentic ones(don’t know where I’d get those from…). If there isn’t a significant risk of damaging the camera, then why not buy them from there?
I’ll wait for John Childs to answer. I bet he knows.
i’m not an ‘authentic parts’ kind of guy.
i have learned a valuable lesson, anything camera related is ABSOLUTE GARBAGE off of ebay (not the cameras themselves)
I’ve thrown out the batteries gotten off of ebay.
they don’t hold a charge, they don’t last long, they are unreliable, nothing is good about them
authentic batteries
Hmm, okay then. After watching that trailer, I gather you know what you’re on about.
Where would I get authentic Panasonic batteries from?
thanks 
futureshop, best buy, camera shops…
edit…oh, cyprus…http://www.panasonic.com.cy/main/default.aspx?tabid=6
Cheers, I’m gonna buy your DVD one day… Just you wait…
I’ll go tell the landlord
Wow, that’s really useful! Thank you.
Buy it now.
Don’t wait.
You reckon?
Okay, next time I order something off MDC, that DVD will be on the list.
That’s a little harsh, don’t you think? eBay is an auction service. They don’t make any of these products you’re talking about. For nearly everything for sale on eBay, there is probably a cheaper version and a higher-quality version, just like in any other marketplace, only with a much, much larger selection. It’s up to you, the buyer, to not buy crap. If the seller doesn’t provide enough information for you to know it’s not crap, don’t buy it.
I’ve bought lots of great camera accessories from eBay; a plastic cap to filter my flash, polarizing filters and yes, batteries. The backup battery I bought for my Canon 20D performs just as good as the one that came with it. For my Casio, I used eBay to find a discounted price on another Casio battery; the only kind that fits. When buying batteries, if the seller doesn’t give information such as mAh (milli-amps per hour, I’m guessing). If they don’t say, you don’t buy.
Here’s where I used to buy the AA batteries for my older cameras, that used them: http://www.thomasdistributing.com/
Those batteries were great, and I still have them though I no longer have the cameras. They sell other types of camera batteries as well; have a search!
AA NiMH Rechargeable Batteriesansmann 2850 mAh Battery
eBay and batteries
eBay is wonderful. I run an eBay store myself but I wouldn’t buy off-brand camera batteries there.
My Olympus C770 uses a proprietary battery. I bought a couple spare chargers for my battery. The chargers worked fine but they came with useless batteries which I promptly threw away. These knockoffs have a life span of about five minutes and one of them was too large to even fit in my camera.
If you can find good prices on OEM batteries then go for it.
things like lenses batteries are often packaged/written to appear to be authentic. (sony is huge words ‘for’ in tiny words, things like that)
if you are looking for quality camera/video accessories, ebay is not a safe bet