canon t1i replacement battery

[dha6892]

I'm planning to go camping at Garibaldi lake for 3 days. There is no electricity there so I'm thinking about buying some LP E8 replacement batteries for the trip. The problem is I'm not sure which brand of replacement battery I should buy. There are some very cheap battery at 9-12$ for 2 on amazon.ca and ebay.ca. I also see people on the web mentioning sterlingtek battery (sold at $14 for 1) on Digital Camera Batteries Chargers Memory Cards Readers. They are saying that these Sterlingtek batteries last as long as the original Canon batteries. However the shipping is 19.99$ so I'm a bit reluctant to buy sterlingtek.
Which one do you think I should buy? Should I buy a 6-8 of those very cheap batteries or buy 3 of the sterlingtek batteries? Will that many of batteries be sufficient for my trip?

[Barefoot]

You're gonna get what you pay for. I bought cheap once and it cost me.

[Iguanasan]

Not sure how much shooting you do but I can easily do 500+ images on a single charge with my Canon battery for my XSi. Are you sure you need another if you go with a fully charged battery?

I've been tempted to buy the cheaper batteries too but I've heard they just don't last. I have no experience in that area though.

[Barefoot]

Sometime back, Panasonic released a firmware update for at least one of the semi-current models that, hidden among the other goodies and fixes, prevented the owner from using any battery other than the OEM. Hope that doesn't become a trend with other manufactures. What I might suggest is a grip. With most of them, you get to use two OEM's or a stack of AA's. So, if you forget to charge things up, just stop and get some AA's. How simple is that? At Amazon you can find a really good grip for what you might expect to pay for a couple of OEM batteries. I have two of the Zeikos branded ones and have never had a moments trouble with either. The more expensive ones may provide features not included in the camera itself(i.e. timers and such) and you're going to get another shutter button for use in the vertical position.

[dha6892]

I'm going to shoot a lot during the trip. Now I only have 1 original Canon LP e8 on hand. And as I mentioned there is no electricity there so I can't charge anything. I've just looked up amazon.ca. The non-Canon grips there are around 40$. In addition to the grip cost I still have to buy additional batteries.
It seems like the grip is not a cost-saving solution for me. Do you think the grip is worth buying? I heard some people say it has an additional advantage of weight stabilising, which I suspect may be useful because of the disproportionate size of my 24-105 lens and my t1i body. I'm not sure about this though because I'm female and my palms are not large.

[asnow]

I would say under the circumstances where you won't be able to charge them, don't take any chances. Spend the extra money and buy the Canon one.

[Barefoot]

In addition to the grip cost I still have to buy additional batteries. It seems like the grip is not a cost-saving solution for me.

The grip and camera will function just fine with only one Canon battery installed so you really don't have to buy additional OEM batteries. I never have more than one OEM in mine. It will come with a caddy that lets you use AA's also, so if you had the grip along with a 18-24 pack of AA's with you, I'm pretty sure that would last three days easy. I get a faster frame rate when the grip is loaded with the AA's on the D300s, but doesn't seem to boost the D90 much if any at all.

[Richard]

I've got a 3rd party grip on my 450D and a canon grip on my 7D, there's not a lot of difference between the two. I also have a mixture of canon and third party batteries and haven't found much difference. That said one of my hahnel did fail when it was a few weeks old, but was replaced under warranty.

[AntZ]

I had 3rd party batteries in my 40D and also in my s100 and 7D. All bought from reputable sources and I can not tell the difference between them. These were cheaper, but not ridiculously so. On the other hand I bought a dirt cheap battery for the kids XBox controller from Ebay and it is hopeless.

[dha6892]

Antz: May I ask what is your third party battery brand?