BestBatt.com is one of the few places I’ve found offering “chipped” third party replacements for the Canon LP-E6 camera battery, used in the 7D and 5DII bodies. By “chipped”, I mean they have the electronics necessary to work with all features in the Canon charger and cameras. “Unchipped” batteries work, but need their own charger and don’t provide a “charge remaining” indicator when in the camera.

Others reported success with these LP-E6 replacements, so I took the plunge. The ordering process was quick, and the battery arrived within days. That’s very fast for cross border shipment (US to Canada).

Fire Escape (Canon 7D, with LP-E6 from BestBatt.com)

The LP-E6 battery works as advertised. It charges in the Canon charger, reports the battery life correctly to the camera, and (at least after several charge-discharge cycles) has about the same life as the original packed with the 7D. Obviously, I can’t make any comment on long term battery life; but since it works as advertised up front, I don’t expect any problems.

That’s the good news. Now, the bad. When I place an order like this, I try to make the most of my shipping and handling costs. I decided to pick up a BP-511A for my 5D, and a new all-in-one memory card reader for travel. To be brief: the BP-511A won’t hold a charge, and the all-in-one memory card reader doesn’t accept CF cards (despite CF being first on the list of supported media).

The battery was either a dud to begin with, or has deteriorated over time (this is a relatively old battery model). As for the card reader, it’s just good old false advertising. I contacted them to (politely) explain the problem, and they replied:

Thank you for your message. We think the card reader could be a manufacture’s defect. Don’t worry we are going to send you a new and good replacement to you right away. To save you hassle, you do not need to send us back the defective one.

No sailing today

I sent another email to tell them it wasn’t a defect, that the thing wasn’t built to take CF cards. I never got a response, and several days later I got a second (non-CF) card reader in the mail. It’s not worth any more time (or shipping charges) to try and sort things out. To their credit, they did attempt to remedy the mistake. Camera gear (other than batteries) just isn’t their forte.

Bottom line, you’re probably ok ordering the LP-E6 from BestBatt, but I’d stay away from anything else. In fact, my preferred battery supplier, the Battery Barn, now has a chipped LP-E6 for sale. If that had been the case a month ago, I’d have ordered from them and saved myself some trouble.