One of my photography best practices is to always carry an extra (fully charged) battery.  You have to be a good boy scout to be a good photographer, be prepared.  But extra batteries can get pricey.  The lithium ion batteries my Sony Alpha 850 DSLR uses are about $50 when you use the Sony brand.  That can add up if you are like me and want more than one back up (just in case).

So I have tried the “off-brand” or “no-brand” batteries from eBay or similar places on the internet simply because they are a fraction of the cost.  To start, these batteries do work.  They power the camera and will generally get you through in a pinch.  However, in my experience, they drain much quicker than the original Sony batteries.  Then after some time they no longer recharge to 100% capacity.  It took about a year for my generic batteries to no longer fully recharge.  Compare that to the original Sony battery that came with the camera several years ago that still performs as new.

The off-brand batteries are not bad.  But for me, I learned that when it comes to batteries an extra $20 for an original manufacture’s part is well worth the investment.  I do not want to be out shooting someone’s building or trying to capture wildlife and have to worry about the battery in my camera not making it through the day.  So my advice, spend a little extra and get the best equipment you can.

Since I shoot with a Sony I am only speaking specifically about the Sony NP-FM500H InfoLithium Rechargeable Lithium-Ion Battery that my camera uses.  But the good boy scout rule applies to whatever camera you shoot with and I’d be pretty confident in saying original manufacture parts, in the case of batteries are a safe bet for any camera brand.