I ordered one of these batteries as a backup to the Canon battery that came in the box with my Canon Powershot SD1100 IS, at the same time I ordered the camera.
Although the Canon battery, according to the writing on the shell, was made in Japan, and the Lenmar in China, they seem to be almost identical except for the tiniest variations in color of plastic and molding marks.
Both batteries are rated 3.7V and 760mAh. I put a digital multimeter on both batteries at full charge, and both read exactly 4.15V, which is about what would be expected.
There are batteries available with a higher mAh rating, but there's no iron-clad guarantee that they will hold a charge better, last longer, or even take more pictures on a charge, regardless of price. And even the best batteries will have a few duds in the batch, as a minority of these reviews reflect.
I could have done a test on how many pictures each will take on continuous shooting, but I will wait until both are "broken in" or conditioned... discharged and charged several more times. Then I will edit this review with the results.
I have discharged both batteries a couple of times while testing every feature of the camera, and I didn't note any problems or perceive any significant differences.
My camera should recycle the flash in about 3 seconds on a fresh battery. The Lenmar seems to be about 10% slower than the Canon, which amounts to a few tenths of a second. For one fourth the price, I can live with that.
For my Powershot, Canon advises not leaving the battery in the charger for more than 24 hours... as mentioned by another reviewer, it's not a good thing, regardless of protective circuitry in the charger or battery.
The battery will fully charge in 90 minutes, and there's no benefit in leaving it in the supplied charger after the green light goes on.
Tip; "Keep the battery terminals clean at all times. Dirty terminals may cause poor contact between the battery and camera. Polish the terminals with a soft cotton swab before charging or using the battery" (Canon manual).
So far, this battery seems like a good deal to me. I'll give it five stars, but only time will tell if the original battery is superior. I like it enough that I placed an order for another one today, along with another 4GB SDHC card.
I believe that you have to take a lot of pictures to end up with a few really good ones, especially with a compact camera, and I would rather carry several batteries than rely on a car charger... too slow.
If you believe that this review was helpful to you, and would be to others, click on the "YES" button below. Lenmar DLC4L Digital Camera Equivalent to the Canon NB-4L Battery
I bought this as well as other Lenmar batteries. I own the Lenmar equivalent of a Sony camcorder battery, two other different Canon camera equivalents, and now I'm getting the NB-4L and NB-5L as well from Lenmar.
I don't have a doubt about Lenmar. The batteries I bought three years ago are still performing flawlessly, and while Canon has caught up to them in capacity (yes, the Lenmar batteries used to have more capacity than the Canon branded ones) they are still high quality and charging with the cameras' OEM chargers without any problems. And they cost a third to half the cost of the Canon and Sony branded equivalents.
The Lenmar I got for my S400 Digital Elph actually outlasted the Canon battery, though I used them alternately and the Lenmar had more mAH than the Canon.
I've had more quality and warranty issues (though resolved) with Canon than I've had with Lenmar, so for me Lenmar deserves all five stars.
After reading the customer reviews, I went ahead and ordered two of these. I figured even if one of them didn't work, I'd still have one that worked (and still it'd cost less than the branded battery). Well, I'm glad I got two. One refuses to take any charge (the charger flashes red to green and back again. The charger isn't supposed to hit green until the battery is charged). The second one I purchased works fine, however. You're definitely taking your chances with this. But hey - even if you buy three of them and two of them are duds, you're still paying less than you would for the Canon battery.
Bought these from Amazon for only $7.99. I bought two and both are equally good. I got 320 pictures and 10 short videos from one charge of these batteries, which is more than the one that came with my Canon SD630. I only got 210 from the original so when I got 330 out of this battery I was estatic. For only $8 what a deal! Esp. when the Canon is $50. I got two of these so I have enough battery power for over 800 photos before I need to charge. Don't know about the longitivity of these batteries but even if they don't last as long as Canon's, I'm completely satisfied. - Canon - Battery - Rechargeable Batteries - Canon Digital Camera'
Detail Products
Detail Reviews
Click here for more information
