Electronics : Inov8 CGA-S006 Replacement Digital Camera Battery for Panasonic

Rating: - Good only as an occasional spare
This digital camera battery is designed as a replacement to the CGA-S006, a battery widely used by Panasonic cameras. Now anybody who has ever looked into the cost of an original battery (that is one manufactured by Panasonic) will know they are rather expensive, and these third-party replacements are a fraction of the cost. So the question is are they worth it.

I spend a lot of time traveling to places where I'm not in easy reach of a power point to recharge my battery, so I thought it would be sensible to invest in a spare one. And naturally I wasn't paying £46 when I could get one that's got a slightly higher mAh and voltage for £12. But to be honest I'm disappointed with this battery. The first thing I thought was strange was that the charging time is so much longer. With the charger it normally takes around ninety minutes to charge my original battery (the charger switches off when it detects the battery is full.) This replacement one however takes just on three hours to charge (three times longer for a slighter higher rating?). OK, so that may not really be a problem, but you would expect the battery to last as long, if not longer than the original. Sadly it's performance is well less. I've had my camera for nearly a year and with the original battery you can take roughly 300 jpgs which is actually quite good. However this replacement last for only around 200 photos if not slightly less. Finally it's rare but every now and again with this replacement I get an error message on the camera, which I can only fix by switching it off and removing and reinserting the battery.

Ok, that's the bad, now for the good. As I've already mentioned the price of these batteries are a fraction of the original, so they are really good value. Granted there are a few problems with it, but nothing is perfect. Maybe three stars is too generous considering, but I will only be using this battery as an occasional spare so yes, I'm disappointed but believe it or not I'm happy enough with it as it has already came in handy. If you've lost or damaged your original battery and want one just to replace it then I would actually recommend that you spend the extra money and get the 'real' one. But if it's a spare you're after and you're willing to put up with the problems then I guess that this replacement will do you fine.