BLH-1 Clone Tests

[Ian]

Re: BLH-1 Clone Tests

Couldn't agree more.


Regarding personal experience, I have had both EXpro and DSTE batteries for a previous camera and found them both to vary in both charge and longevity. Some are still in use and some have failed ..... with both manufacturers batteries. Quality from both manufacturers does seem very variable

I did try to return an EXpro battery which was faulty on arrival but gave up in the end. Their after sales with regard to faulty units was deplorable.

I am using DSTE batteries as well as the original (all numbered and rotating) in my E-M1 ii and they are behaving well so far.

Buy from a reputable store (Amazon or even eBay, for example) and you should be looked after if the product becomes faulty.

Ian

[Keith-369]

Re: BLH-1 Clone Tests

Buy from a reputable store (Amazon or even eBay, for example) and you should be looked after if the product becomes faulty.

Ian

I did. Bought from Amazon, but supplied direct from EXpro where I was directed to when I had the problem.
Got the runaround so much that I eventually gave up. They even ended up wanting me to pay the return postage for my purchase ... and as I had bought a pack of four, it would have been more than just buying a new battery.

[DekHog]

Re: BLH-1 Clone Tests

This thread has just convinced me to buy an original Olympus item.... Less expensive would be very nice, but it is what it is, so I'll just have to grin and dig deep..... [emoji4]

[TimP]

[Growltiger]

Re: BLH-1 Clone Tests

The other mistake is buying inferior or even fake SD cards. I stick to the ones Olympus recommend, the SanDisk Extreme Pro. The 300MB/s UHS II works well.

[Wee man]

Re: BLH-1 Clone Tests

Did buy expro for my mk1 found they worked well and saved money but you could not tell when they would quit, so I bought 5 extras ( I use a grip) just to be sure.
For the mk ii I got an original Olympus free with my body.
Still use a grip so use both and with the % meter I know what is left and always recharge after a decent days shooting.
As with others after spending the proceeds from selling a kidney to get the body I would go for originals if buying another battery.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[Ian]

Re: BLH-1 Clone Tests

I did. Bought from Amazon, but supplied direct from EXpro where I was directed to when I had the problem.
Got the runaround so much that I eventually gave up. They even ended up wanting me to pay the return postage for my purchase ... and as I had bought a pack of four, it would have been more than just buying a new battery.

Something wrong there - Amazon will always be your ally if there is a dispute with a third party seller (and of course you've got a solid case). I've had sellers ignore my requests and Amazon has stepped in and sorted it out. The same with eBay/PayPal.

Ian

[Keith-369]

Re: BLH-1 Clone Tests

Something wrong there - Amazon will always be your ally if there is a dispute with a third party seller (and of course you've got a solid case). I've had sellers ignore my requests and Amazon has stepped in and sorted it out. The same with eBay/PayPal.

Ian

I agree, Amazon are always very good and I have no complaints at all about their service. I think things just happened at an awkward time for me and I just couldn't be ar$ed with all the messing for the sake of one cheap battery. There again, if EXpro had dealt with the problem correctly, all would have been well.

Having said all this, I still buy these batteries. In all fairness, you can buy 4 cheap ones for less than the price of one original ... and lets face it, that's a massive saving, especially if you need 2 or three spares. You can afford the odd one to go down on you at those prices.

[MJ224]

Re: BLH-1 Clone Tests

EXpro where I was directed to when I had the problem. Got the runaround so much that I eventually gave up.

I bought from Expro, the first battery never turned up. The second took several weeks. I was about to ask for money back when the second turned up. Not impressed with them. They never quibbled about the first battery not turning up (and it never did) so makes you wonder...........

[DerekW]

Re: BLH-1 Clone Tests

I understand that the dealer margin on the official Oly batteries is much better than with the cameras and so the battery prices are negotiable - especially when bought with a camera. However YMMV

[TimP]

Re: BLH-1 Clone Tests

I understand that the dealer margin on the official Oly batteries is much better than with the cameras and so the battery prices are negotiable - especially when bought with a camera. However YMMV

[MJ224]

Re: BLH-1 Clone Tests

per cent might be the value.....Bit like printers and ink.

But would be unsure/doubt Oly do better on camera's than batteries.......................

[DerekW]

Re: BLH-1 Clone Tests

The dealer has the ability to give a discount on the battery but not with the body.

[jima]

Re: BLH-1 Clone Tests

Thanks James for the hard work and detailed report. I will be interested to see your results on self-discharge and so on once enough time has passed for analysis.
John

Now we are one month on or more I have re-tested the EXpro and the DSTE which have just been sat on the shelf since the initial test after a full charge.

The attached graph is quite small (not sure why yet) but to summarise, the DSTE performed very well in terms of loss dropping only 13mAh from 1575mAh (0.8%). More disturbing is that there is still the kink just over half way through the discharge curve and several more have appeared in the very early stages.

The EXpro performed quite well also, dropping 54mAh from 1956mAh (2.7%) however still produced a textbook discharge curve and turned in a respectable 1902mAh capacity.

N.B. these are raw capacities, to equate them to manufacturer figures (0.1C discharge rate) multiply by 1.1 which will be very close.

The Olympus pack had to remain in use in the camera but will now sit on a shelf for a month when it will be tested as well and the result published here.

In summary, from the results so far, the EXpro is holding up very well and should it ever become fully decoded would be a real bargain. The DSTE, on the other hand, exhibits a far lower capacity (although not much less than the Olympus) but the kinks in the discharge curve are of concern so albeit on the basis of a single sample given the very comparable (low) costs of them both in my view there can not really be any justification for buying this over the EXpro.

[jima]

Re: BLH-1 Clone Tests

The Olympus BLH-1 has just completed it's self-discharge test and in four weeks has dropped in capacity from 1665mAh to 1549mAh - a drop of 7%. This is quite a bit higher than I would have expected from a pack of this quality and price and is worse than either the EXpro or the DSTE. This certainly confirms the EXpro as the standout pack based on the samples I have. Please note - individual packs will vary in capacity and self-discharge characteristics so your own results may be slightly different or a lot different depending usually on the quality control processes employed by the respective manufacturer.

Attached the final discharge curves of all three. The '+1M' indicates the second test after four elapsed weeks. A higher-quality version of the graph can be found here http://www.attfield.co.uk/gallery/im...clonetests.png