Third party Panasonic G1 battery

[stingOM]

Anyone use a third party battery? I read somewhere that once you update the G1 firmware, you can no longer use the battery.

Also the Panny official website seems to warn against using alternative sources for batteries. What do you think?

Thanks.

[Attila]

Genuine battery works to me at least 4-6 hrs and capable to shoot ~ 1000 pictures . I don't have spare battery simple don't need.

[fatdeeman]

Apparently the firmware thing is true but doesn't lock out all batteries, just some.

In time I would expect all after market cells to become compatible with the new firmware.

I have a spare battery but I don't need to use it too often.

I have used generic batteries for my Canon 350 and G1 with no problems, some of the Canon batteries have a significantly higher capacity than the genuine ones and whilst I assumed this was marketing BS initially they do actually last slightly longer.

My Samsung GX-1s is another example, it can take 4 AA batteries or two CR-V3 batteries and it came with no battieries at all when I bought it so I got two cheap ebay CR-V3's and they are excellent and last for ages, the camera has never used genuine batteries during my ownership!

I have used off brand batteries in cell phones with no problems as well.

It seems no matter how cheap they are, they still work fine and safely, I don't think any ebay seller would be foolish enough to sell unsafe batteries that don't contain overcharge protection circuits.