Cheap Chinese batteries compared to genuine Canon

Cheap-chinese-batteries-verses-Canon-OEM

Ever wondered what the difference was between those cheap Chinese batteries on Ebay and the Canon OEM batteries?
I have used both types over the years and have found that generally the Canon batteries last longer and are more compatible with the electronic monitoring in the camera. I had a couple of old batteries and decided to cut them open to see the difference. As you can see, a lot less electronics and smaller cells in the copies. I have also tested a number of the cheap Chinese batteries and found all the ones that I tested to be below their rated capacities. The battery on the left is the Canon BP-809 and its equivalent and on the right is the Canon BP-511 and its equivalent. The Canon BP-809 has a leaky cell due to it along with my video camera being ran over by a truck. It was in for repair at the time, so was replaced with a new camera by the very apologetic repairers. Is it worth paying the much higher price for Canon OEM batteries? …