Hi,

Where would be the best place to buy replacement batteries for my Canon 300d?
The 3 I have seem to be waning.
We're away on holiday in a couple of weeks so I'd like to make sure I'm prepared. Also, what is a decent fast(ish) card that would be a good partner for the camera? I have a few CF cards here but do feel that they struggle when I'm fast snapping 🙂 The camera's getting on a bit so I doubt it would require the latest and greatest card but at the same time I don't want a cheapy that wont keep up.

Cheers

Paul.

http://www.7dayshop.com

stick the battery code into the search box and you might find some OEM ones, but you'll almost certainly find some very cheap compatible ones. I use all compatibles, as they last on each use and are so much cheaper than the OEM ones.

I use hama ones, i've had one duff one which they replaced and i'm of the opinion that they last slightly less shots than the OEM ones but for a £40 price difference it doesn't bother me

oh, and don't worry about CF card speeds really these days, get one of those from 7dayshop too. the limiter these days will be your camera speed. my 10d (similar age to 300d) is limited by itself rather than the card speed.

i bought a battery from jessops as i had to buy one for the weekend, cost £17.99 i think. canon want £80! it lasts thesame kind of time as the old one when new even with the IS lens

ive got a sandisk Extreme III compact flash its alot better than a cheap one at £15 i think its a great price. multiple images store quicker and the data transfer to computer is quicker also.

I think these lot are meant to be quite good wrt batteries:

http://www.delkin.com/products/batteries/index.html

as are these:

http://www.hahnel.ie/

I'd go for the best CF card you can afford. I don't know whether CF is faster than SD, but my D80 easily outpaces cheap SD cards. I use Extreme III as a min. I recently found a Lexar Professional card on the mymemory website and that runs really well.
You can save a few quid on a cheap card, but you then instantly regret it, once your camera starts slowing to a crawl.

second 7dayshop.

I bought some of their generics for my canon 350d and theyve been brilliant. Cant fault them. and so cheap!

Cheers for that.
IIRC it was 7dayshop I got the camera from in the first place. I'll have a look.

as are these:

http://www.hahnel.ie/

that's what i meant, not hama

Third 7 day shop.

I've a couple of batteries for my 20D, one's the original Canon, the other is a Jessops. The jessops is already wors than the canon one it was bought to replace. But I'm not sure I could justify the canon cost so I'd probably still find cheapies on 7ds.

For card speed, check the manual. I think the 300d will do what my 20d does, which is buffer to ram, then write to card, so you just limit the volume of sequential shots at full speed, it then drops down as you reach the buffer limit and it has to start writing to card. While many cards are much faster than the cam these days, many are not, and many cheap ones on ebay are badged as faster ones and are simply not capable. Take care, don't buy tat.

if you use a card reader then a faster card helps as well when tranfering to PC

Jessops cards are just re-badged extreme cards, check the code on the back for the speed

I too have found the Jessops batteries to be much poorer much quicker compared to the Canon but you're right, hard to justify the cost of the Canon batteries when 7DayShop are punting them out at that!
I'll have a look at the cards aswell. I have Jessops vouchers sitting here. I was going to put them towards a new compact but I'll see what's out there.

Cheers

Paul.

I've got a pair of Impact branded batteries for my Sony Alpha and they don't last as long as the proper Sony ones.

stumpy01 – CF is generally better than SD on transfer speed. Not sure if the very best SDs might outpace a mid-range CF, but that's the general rule.

7dayshop = Crap, IMHO of course

Mymemory are OK, otherwise Amazon are worth a look.

before you order check here to see what people reckon:

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews3802.html

http://www.ciao.co.uk/Reviews/7dayshop_com__5319273/Start/15

http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/online-shops/7dayshop-com/reviews/

1969 – why the opinion on 7ds? Bought loads from them with no problems?

I'm not at all convinced about review sites – almost all comments with most companies are moans, suggesting truth in the theory folk only write about stuff they are unhappy about.

For the record, I've bought LOADS of stuff from 7ds for many many years and never once had an issue with them. always accurate with stock, quick delivery. one item damaged in transit – they replaced straight away.

as cp and ck – Ive bought loads of stuff from 7ds for years with never a problem.

What has been your specific issue with them 69?

7dayshop are fine, I've used them for years with no trouble at all.

As for Canon batteries I find the compatible ones form 7dayshop are at least as good as the original Canon one I got with the camera.

I used them as you guys recommended them, they were awful, i ordered some SDHC cards that were shown as in stock, then when i checked the order they were on back order of 10-14 days, it then took them 3 days to reply to my request to cancel the order, then they didnt even apologise.

They also have no direct email address or contact telephone number

I wouldnt use them again, there is just as cheap out there with better service if you look

Each to their own i suppose