...
A battery question, if it is suitable to ask that in this post: has anyone used the generic brand called UpStart, their eBay store is at http://stores.ebay.com/Certified-Battery - would you recommend I use it with a Canon? Their prices seems somewhere between dirt-cheap knockoff and Hannel generic. Thank you all.
There are many sources of inexpensive batteries for Canon Powershot cameras - typically costing less than 1/4 the price of a genuine Canon part. I have used several different "brands" (although they may all come from the same Chinese factory) and they seem to have almost the same capacity as the Canon battery. However, they are cutting corners somewhere so keep a close eye on them when you are charging them as that is when they are most likely to catch on fire.
One of the corners they cut is to replace the temperature sensor (an NTC or negative temperature co-efficient thermistor with (so far as I recall) a nominal value of 10K Ohms at 20 Deg C) with a fixed value resistor.
This is a safety feature which Canon chargers use to detect thermal runaway. Given that an NTC thermistor costs a few cents, but a 10K fixed value resistor costs a fraction of a cent, it makes sense to substitute one with the other when lowering cost is an overriding factor in manufacture.
This does however make the cheaper batteries less safe. Having said that, I still use them, but I do charge them up with the charger placed in my fire hearth, so in the unlikely event they go pop, the fire will be contained.
If you want to see what I am talking about, and how the cheap clone batteries are constructed, take a look through this thread.
http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=10313.0An interesting point is that if you are using a non Canon battery charger, i.e. a cheap unbranded generic charger, the chances are that it doesn't include the circuitry to monitor the temperature sensor anyway, so in theory even the Canon batteries are less safe when charged with one of these chargers. I'm afraid, like everything else, "you pays yer money, you makes yer choice", if you want quality, it comes at a premium. I'm happy to use the clones, but that is because my assessment of the risk is that it is pretty low. You can remind me of my folly should I be proved wrong.