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Lenmar is, to the best of my knowledge, a reputable manufacturer of aftermarket batteries.

I bought a DLPBLB13 battery as a 2nd battery for my Panasonic G2, charged it up, put it in my camera, checked for a few seconds to make sure it worked, and went off on a day trip, unfortunately leaving my original camera battery (Panasonic DMW-BLB13PP) home. When I went to use my camera, about 12 seconds after I turned it on, it complains "THIS BATTERY CANNOT BE USED", locks up for a little while, and shuts off. I had to give up shooting with the G2 and use my old point + shoot instead -- grr.

Now what should I do? Has anyone dealt with Lenmar before? I either want my money back or a camera battery that works.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Panasonic have in the past issued firmware updates, the purpose of which was only to stop 3rd party batteries from working. \$\endgroup\$
    – PeterT
    Nov 6, 2010 at 11:48
  • \$\begingroup\$ Sorry for being flippant but the obvious answer is: buy a Panasonic battery. I know it's annoying when manufacturers jack up the price on basic items, but it all goes to subsidise the lenses and camera bodies at the end of the day. \$\endgroup\$
    – Matt Grum
    Nov 6, 2010 at 18:46

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Regarding getting money back - call the dealer, we can't help you.

For future - buy brand batteries :) When you knowingly buy a camera that is publicly said to operate only with brand batteries and you pay a lot of money for it - why try to cheat then?

I've personally never had good experience with 3rd party batteries and have cried but paid ~$150 for the Canon originals. On the other hand, they've never let me down either.

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    \$\begingroup\$ yeah, I guess you're right. What steams me is that I didn't know it operated only with OEM batteries. I wasn't trying to cheat them, I bought from a reputable battery maker a battery which I thought was a valid 2nd-source of the OEM battery. I never have had any interest in buying batteries from shady mfrs. \$\endgroup\$
    – Jason S
    Sep 20, 2010 at 15:43
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    \$\begingroup\$ There's no good reason for an item to refuse to work with functionally-equivalent 3rd party accessories. I think @Jason is right to be steamed and not trying to cheat anyone. \$\endgroup\$
    – Reid
    Nov 6, 2010 at 18:25
  • \$\begingroup\$ Panasonic being one of the biggest battery manufacturers, I would be highly surprised if they were not the OEM. Lenmar probably makes a poor clone. For other brands of cameras which are not battery-manufacturers, like Canon, Nikon and Pentax, you can probably find the OEM and buy the equivalent battery from them. \$\endgroup\$
    – Itai
    Nov 8, 2010 at 4:24
  • \$\begingroup\$ "Lenmar probably makes a poor clone." ????? I've had a Panasonic FZ20 for nearly 6 years, and when I bought it in Dec 2004, I immediately bought a 2nd battery which was a Lenmar battery. The two batteries are both still holding up fine. So Lenmar has earned my trust and I would have gladly used their battery in my camera if Panasonic hadn't enabled the anti-3rd-party feature. \$\endgroup\$
    – Jason S
    Nov 21, 2010 at 23:58

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