I was waiting and waiting for the third party batteries to be released because I really wanted the BP-828 without dishing out $150 for the genuine Canon battery. Well, they finally arrived! Let me tell you they work just fine and can charge through the camera or with the Canon wall charger. Over 3 full hours per charge. They run for $39.95. What a blessing compared to the same Canon battery that runs for $150.

Amazon.com: Kapaxen BP-828 Intelligent Battery Pack for Select Canon Camcorders: Camera & Photo (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FGXKDH6/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00FGXKDH6&linkCode=as2&tag=filthate-20)

Colton, thanks for the link.

I just ordered one from Amazon. I will let everyone know how it performs.

It's good when one can try to keep companies "honest" in selling their aftermarket items. Sure, manufacturing equipment is competitive but things like batteries don't need to be a "profit center".

One needs to be very careful abut buying aftermarket battery packs, though, because there are a lot of unscrupulous sellers out there. The Asian aftermarket manufacturers are really good at copying everything on the outside so it looks like the OEM product but the inside often leaves something to be desired.

Last summer I was looking for replacement batteries for a couple old cell phones and did research about what to look for and decided to just buy OEM batteries instead of the aftermarket ones. I don't remember if I got them off of eBay or Amazon and I don't remember if they were bought with PayPal or a credit card. One of the good things I did was to take a screen shot of the ad. As it turned out that was VERY important.

After the batteries arrived (got two of them) they were found to actually be worse than the original old ones! The battery was advertised as being OEM and the packaging matched OEM on the screen. The batteries that arrived came in "generic" packaging. New batteries take several cycles of charging and discharging before they get up to speed but these never did. I contacted the seller and they wouldn't make it right so I contacted the company that we used to pay for the items, emailed them the screen shot (whew!), and a few hours later the contact called back and said there would be no charge.

On another note, it is my understanding that "smart" battery packs like those used in video cameras have a circuit that "communicates" with the camera. Information like the amount of charge and perhaps how many cycles (especially in the case of laptops). It would be interesting to know if this same or equivalent circuitry is included in the aftermarket batteries.

Between grey market and junk aftermarket items, one has to be really careful. We used to have a retail business and among other things sold Shure cartridges (for turntables for those younger people). We had this guy who came up from San Francisco who stopped in and offered huge discounts on their Shure cartridges. They looked exactly like the ones we bought direct from Sure but the price was just a fraction of going direct. We never bought any because I suspected they were knockoffs but I can't say the same for the store that was down the street. They, by the way, wound up going out of business.

Today the Asian and Chinese exporters are copying brands like Shure and Sennheiser, ruining their reputation while flooding the market with knockoffs. And countries like China don't seem to do anything to stop it, or aren't doing enough. Maybe its economic warfare?

Bottom line, be very careful when buying. There are a lot of crooks out there and we don't need to support them. Hopefully places like DVinfo is a good place to find out about what is good and what isn't.

John, you are right. It is never a bad thing to be cautious what you are putting your hard earned money into especially when it comes to batteries. My battery is still performing well. I was going to buy 2 or 3 at the beginning but only bought one to test it out. Now I think it's time to add those extras.

See my post ( #33 ) in XA20 Third Party Battery thread.

I have purchased both the Kapaxen and Wasabi BP-828 "equivalent" batteries for the XA-20 on Amazon.

Both power up the camera fine and indicate 185 minutes each on full charge. Interesting because the Wasabi is listed at 7.4v and 2670mAh while the Kapaxen is rated at 2900 mAh. Last week I used the Kapaxen to shoot a soccer match. It was a cold night and not wanting to take any chances, I swapped out batteries at halftime despite the fact that the camera indicated there was still 120 minutes left on the battery. Camera was rolling for 50 minutes straight.

I'll report back in a few months with an update.

Bought the kapaxen bp827 and charger for my xa20. A bargain price on both but...they don't work. The cam won't fire up apart to give a compatability warning, then a complete shutdown. Oh well.

BP827 is NOT compatible with the XA20. You need a BP828 equivalent. (The 827 will work in the XA10.)
Perhaps you can contact the vender and do an exchange.

Don is right. Need the 828 batteries

I've had a Kapaxen BP828 since mid-November and it has been running without issue. Same for the Wasabi Power version. No issues so far

Yep. Bought off 'eaststar' on amazon. Ordered the 828. They sent the 827. Haven't heard back from them yet.