While we all know that companies like Canon will always strongly recommend that owners only use Canon-brand batteries for their cameras, we’ve all been lucky enough to have the option to use third-party batteries for Canon cameras (and lots of other brands) over the years.

This has helped to keep production costs down and allow shooters to perhaps invest in more backups or extra batteries to keep with them on shoots. However, we’ve all known the drawbacks to these third-party batteries. They’re cheaper, also often less reliable, and at times suspect of not even being able to work with your camera pending new firmware updates or versions.

That seems to be the case now as there’s some dispute by users online as to whether or not the new Canon EOS R5 Mark II can work with third-party batteries. There have been unofficial reports of Canon not allowing third-party batteries anymore, which it sounds like Canon has denied—but issues do seem to remain.

Let’s explore.

Can you use third-party batteries in Canon cameras?

As mentioned above, for years and years it’s felt like third-party batteries have always been an option for Canon shooters. Just as it has been for the majority of other camera brands. However, according to initial reports from Canon Rumors, it sounds like enough reviews have come in for users to conclude that Canon has nixed third-party batteries from the R5 II.

However, new reports from Canon Rumors and further explorations from PetaPixel seem to now conclude that Canon hasn’t banned third-party batteries per se, but is certainly doubling down on their new LP-E6P batteries as the strong preference for the new R5 II camera, which appears to be causing issues with other, older third-party batteries.

The Future of Canon Batteries

According to the same reporting from PetaPixel, a Canon rep has shared that “there is no such requirement,” about only being able to use Canon batteries. However, the word from Canon goes on to clarify the following:

“LP-E6 cannot be used. Use of LP-E6P is recommended. When using the LP-E6NH/LP-E6N, the network (Wi-Fi/Ethernet) functions and multi-function shoe accessories that require heavy power supply from the camera cannot be used. Pre-continuous shooting, HDMI RAW output, and dual shooting (still & movie) are not available. Continuous shooting speed may be reduced. During movie recording, resolution, image quality, and frame rate are limited. For details, refer to Supplemental Information for EOS R5 Mark II on the Canon website.”

This brings us back to the conclusion that, while perhaps not overtly at first, Canon has effectively blocked older third-party batteries from working with the Canon R5 II for now. And perhaps for future cameras as well. However, it is still to be seen if third-party manufacturers can keep up with Canon’s power requirements and release new batches of batteries to counter.

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