Short answer: most people should take the 950mAh battery. It holds about nine tenths of a Canon original LP-E17 (1040mAh), its discharge curve is the closest to the original, and it costs clearly less than the high-capacity tier, which makes it the safe choice for one battery per day. The 750mAh suits a spare role or a light half day, and the 1050mAh suits all-day location work and long recording where nothing can be interrupted. The real difference between the tiers is half capacity and half the point at which the voltage starts to fall.
One premise first: Canon officially makes a single model, the LP-E17. The 750, 950 and 1050mAh figures are YO’s own product tiers and do not correspond to any Canon model. The “LP-E17H” label seen in the market is not a Canon designation either; it is simply what some third parties call their higher-capacity version.
All three tiers in one table
| Spec | 750mAh | 950mAh | 1050mAh |
|---|---|---|---|
| Against the 1040mAh original | About 72% | About 91% | About 101% |
| Nominal energy (7.2V) | About 5.4Wh | About 6.8Wh | About 7.6Wh |
| Weight tendency per battery | Lightest | Middle | Slightly heavier |
| Price band | Lowest | Middle | Slightly above the 950mAh |
| Discharge curve | Falls away earlier at the end | Closest to the original | Longer voltage plateau |
| USB-C charging port | No | No | No |
| Typical role | Spare, light half day | Everyday main battery | All-day location work, video |
The two rows most often skipped are the discharge curve and the USB-C port. The first has a larger practical effect than the capacity gap; the second decides whether you can charge from a power bank at all. None of the three has a charging port, so bodies that need direct charging belong to the LP-E17 direct-charge series.
Three kinds of user, three different tiers
Everyday record keeping. Two or three shoots a week, a few dozen to a couple of hundred frames each time, one spare in the bag. Either two 750mAh batteries, or one 950mAh plus one 750mAh, works well; pick according to how much weight you mind.
Weekend location work. Half a day to a full day out, three to five hundred frames, no guarantee of a socket. This is the largest group and the 950mAh is the default answer: one battery covers the main work, the second covers the wrap-up.
Professional or high-intensity use. Weddings, events, travel commissions, a thousand frames a day or continuous recording. Do not agonize over the three tiers here; run several 1050mAh batteries in parallel, because swap cadence matters more than the capacity of any single battery.
Why “just buy the biggest” is the wrong default
The 1050mAh does hold the most, but the return is marginal: about a tenth more than the 950mAh, slightly heavier, and priced higher. For a light user the money is better spent on an extra 750mAh spare, since two batteries absorb risk at the critical moment better than one larger battery.
Bear in mind too that capacity is limited by the camera body. Some bodies throttle or limit burst shooting once the charge drops below a threshold; a higher-capacity battery only pushes that threshold later, it does not remove it.
The body itself matters as well. Full-frame bodies draw more at baseline, so a capacity difference is magnified in real runtime; APS-C bodies are more frugal, and the gap between 750mAh and 950mAh is less obvious in light use. Put the same comparison table against a different body and the best answer changes.
Price difference and total cost
The useful calculation is not the price of one battery but the price of covering a day. Take a half day as the unit: two 750mAh batteries hold more in total than one 950mAh and usually cost about the same, but they bring an extra swap and extra bulk. If bag space matters, one 950mAh is the better buy; if redundancy matters, two 750mAh batteries absorb accidents better.
There is also a hidden cost in charging bays. Three batteries need three bays at once, and on a trip two is often more realistic than three. If you do carry three, a two-bay dock charger is the practical setup, charging them in two batches overnight. The capacity and compatibility guide discusses this in more detail.
FAQ
Can the three capacities be mixed?
Yes. All three follow the LP-E17 spec and can be used in the same body, which reads the charge from the actual voltage of the battery fitted. When mixing, put the larger battery in the main shooting block and keep the small ones as spares.
Does the 1050mAh make the camera body run hotter?
Not because of capacity. Heat comes mainly from the sensor, the processor and burst intensity, none of which relate directly to capacity. A higher-capacity battery does hold voltage more steadily under load, so the camera throttles less often, which feels like longer endurance.
Why does none of the three tiers have a USB-C port?
It is a product-line split: batteries with a charging port sit in a separate series, and users who need to top up away from a socket should look at that version. The standard dock-charged versions work with the LC-E17 or a third-party dock charger.
Two 750mAh batteries or one 1050mAh?
It depends on whether your shooting can be interrupted. If it can, and total frame count is the goal, two 750mAh batteries are better value. If it cannot, and continuous operation is the goal, one 1050mAh is steadier, because a swap is itself a point of risk.