For me I like to buy genuine but price factors in to it. It's a blury line. In general I would be on Dennis and H's side of the midde line.
With this cable release I thought being 1/6th the cost it was worth a shot at the cheapie fully realising I might lose the $30, as it was only about $30 it was worth the risk. But having had one failure, it's not worth a second one to me, it's back to the genuine article in this particular case.
I've also realised just how useful this particular piece of equipment is ... previously I'd always just had a single button cable release
