Help please......my 60D is not even a year old, and the battery is not charging properly. I charged it fully 2 days ago and this morning, the battery indicator is flashing.( this is the second time in a row this has happened ) When I checked the battery info in the camera menu, it says I have taken 33 (!) photos,( normally it should be a LOT more ), the recharge performance lights are 3 green, and the battery power is at 2 %.
Does this mean I need a new battery already ? Thanks in advance :)
How many shots have you taken overall Caz? With my old 7D my battery performance dropped dramatically after the first year but by then I had taken maybe fifteen thousand shots. Also, are you using Live View to take shots - that seems to eat battery power with my 1D-X. One other thing that I noticed with my 7D was that the power seemed to be on permanently even when switched off. The view through the viewfinder was different with batteries inserted and when the camera was empty - brighter and more in focus with batteries inserted. I reckon that it was something to do with the need to power the camera up rapidly but it also meant a very steady and constant power drainage.
I've taken probably 13 thousand ( good grief !) , maybe more Paul. I never use Live View. Also I was turning off the camera each time I had finished for the day,as I was assuming that it powered itself off ? but once recently I left it on overnight.
So, if I need to buy a new battery , is it best to buy a Canon one, or 2 off brand ones . Thanks Paul :)
If buying brand ones don't skimp for money's sake by getting the cheapest you can find. I did and a year later it will only charge to about a third of its capacity, while the Canon battery I got at the same time is still going strong.
Annoying as I now have to get another battery to have for a spare - there doesn't seem to be any way of forcing the battery to charge fully, even with discharging it completely.
I highly recommend buying canon batteries for you canon camera. Also make sure you by from a reputable dealer. I shoot Nikon and I know that there are some knockoff batteries that are crap but are almost indistinguishable from real nikon batteries unless you know exactly how to tell them apart.
@soren Thanks Jake , I'm definitely buying Canon and hope Best Buy is reputable enough as that's about the only place around here I can buy them.....:)
My husband is a firm believer in using the battery till it truly needs to be charged before recharging, and so I try to do that, except if I know I will need a full charge. Have acticely and daily used my d60 for 2.5 years on one battery which is still going strong. Wouldnonly replace it with a canon battery when I do need a new one.
@swguevin Thanks Sheila, I have been letting this battery get right down until the camera tells me it needs charging, so I don't know what's wrong with it. Do you know the shutter count on your battery ? Mine has about 13 to 14 thousand,
I have a 60d, always with a battery pack (one not a Canon original) and my camera is now two years old.......I haven't experienced what you have and I never turn my camera off, so it does seem odd, as I use my camera every day, yet only charge every couple of weeks. Hope a new battery sorts it :)
The first thing to try is to wipe the contacts of the battery and the charger with a lens cleaning cloth, and then re-attempt to charge the battery. That can often fix this type of problem.
If that doesn't work, if you only have one battery and one charger, it's about 50/50 whether it's likely to be the battery or the charger that's faulty -- they are both known to fail with roughly the same likelihood. Obviously, with two batteries or two chargers, you can easily diagnose which is the problem, but without that you'll have to replace them one at a time and hope you pick the right one first.
Given that the camera is showing a shutter count of 33 for the battery, and that count is reset when the battery is charged, that could indicate a slightly higher probability that it's a charger fault rather than a battery fault, especially combined with the battery reporting good health -- but it's by no means at all certain, as faults in either could prevent the battery from recharging and this counter from resetting.
@abirkill Thanks Alexis, I've ordered a new Canon battery anyway and I will look into getting a spare charger also ) I will try wiping the contacts and the charger as you suggested too. Do you let your batteries run right down and do you turn your camera off, or let it power off ? Thanks so much for your advice :))
@cazann I'm very bad at switching the camera off, so usually leave it on and let it power down automatically, waking it up using the shutter button.
However, this isn't a bad thing for the battery (there's minimal difference in battery draw with either method), the main downside is that the self-cleaning system triggers when the camera is switched on and off using the power switch, so if you don't do that, you're increasing the chance of dust staying on your sensor.
Fully-discharging the type of batteries used in DSLRs (lithium-ion or lithium-polymer) is best avoided where possible. It is better to recharge it five times from 80% to 100% than it does to recharge it once from 0% to 100%, so for best long-term capacity, try to recharge the battery regularly, rather than waiting until it's fully depleted. Running the battery down to 0% or near that will shorten the useful life (and trying to get more life out of a depleted battery will drastically shorten it). If you're out in the field for a long time, it is best to switch to a second battery when the current battery reaches around 25%, rather than waiting until it's reached 0%, where possible.
If the failure you are experiencing is in the battery though, it's unlikely to be due to how the battery has been treated, as that will just determine the long-term capacity of the battery (how many shots it can take from full to empty, which will naturally decline over time, at a rate dependant on your charging and usage regime). For a battery to fail to recharge, as you are experiencing, suggests an internal failure of some kind which is unlikely to have been influenced directly by anything you did.
@cazann Caz, I have a 60D (almost two years and maybe twenty thousand photos) and I am using the same Canon battery that came with it. I also have a generic battery that I switch off with the Canon. Both are still are working good. I will charge my battery though before it gets low. I am really very happy with the generic battery too. I always turn my camera off when not using it. Hope that gives you some food for thought.
There are plenty of reasonable-quality aftermarket DSLR batteries, and plenty of dodgy ones. If you do a bit of research and get a good one, the performance should be indistinguishable from a genuine Canon battery.
However, newer Canon firmware versions are starting to flag many non-Canon batteries when the camera is switched on, because they don't communicate correctly with the camera. This requires you to clear a message before being able to use the camera, each time you switch it on.
This check has been introduced in the latest 5D Mark III firmware, and will likely find its way into other new firmware releases, as well as new cameras. It's therefore worth looking for batteries that communicate correctly with the camera. Additionally, some batteries will not charge correctly in newer Canon chargers, for the same reason.
One example of an LP-E6 battery (suitable for the 7D and 5D3, as well as several other Canon DSLRs) which is good quality and reports the correct information back to the camera/charger is this Maxtek version.
@sansjuan@jwlynn64@abirkill Thanks for your input guys :) My problem may have just been a one off, as the battery seems to be ok right now.....no idea why ! But I didn't take many photos yesterday, so don't know for certain yet. I found a genuine ( I hope ) Canon battery on Amazon for $59, which is almost half the price that Best Buy was selling them for. So, if nothing else I will have a spare battery now and I've learned about charging them :)
Sorry it took me so long to get back. I checked my camera and I have exactly 54,410 shots on it. The D60 is 3 years old and the battery still works wonderfully.
I would buy another Canon battery and hope the next one has a longer life.
@swguevin Thanks Sheila, I purchased another Canon battery which is on it's way, but funnily enough, you can probably guess.....my original battery is now playing nice ! Oh well, at least I'll have a spare now ! Thank you for checking how many shots you've taken and letting me know :)
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So, if I need to buy a new battery , is it best to buy a Canon one, or 2 off brand ones . Thanks Paul :)
Annoying as I now have to get another battery to have for a spare - there doesn't seem to be any way of forcing the battery to charge fully, even with discharging it completely.
If that doesn't work, if you only have one battery and one charger, it's about 50/50 whether it's likely to be the battery or the charger that's faulty -- they are both known to fail with roughly the same likelihood. Obviously, with two batteries or two chargers, you can easily diagnose which is the problem, but without that you'll have to replace them one at a time and hope you pick the right one first.
Given that the camera is showing a shutter count of 33 for the battery, and that count is reset when the battery is charged, that could indicate a slightly higher probability that it's a charger fault rather than a battery fault, especially combined with the battery reporting good health -- but it's by no means at all certain, as faults in either could prevent the battery from recharging and this counter from resetting.
However, this isn't a bad thing for the battery (there's minimal difference in battery draw with either method), the main downside is that the self-cleaning system triggers when the camera is switched on and off using the power switch, so if you don't do that, you're increasing the chance of dust staying on your sensor.
Fully-discharging the type of batteries used in DSLRs (lithium-ion or lithium-polymer) is best avoided where possible. It is better to recharge it five times from 80% to 100% than it does to recharge it once from 0% to 100%, so for best long-term capacity, try to recharge the battery regularly, rather than waiting until it's fully depleted. Running the battery down to 0% or near that will shorten the useful life (and trying to get more life out of a depleted battery will drastically shorten it). If you're out in the field for a long time, it is best to switch to a second battery when the current battery reaches around 25%, rather than waiting until it's reached 0%, where possible.
If the failure you are experiencing is in the battery though, it's unlikely to be due to how the battery has been treated, as that will just determine the long-term capacity of the battery (how many shots it can take from full to empty, which will naturally decline over time, at a rate dependant on your charging and usage regime). For a battery to fail to recharge, as you are experiencing, suggests an internal failure of some kind which is unlikely to have been influenced directly by anything you did.
However, newer Canon firmware versions are starting to flag many non-Canon batteries when the camera is switched on, because they don't communicate correctly with the camera. This requires you to clear a message before being able to use the camera, each time you switch it on.
This check has been introduced in the latest 5D Mark III firmware, and will likely find its way into other new firmware releases, as well as new cameras. It's therefore worth looking for batteries that communicate correctly with the camera. Additionally, some batteries will not charge correctly in newer Canon chargers, for the same reason.
One example of an LP-E6 battery (suitable for the 7D and 5D3, as well as several other Canon DSLRs) which is good quality and reports the correct information back to the camera/charger is this Maxtek version.
I would buy another Canon battery and hope the next one has a longer life.