I have two batteries for my canon 400. The Canon one normally lasts me about 3-4 weeks before I have to recharge. The spare Hahnel one lasts a few days. The issue that I have is that I charge the battery, put it in the camera and the power dies pretty quickly - say like 20 mins for the Canon and five mins for the Hahnel. The Canon one says that it's fully charged when inserting it into the camera and doesn't warn me that the battery is dying. I turn it off and it doesn't turn back on again. The hahnel one says it's fully charged but after a couple of minutes it goes down to two bars and then one very quickly.
I can't figure out if maybe the camera is shorting out the life of my batteries or there's a problem with the charger. If the issue is the charger then surely the camera wouldn't indicate that I've put a fully charged battery in. I also can't believe that there's a problem with the batteries as they're both having issues.
They were both working absolutely fine a few days ago. The only thing that I did last week was reformat the memory stick - the first time I've done this in three years. Could this be the issue?
@abirkill The battery is cold. It's recharged again after only 10 mins which I know isn't enough time to fully charge a battery. I've just put this in the camera and it says that it's fully charged - surely it would only have one bar.
Doesn't sound like a camera issue then -- if the camera was discharging an actually-fully-charged battery in 20 minutes the battery would be warm, if not hot, to the touch.
I would agree that, unless both batteries have gone bad at the same time, the charger is the most probable failure point.
Have you tried cleaning the contacts on the batteries and charger to see if that makes any difference?
Ideally a cotton swab with some Isopropyl Alcohol (IPA) on it, but realistically, a very slightly damp cloth should be more than good enough. Try and make sure it doesn't touch more than one of the battery contacts at a time.
@mikehamm - I always like the additional safety comments. I am currently using a hire car and the instructions in the manual for plugging in your iPod into the USB says "please pull over into a safe location, applying the handbrake and turn off the engine. Open USB cover and plug iPod lead in"
Could be lots of things. Could be both batteries are dying but unlikely at the same time i know but it really does sound like a dying battery when they charge but wont hold a charge. Most lithium batteries just die without much warning and they wont be warm because they dont have much of a charge to discharge. When they die they lose charge very very quickly which is what it sounds like. Also how old is the battery. If both batteries are the same age it is quite possible they are dying at the same time. I dont think its your charger otherwise your batteries wouldnt probably show as charged. It could be a problem with the camera. The batteries contain some electronics that communicate with the camera telling it of its charge. Could be the camera has a problem where it thinks the batteries are dead when in reality they are not. I have had this happen with a battery before and reset my camera to factory settings and it fixed they problem. But to me this really sounds like dead batteries. My d90 had a problem that would drain a battery in 10 min. the camera would constantly try writing to the card when the camera was off and drained the battery. As long as i took the sd card after i turned the camera off then the batteries would last like normal. Turned out to be a problem with my on - off switch. Hope you figure it out it, i known it can be so frustrating when your camera doesnt work. Best of luck
Make sure the red light is not blinking on your camera. If the sd card does not seat properly, or it doesn't read properly, the camera keeps pinging the card, using your battery. And, I always reformat the sd card when I finish uploading the pictures, as I had some issues with the red blink before. Also, try turning off your led screen next time, and shortening the auto shutoff time. Run your charged battery just like normal. I like to rule out all the misc camera settings. @kareen
@soia Oh my. That's a lot of could be's. I actually thought that cleaning the charger had worked as the battery seemed to last a big longer but when I went back to the camera yesterday, it was dead. I guess it will be a bit of a process of elimination. And the batteries are quite old - like 4 and 3 years. I'm loathe to buy another battery as was thinking of buying a new canon in the new year and not sure if the batteries will be the same. Will check this out.
@welcometocarolworld Thanks for the comment Carol. The red light isn't blinking. I use the led screen all the time. Might need to have a rethink about that.
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Once the camera has discharged the battery, does it take the usual amount of time to charge again, or does it charge very quickly?
I would agree that, unless both batteries have gone bad at the same time, the charger is the most probable failure point.
Have you tried cleaning the contacts on the batteries and charger to see if that makes any difference?
@welcometocarolworld Thanks for the comment Carol. The red light isn't blinking. I use the led screen all the time. Might need to have a rethink about that.