Poor G3 Battery Life

[cardo]

Hi All,

I have noticed that the battery life on my G3 is horrible. Last weekend I went to Mt. Rainier to take pictures and was only able to get 14 pictures taken before the battery went dead. This was on a full charge.

I am using a 340mb MicroDrive and was using the LCD to review the pictures but I didn't expect this poor of battery life. One thing I noticed that when I switched back to the CF that ships with the G3, I was able to get another two pics out before the camera went completely dead.

Should I be contacting Canon for a replacement battery or is there something I'm doing wrong?

TIA,

Rich

-----------------
Gallery in progress - http://www.beavercheese.com/4images

[Bean]

Did it ever work correctly? It is either the battery or the charger. Hopefully the battery. Do you have an external charger? Maybe time to get one. I love the Lenmar Mach 1 Speed Charger. How long does it take to charge your battery from beginning to end and what are you using to charge it?

[satnitefever]

Are you sure? G3 has one of the best battery life for digi cams...

[AzzKicker]

I agree, G3 has one of the BEST battery lifes. In fact I think it WAS the best in its class and below.

[Outlaw]

cardo I think you may have an equipment issue. I would contact Canon. I think the battery in the G3 is about the best out there in tems of longevity. I always get alot of great shots literally dozens and that counts zooming in and out, having the LCD on most of the time. I get real good results. I think Consumer guide was able to take 700 shots in thier test before the battery crapped out. Canons battery life was rated number one in Consumers review of 4 megapixel cameras. My freind has a Nikon coolpix5700 and has to carry two batteries. Complains about it all of the time. The Nikon is a great camera but the battery life is low.

[John_T]

Yes Cardo, G3/5 have the best battery life out there. I have a G2 with a 1GB Microdrive and the Microdrive doesn't consume noticably more power than a CF. The LCD consumes more than anything else.

Either you have left the camera inadvertantly on, viewed longer than you thought, or you aren't letting it recharge to green light, or you've got a dud battery.

[Elliott]

I agree with some of these others. There must be somthing wrong with your battery, or there must be some unusual battery related problem. I was truly shocked at how long the battery lasted the first time I used my G3. (I purchased mine about 5 months ago.) The first time I used the G3, the battery lasted so long that I was beginning to wonder if the battery would ever need a recharge. Of course, it eventually did need a recharge, but I used the camera off and on for days before it went down. I have a spare battery, and I swap them out. When one goes down, I swap to the other one and use it until it goes down, then back to the first even if that takes a while to do. The only thing I have noticed -- and some others here have noticed as well -- is that when the G3's battery does begin to go low, the battery indicator does not show it until it's about to go out completely. When the battery indicator finally says it's low, then you'd better have that backup battery on deck.

Great camera. I've had a blast with this thing so far.

[yallcome]

Yep, I've been trying to figue out how to get my battery to run down. I can't believe its ability to keep on going.

[cardo]

I believe I figured it out the problem. Even though I had plugged in the power cable, it apparently wasn't all the way in, so it had only a minimal charge.

I need to do some testing to make sure, but it appears that after removing and then making sure the power cable was inserted correctly, it started to charge correctly.

Thanks for all the feedback.

Rich