A Battery Question...

[swamprot]

I bought my 10D with two batteries. I fully charged them both and was using one. When my camera broke. Which means I had one almost fully charged and the other with full charge. Instructions say you shouldn't store full charged batteries for extended time. It's been close to 4 wks now. Are my batteries going to be okay?

[Kinger]

I don't know about these exact batteries, just my experience with Lithion Ion Batteries for my cell phone. I would suggest Cycling them back in forth in usage. All manufactures say that these batteries do not have a memory, but I seem to have found out otherwise.

[GenEOS]

I have experienced NO problems with the BP-511's. Two of my 4 batteries are from my old G1 and they are going strong. I rarely drain the 2 batteries during a night's worth of shooting. I have the vertical grip that hold both the batteries. If you don't have a vertical grip, I would suggest investing in one.

[swamprot]

What I am really concerned about is not using my
BP-511's for several weeks when fully charged? Book says store batteries empty. What does long time with full batteries mean? Weeks, Months?

[robertwgross]

There will be very little problem storing the BP-511 batteries. First of all, when people refer to the memory effect, they are thinking about the way that NiCd batteries were some years ago. If you charged a typical NiCd battery up to full, and then discharged it only 5%, and then recharged it and maintained that cycle, then after a while the battery would no longer have 100% capability. It would "shrink" to only 5% or 10% capacity. This was called the "NiCd Memory Effect." That is why the users of NiCd batteries would often intentionally discharge their batteries after the normal use and before recharging, and it was thought that this action would help to maintain 100% capability without a memory problem.

NiMH batteries have very little of this problem, and Li-ion batteries have very little either. Both are affected by bad charging techniques (like overcharging). Li-ion (like BP-511 type) will self-discharge very slightly just sitting around. I've seen estimates from 1% per day to 1% per week. A certain amount of that is unavoidable, but it is no big concern. In general, if you charge it up to max right before a big photo session, that is supposed to do better than charging it up right after the big photo session. However, I charge them after, not before.

For the original poster, I would not worry about it. If you weren't going to get the camera back for six months, then I would suggest something different. But if you don't get your camera back for six months, you will have undergone Canon withdrawal, and you'll probably be ready for the looney bin.

---Bob Gross---

[swamprot]

6 months? Holy Crap that is a horrible thought. I'm already over the edge.

Anyway thanks for the info, perhaps my batteries will make it through this better than me.

Concerning the vertical grip? Yep when I get my camera back and everything works ok I think so.

[Longwatcher]

Long time means months.

I have 4 batteries (2 Canon, 2 3rd party) and keep a pair in the camera and the other two sitting in the bag. I just charge them whenever I feel I need to. Typically either right before and after a photo session or after a couple of weeks. But a pair of them has sat around for 4-6 weeks without being used, I recharged them, stuck them in the camera and used them without problem.

I have a fifth battery of a similiar type for my Kodak DC4800, which I have had for 3 1/2 years so far. I only use it on rare occasions, although I have loaned it out a couple of times in the past year. I charge the battery before using it and then I just pull the battery out when I am done using it and put it bag in storage. Long-term storage to me means more then 3 months.

Thus 4-6 weeks should not be a problem (at least as far as the battery is concerned - sanity is another issue :)