cannon a720 is, no power??

[tiltoff1]

Hi I have had a canon A720 IS for about 18 months it has been a good camara, but it now seems to have problems with the power. After I recharge the batteries it says it has low battery. I have tried new batteries normal and rechargeable, it just keeps saying low battery and turns its self off, HELP is my camara now dead??:cry:

[Techuser]

18 months looks too early for a dying camera, try cleaning the contacts on the battery compartment

[del Sol]

The A720 IS is a wonderful P&S, small enough to hand-conceal, with 8mp, 6X optical zoom, and an optical viewfinder. It suits my shooting style perfectly, and I think it is well worth the money to have it professionally repaired.

Unfortunately, and inconcievably, it has been discontinued.

If the upgrade bug gets you, the only other Canon P&S camera I would consider right now is the G11, since it also has an optical viewfinder.

Cheers, del Sol

[Bodryn]

Discontinued??? Arrgh! My A720 IS is the camera I always have with me. What is going on with Canon these days anyway?

[CameraLens]

I had the same problem when I used to own an A710 IS. Replacing the rechargeables with new ones did the trick. For some reason, the old batteries SEEMED to work fine on other devices, but they wouldn't work on the camera. Apparently we have to replace the rechargeables once a year or so.

[philwillmedia]

Have you totally discharged the batteries as opposed to letting them go flat.
Maybe the ones you have are "holding" memory and won't take any charge.
Just a thought.

[Bodryn]

My A720 IS does fine on ordinary alkalines. You should try a set of alkaline batteries. If they go bad in a hurry, obviously it would be the camera needing servicing. (I always use alkaline batteries because I always carry an extra set and even if they are months old, they'll always work. I get plenty of use out of each set of alkalines. )

[kimberjeb]

Same thing happened to me and I've tried alkalines. Nothing works.

[hnikesch]

I have had problems with bent battery door battery contacts on some of my equipment, it then reports low battery, you may want to try bending them to get more tension on the battery

Also here is an interesting thread on batteries for Canon A series cameras
http://www.digitalcamera-hq.com/digital-cameras/canon-powershot-a570is_question.html?qid=15701

[g18135]

I have the same problem.. it took me so long to think why it happens.. I tried almost everything.. clean and bend the battery contact... finally when the CR-1220 battery (for the date and time on the camera) was taken out.. the problem solved! So most likely it's the CR-1220 that was out of the battery. It's working fine so far after that.

[mariar]

I seem to be having the same problem. I have replaced the CR-1220 battery, I've used rechargeable batteries, alkaline batteries and the "ultimate" lithium batteries. I've cleaned the contacts, and made sure the battery contacts were tight against the batteries. The camera will take pictures in well lit areas such as outdoors, but inside if the flash is on, the camera will not take the picture. If I turn the flash off, it will take the picture, however due to the low-light situation, I get a blurry image. But even when I use it without the flash, after about 15 minutes of use - with brand new batteries - I get a "change battery" message and camera shuts itself off. The camera is about 2 years old. I have a 3 year old son and I am missing out on a lot of great "memory shots"!!

[hnikesch]

Have you tried the reset all menu item

[mariar]

Have you tried the reset all menu item

Yes, I have gone into the tools menu and reset all the settings to default and still have the same issue. Thank you for your response.

[hipchick]

I have an A720 that used to shut down too soon after placing fresh batteries inside. Then, I figured out that it only likes fresh, out of the blister pack, Duracells. Another consideration might be the brightness level on your LCD screen display and the setting for the review time in your camera. By lowering the screen brightness and shortening the review time setting, you can conserve on power usage... and cut-back on some of that premature battery drain.

[mariar]

I have an A720 that used to shut down too soon after placing fresh batteries inside. Then, I figured out that it only likes fresh, out of the blister pack, Duracells. Another consideration might be the brightness level on your LCD screen display and the setting for the review time in your camera. By lowering the screen brightness and shortening the review time setting, you can conserve on power usage... and cut-back on some of that premature battery drain.

Yes, I have turned off the LCD display completely and just relied on my viewfinder to take pictures and it still does not help with the battery drain issue.

This weekend, I loaded a brand new fresh set of "ultimate" lithium batteries, I took about 20 pictures in the space of around 10 minutes. I took the batteries out of the camera. Approx. 5 minutes later I reloaded the batteries...it only allowed me to take 5 pictures before I got a "change batteries" display and the camera shut off. No LCD display and no flash was used during both picture sessions.

[imjason]

if its not a settings issue, for those getting low battery warnings early with their batteries, have you actually tried those batteries in other devices to see if the batteries are actually depleted?

if the batteries are not depleted, then its likely that the camera has issues with bad capacitors or power regulators. from all the descriptions with the AA batteries and how it works better for some people with alkalines (higher voltage than rechargeables), its likely that your camera has a bad capacitor or a malfunctioning power regulator. if there is a problem with a voltage regulator or a bad capacitor, the camera might detect a slight voltage drop when under load as a depleted battery. the digi cam is designed to use less than 3v, hence you can use rechargeable batteries. the alkalines with the higher voltage will compensate for the voltage drop under load.

[barflies]

barflies My A720IS has the same low battery problem as many others. Tried all the remedies suggested. fully charged Nimhd 1.45v switch camera on and give 1 picture before red warning. New alkalines 1.55v just give change batteries message. A lovely camera when it works. but a load of expensive junk when it gives up after a couple of years very occasional use. A repair Shop would probably want more than its worth. Give me back my old Canon EOS600. could not nfind any answers on the Canon site. Imjason is probably on the right track, but has anybody else fixed theirs ?

[sasscuba]

Getting ready to sell mine with underwater housing on Ebay. You can get a used one cheaper than getting it fixed.

[guybagnall]

Has anyone tried a couple of fixes I found on the net - resetting yellow menu 'file numbering' to reset, and secondly, take batteries out, hold down on/off for a minute, which is said to discharge the capacitor, replace batteries and switch on. I've done both and await results.