Powershot A520 Problem

[Wyv]

Hi
I just bought a new Canon Powershot A520 and I am having trouble with battery life.

The supplied panasonic batteries lasted about 5mins. This wasnt overly surprising so I went and bought some energizer 2500mah nimh batteries and a charger. After charging these for 15hours as recommended they only lasted about 5mins before the camera turned itself off and said to charge the batteries. I discharged them and then charged them again for 15hours but I got the same thing again.

The camera takes pictures and operates normally for the 5mins but the flash wont come on, the flash logo on the screen flashes on and off as if there isnt enough power for it.

Do I have a dud camera?

[adas]

Something's wrong with that camera. Just take it back to the shop.

[joemcdga]

I purchased a new A520 in February of this year and it worked great until last week. Suddenly the flash refused to work and in a short while the display said something like "re-charge the batteries". After going through several sets of batteries with the same result, I have come to the sad conclusion that this portion of the camera has gone belly up (it still takes great pictures if I turn the flash off). Hopefully, I will get good results from Canon when I explain the problem to them.

[MsRaven73]

I had an A520 for a few months and had nothing but trouble after the 3rd exchange I just upgraded to the A610 and have been really happy with it ever since. The salesman said that he was noticing a trend in returns for the lower A models. You might just want to save yourself the hassle and upgrade.

[viladd]

Hi

The rechargeable NiMH batteries often don't get charged fully when charged for the first few times. After 2-3 charge-discharge cycles, they start functioning optimally.