Battery conditioning

Other than shooting a bunch of photos, what is the best way to discharge a 7D battery. I know that some chargers for AA and other batteriers will discharge the batteries before recharging, but the Canon chargers for the 7D don't.

Actually, Lithium-ion batteries should not be "conditioned" in that way. Deep charging them will actually decrease their life. That's why Canon chargers don't do it.


http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthr​ead.php?t=1169979

http://batteryuniversi​ty.com …g_lithium_based​_batteries

Do they need conditioning?. I thought technology had passed the memory thing

+1

don't completely discharge.

From reading another thread that morphed between "conditioning" and "calibrating" it seems that the 1D series has a function that allows you to re-calibrate the battery meter in your camera and synch it with your battery. That function (as part of re-calibrating) does a full discharge.

But its not something you want to do every time you charge your battery. Experts say (in the links I posted above) that will decrease the life of the battery.

cdiver2 wrote in post #16204133
Do they need conditioning?. I thought technology had passed the memory thing

That's what I thought, too. But after doing some reading, I wasn't sure. Thus the question.

Try shooting a 5 minute movie and then watch it several times on the rear screen. This pulls a lot of power (as does using Live View). I don't recommend using Live View for long periods as it heats up the sensor. The 1D4 and 1DX bodies have a thermal protection circuit but I don't know if the 7D has one too. No need to tempt fate.

Year ago, and with respect to a Powershot NiCad battery, Canon told me to use settings to leave the screen continuously on. To get rid of memory effect the battery was taken all the way down to the point where the camera "died" and then was recharged. Most of these cameras have circuitry to prevent too low a discharge but even so I would do a similar procedure, screen on continuously, auto power off disabled until 50% charge is reached. Then do a full recharge.