Battery Charger Acting Crazy

Hey, guys. I was prepping for a wedding shoot last week, when I noticed my LC-E6 battery charger for my 5dmkII wasn't working. No lights coming on at all, no matter which of my 4 batteries (all genuine Canon) I put in. Great. The day before a big shoot, and my charger dies. Well, I went to Best Buy and bought a generic charger. It worked fine, but I wanted a genuine Canon charger to get the most out of my batteries.

So I bought a Canon LC-E6 from Amazon. When I tried to charge my batteries, however, it showed a constant, rapid blinking orange light, indicating a charging problem. I tried all four batteries, and none would charge. I figured I got a defective charger, so I returned it for replacement.

I got the new charger today. I put in the first battery, and it charged correctly, showing first one, then two, then three blinks before showing a full charge. The second battery, though, produced the rapidly blinking orange light again. I tried unplugging it, taking the battery off, waiting a few minutes, then plugging everything back in. No luck. I tried different outlets, but no change. I put the battery on the generic charger, and it charged fine. It showed 100% charge in the camera and 3 bars for the charging performance.

Anybody have this problem before? I couldn't have gotten two defective chargers, could I? Why would it charge one battery okay and not the next?

Anyone with experience with this phenomenon, your help will be greatly appreciated.

The 'constant, rapidly blinking orange light' is defined by Canon as a communication problem rather than a charging problem (though the end effect is frustratingly the same, won't charge). Canon have been attacking the counterfeiters of LP-E6 batteries with a number of little changes in the cameras - I wonder if the latest chargers are simply not recognising your (older) batteries as genuine as the charger has also been modded? Possibility, although I've heard no mention of this.

Out of interest, go into the camera menu and look at the serial number of each battery. Is it 7 digits (bad) or 8 digits (good)? Amazon.co.uk have cancelled several of their listings for 'genuine' LP-E6 batteries as they are suspected counterfeits. Good enough to fool Amazon but not the camera, although none of the suspended items were actually 'fulfilled by Amazon'.

I have one 'genuine' LP-E6 (with 7 digits hence counterfeit) which I bought ..... from Amazon. Yes, the price was low & I expected it to be counterfeit. Bought for hands-on experience. It LOOKS A-OK. There was no clue on the packaging and I was looking for it specifically. It works fine - in all my LC-E6E chargers. BUT in my Delkin Dual, it doesn't zero the shutter count.

I bought LP-E6 batteries from Sterlingtek the same time I bought new batteries for my 5DII.

Guess which ones show a better recharge performance after 2 years. Yep, the Sterlingteks.

I rotate the 2 groups, (I have grips on my cameras,) so they have got the same usage and same amount of charges.

Freak occurrence? Perhaps, but not likely.

Well, this is interesting. Thanks very much for your replies. I bought my camera, 3 extra batteries and the battery grip all new from Best Buy online back in 2010. Only the battery that came with the camera is showing up with 8 digits in the serial number. That's the one that charged correctly. So, Phil, I think your guess is spot on. I got fakes from Best Buy!!! And no, I didn't pay less for them and didn't think they were fake. I guess it's too late to return them....

It's worth noting that the "genuine" Canon battery is now showing a single red bar for charging performance. The other 3 are all showing 3 green bars.

This sucks. I paid the extra for the real thing, I bought them from a respected online retailer, and I still got imitations. Well, at least they've performed well. I guess I can continue using the generic charger.

Thanks so much for posting. At least that's one mystery solved.

genuine canon lp-e6 batteries can have 7 or 8 digit serial numbers.

https://photography-on-the.net …t=1338719&highl​ight=lp-e6

Okay, so based on the info provided by Michael (thank you youngr for linking that) and verified by Canon, all my batteries are indeed genuine.

So why the F@!C#%K won't they charge!? Did Canon modify the charger so much that it won't even charge one of their own batteries anymore?

I think it may be time for a loyal CPS customer like myself to contact Canon directly.

More to follow...

So I just spoke with Dave at CPS. He verified that my batteries are genuine Canon products, and he said he knows of no modifications to the chargers that would cause this problem with older batteries. He suspects that Amazon may have had a batch of counterfeit chargers dumped on them. I'm going to take detailed pictures and send them to Canon's Anti-Counterfeit Department for analysis.

I'll keep everyone posted.

have you already tried this?
http://www.usa.canon.c​om …il&docId=0901e0​24809ed436

youngr wrote in post #16925933
have you already tried this?
http://www.usa.canon.c​om …il&docId=0901e0​24809ed436

Yes, several times. But thanks for pointing that out. It's worth noting that my batteries were not stored for long periods of time.

Canon issued an advisory and corrective action for what you describe. Go to http://www.usa.canon.c​om …il&docId=0901e0​24809ed436.

John from PA wrote in post #16929784
Canon issued an advisory and corrective action for what you describe. Go to http://www.usa.canon.c​om …il&docId=0901e0​24809ed436.

Yes, youngr already linked to that procedure two posts above yours. It didn't work.

It is not likely that you got a counterfeit Canon battery from Best Buy. The genuine Canon LP-E6 battery is $100 and comes in Canon packaging. Because of the large quantities purchased, Best Buy sources Canon batteries directly from Canon USA and then they are distributed in smaller quantities to the stores. They do the same with memory cards like Sandisk. Thus there is no middleman and the source is reliable/reputable.

Best Buy does also has a "Lenmar" equivalent that is around $50 as I recall.

John from PA wrote in post #16930659
It is not likely that you got a counterfeit Canon battery from Best Buy. The genuine Canon LP-E6 battery is $100 and comes in Canon packaging. Because of the large quantities purchased, Best Buy sources Canon batteries directly from Canon USA and then they are distributed in smaller quantities to the stores. They do the same with memory cards like Sandisk. Thus there is no middleman and the source is reliable/reputable.

Obviously not familiar with 'Best Buy' because of the geography. However lots of the 'just like' Canon batteries come in packaging which is very, very similar to the real stuff. It's reassuring to read of the direct supply nature of Best Buy's batteries - often the trouble arises somewhere along a multi-point supply chain and is difficult to tie down exactly where things went awry.

If, IF, we weren't so hell-bent on bigger/faster/cheaper/​better all the time there would be no market for these inferior products. 150 years ago, an English philosopher wrote “There is nothing in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and he who considers price only is that man's lawful prey.”. 150 years ago and perhaps even more relevant today than ever before.

None of which solves Gibbit's original problem though.

Thanks for the posts guys, but like I said, the batteries are genuine. It's the charger, purchased from Amazon (shipped and sold by Amazon) that may be counterfeit. This is just a CPS rep's guess based on his experience. I've sent the pictures to the proper people at Canon. We'll see what they say. My guess is that it's a real Canon charger. I'm thinking, Phil, that your original theory is still on the mark. Canon techs have probably made some minor tweaks to the charger, hoping to foil the counterfeiters, and now it won't charge my 4-year old Canon batteries because some circuit in there thinks they're fakes. But, we'll see.

gibbit1 wrote in post #16931726
Thanks for the posts guys, but like I said, the batteries are genuine. It's the charger, purchased from Amazon (shipped and sold by Amazon) that may be counterfeit. This is just a CPS rep's guess based on his experience. I've sent the pictures to the proper people at Canon. We'll see what they say. My guess is that it's a real Canon charger. I'm thinking, Phil, that your original theory is still on the mark. Canon techs have probably made some minor tweaks to the charger, hoping to foil the counterfeiters, and now it won't charge my 4-year old Canon batteries because some circuit in there thinks they're fakes. But, we'll see.

Hardly a full and conclusive test, based on a sample of just two batteries, but I took the original Canon batteries (2009 manufacture - both 8-digit serial) out of my 7d and tried them both in the charger from my 5dMk3 (2014 purchase). Both charged without a problem and everything worked fine in all respects.

I wouldn't put this forward as being in any way conclusive, a test sample of two is below what even beauty product makers consider a representative sample . Both my batteries and the charger came direct from Canon with no intermediaries and are therefore assuredly 100% genuine. Your batteries are confirmed as genuine by Canon USA so the only logical solution lies in faults with your Amazon charger(s). I also examined both my 2009 and my 2014 LC-E6E chargers (the 'E' suffix simply indicates European market) and externally I can see no difference whatsoever other than that the older has labelling in Chinese in addition to the English and French.

Much as I'd like to help, I'm not going to break my fully functioning chargers open to look at the innards - sorry!
The only thing I can suggest is that you return the second charger to Amazon with a query and buy from an alternate source - perhaps direct from the Canon USA Inc. online shop [LInk]. I see that they are currently on promotion at just US$61.20 plus the usuals (of course) - rather more than Amazon.com. I also noticed that (and this may be nothing more than a typo) they state in the listing that this is for the NP-E6 battery. I wonder .... I just wonder if.....?

Looking at Amazon.com, I also saw "the same thing" (yeah, right) from an alternate supplier at US$20.01. So - Canon's full price is US$80 plus taxes and shipping, Amazon.com can fulfil for 57% of that price and a different Amazon listed supplier can get it to you for US$26 shipped. Now call me suspicious but WTF?? We have a couple of phrases in England - "fell off the back of a lorry" and "bought from a guy down the pub" - which flashed into my mind at both those prices compared with the Canon one. Unfounded cynicism??