The ON-switch

Lol..I never found turning the switch on to be any harder than touching the shutter.

When you turn the camera off, then turn it back on again, internal checks get run which aren't done on waking it up from sleep. That's why leaving it on is actually more efficient for battery life.

Wouldn't it be safe to say, though, that if you have the body in a bag, on, and it's asleep, there's a darn good chance that it will "wake up" many many times, and therefore waste battery? That's half of what keeps me from leaving it.

If I read Chuck Westfall's article correctly, I don't think that's true any more. It might have been with the 10D and prior models but I don't think that applies anymore.

Well I don't know why, but I'm more likely to come back to a dead battery if I've turned the camera off than if I leave it on. So I just leave it on.

Now that really makes no sense at all.

You've confused me, Jon. Why would the battery likely be dead if you left it off? I know it drains minimal power while its off, but...

Like I said, I don't know why . . . But it happens.

Maybe because of that "false low battery" problem? I mean..I'm guessing you mean your 20D.

No - I don't use the grip. Haven't had it on since just after it came back from Jamesburg last May. With the D60 and 20D, IIRC.

Weird. I don't understand it.

I think Jon's issue is simply Murphy's Law as applied to inactive cameras- turn the camera off, thus obviously not using it for a while, then when you come back to it the battery has drained over time. nothing more.

If it happened to the one I left on as well, I'd buy that. As the one that's on has a charge and the one that's off may even be flat, all I caan think of is that Banjo's(see avatar) been practising his photography when I'm not looking, and resets the counter when he's done.

I only turn my 5d off if I put it in the bag. Sometimes the shutter gets pressed by the bag and I have it in rapid fire mode, resulting in 60 or more black shots.

The curved line mode is the worst mode ever. The 10d had a button that you could press at the same time as making adjustments, which avoided accidently changing exposure levels and it made the adjustments much faster. It is possibly the least convenient, most poorly thought out aspect of any Canon product ever.

i'm new to my 30D and i found out that i too have spun the wheel by accident and underexposed. i was stumped at first, then read the manual and found it pretty quick.