Opteka Battery Grip Misreads Battery Level

mcmadkat wrote in post #3599231
I find that using a 3rd party grip I get roughly 500 shots, maybe less. That doesn't matter as I have a lot of betteries, but it could be annoying. ed: but if I am shooting the same settings I can get 1,000 shots.

50 shots is wrong. Have you tried it with just one battery in the grip not two? How many shots then. Compare to battery in camera then you know if the grip it to blame.

I charge the battery until the green light comes on. Then I use just one battery in the grip. I get about 50-100 shots before the battery meter has about one bar left. From there, it is only a matter of time before the camera shuts down thinking that there is no more juice. Once I remove the grip and place the same battery back into the original compartment, the battery meter reads full. I take about 50 or so more shots just to be sure that the battery really is reading correctly.

That sounds like dirty contacts.

Try rubbing lightly with a pencil eraser:
-the contacts on the batteries themselves
-the contacts for the batterires on the battery tray
-the contacts on the end of the battery tray
-the contacts INSIDE the grip
-the silver contacts on grip that go into the camera

my canon battery grip does the same exact thing. as well as my friend's. I just got my battry grip 2 days ago so I know the contacts are not to blame. once the battery appears to be dead in the grip, the camera stops working. if I take the battery out and put in the camera without the grip, it's a full charge again.

I find it really weird that this would happen on my brand new 30D with a brand new grip and brand new batteries, as well as happen on my friends old gear. is there a solution?

It can happen once in a while. I find that removing the batteries and the grip and then reinserting them helps to kind of "reset" the thing.

oldsquawk wrote in post #3598611
When you buy cheap products you get cheap results. Opteka is very hit or miss with the quality of their products. Buy the Canon OEM grip and you won't have these problems. The grip will work properly for years to come.

I will also add, after doing a little searching around, seems like they are identical, someone mentioned that the company that makes canon is making these.

Going to pick one up pretty soon.

I don't know for sure if I've resolved this issue, but I have made some discoveries. I attached the battery grip and used just the original Canon battery that came with my kit purchase. The battery meter seems accurate and I took over 150 shots without the battery level diminishing or the camera powering down. I purchased a battery on eBay for cheap. It is new and supposedly has a higher capacity than the standard Canon battery. When I use this battery with the grip, the battery level starts to become inaccurate and shuts down as previously mentioned after 50 shots or so. Of course, when I place this battery directly into the camera without the battery grip, the levels are full charge. I guess the battery maybe has a different voltage which is causing the grip to read it wrong. Not sure why it works when it is directly inside the camera. I used generic batteries in my 300D with a grip without any issues so I thought I wouldn't have any problems. Maybe I just received a dud battery. I'm not 100% sure that the grip isn't at fault so I may buy a battery from SterlingTek since their batteries seem to be of higher quality. Hope this helps someone.

I have the same issue with my Opteka grip. I have not tested how many shots I get with the different batteries, but when I use 1 single fully charge original canon battery it in the grip it shows full power. However, when I insert the AA cartridge fill with 6 fully charge Energizer NiMH batteries (the same kind I use all the time in my Canon 430EX flash) it shows half full right away. I am ok with this if I can still get lots of shots out of it, but if the camera will think that it's out of power soon after I start shooting this will be a problem.

I am hoping that the contacts just need to get "broken in" as someone else said earlier in this thread. Otherwise my plan of using the 6 x 2500 mAh batteries to get 15,000 mAh will not work!

DigitalOxygen.ca wrote in post #3655634
I have the same issue with my Opteka grip. I have not tested how many shots I get with the different batteries, but when I use 1 single fully charge original canon battery it in the grip it shows full power. However, when I insert the AA cartridge fill with 6 fully charge Energizer NiMH batteries (the same kind I use all the time in my Canon 430EX flash) it shows half full right away. I am ok with this if I can still get lots of shots out of it, but if the camera will think that it's out of power soon after I start shooting this will be a problem.

I am hoping that the contacts just need to get "broken in" as someone else said earlier in this thread. Otherwise my plan of using the 6 x 2500 mAh batteries to get 15,000 mAh will not work!

Do you have the same problem using a non-Canon lithium battery? Thanks.

simonmiles wrote in post #3643230
Maybe I just received a dud battery.

After buying a grip, I picked up two new CTA batteries. With both brand new batteries installed, I was getting fewer shots than with my old Canon battery. Turned out that one of the new batteries was completely dead 3 days after its first charge and was dragging down the good battery while in the grip.

JackProton wrote in post #3657120
After buying a grip, I picked up two new CTA batteries. With both brand new batteries installed, I was getting fewer shots than with my old Canon battery. Turned out that one of the new batteries was completely dead 3 days after its first charge and was dragging down the good battery while in the grip.

I'm thinking that it's also a dud battery. When I have the generic and the Canon battery both in the grip at the same time, the battery level doesn't read right. The thing that is weird to me is that the generic battery seems to hold a great charge when it is directly in the battery compartment. Would you recommend batteries from Sterlingtek? I still need to eliminate the battery grip as being defective while I still have the warranty. Thanks.

Bad batteries can appear to have a full charge but become totally drained after a small number of shots. This is pretty common. My bad battery gave itself away when it appeared totally drained acted like it was fully charged after only 60 seconds in the charger.

I replaced the CTA batteries with Sterlingtek (the replacement and the original good CTA battery both died simultaneously after 1 year) and have been getting very good results.

simonmiles wrote in post #3656845
Do you have the same problem using a non-Canon lithium battery? Thanks.

Unfortunately I don't own any non-Canon lithium batteries right now. However I do know someone who has an extra battery that may be a non-Canon. I will research that if I can.

Which brings me to my the next quirk. I borrowed that same persons XTi for a wedding I am shooting this weekend and I decided to try the grip on the XTi. When the grip is installed on the XTi with the AA batteries as the power source it reads 100% battery level! I can then take the grip and move it over to my XT and it reads 1/2 ! Very strange. I am going to try some tests today to see how long the camera will last and now many shots I can take before it dies. I am going to clear the card, open the flash and fire away for a while and see if I can get it to shutdown. Hopefully I will be able to tell if the camera will die prematurely or if it will just sit at the 50% level for a long time until the batteries are actually drained.

PS, I was going to hook the XT up to my computer and use the EOS utilities time interval shooting to let the camera go through it's paces so I didn't have to sit there and hold the shutter button down, but the design of the software (for whatever stupid reason) will not allow you to shoot tethered while the battery is at the half way mark. I always found this odd and stupid. Guess I will have to do it myself.

AA batteries won't last long at all. You'll burn through alkalines as fast as you can change them.

DigitalOxygen.ca wrote in post #3658603
Unfortunately I don't own any non-Canon lithium batteries right now. However I do know someone who has an extra battery that may be a non-Canon. I will research that if I can.

Which brings me to my the next quirk. I borrowed that same persons XTi for a wedding I am shooting this weekend and I decided to try the grip on the XTi. When the grip is installed on the XTi with the AA batteries as the power source it reads 100% battery level! I can then take the grip and move it over to my XT and it reads 1/2 ! Very strange. I am going to try some tests today to see how long the camera will last and now many shots I can take before it dies. I am going to clear the card, open the flash and fire away for a while and see if I can get it to shutdown. Hopefully I will be able to tell if the camera will die prematurely or if it will just sit at the 50% level for a long time until the batteries are actually drained.

Would be great if you could test out the other non-Canon battery but not a big deal if you can't. Your plan to test the camera sounds exactly like what I did. I was sitting in my room just taking random shots of things to check the battery level. If your grip acts like mine, the level should go from full to half pretty quickly (maybe 100 shots). From there, I don't think you'll be able to get another 100 before the camera shuts down. Let me know how it goes. Thanks.

JackProton wrote in post #3657997
I replaced the CTA batteries with Sterlingtek (the replacement and the original good CTA battery both died simultaneously after 1 year) and have been getting very good results.

Thanks for your useful replies and suggestions.