Battery wear on Canon 10D

Hello everyone!

I have been using my brand new EOS 10D since February. Nowadays when I have loaded the battery to full capacity, I can take only about 20 pictures before the progress bar of the battery indicator displayed at the top of the camera is reduced from full to one third capacity. Though I have not shot away until the battery was actually drained in order to test its duration, I know the battery indicator lasted far longer 3 or 4 months ago. So far, I have taken about 500 pictures in all.

Does this sound like normal wear and tear to you?

Any answer will be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Harold

It sounds duff to me. I have 5 batteries and have been using two of them since April last year when I first got my 10D. The other 3 I used with my G2 for a year before that. One of them is non-canon. They still perform as though they were new.

Martin

Definately not normal wear and tear. I've had a 10D for about the same time as you and have shot several thousand pictures with it. I have not noticed any degradation in the battery performance from new.

Two things to consider:
-When you charge it, make sure you let the battery stay in the charger for the recommended time after the charger light glows solid (90 minutes or 2 hours I think)
-If time passes between charging and use (like 2 weeks or more) you may see some deterioration of the charge.

The same happened to me too... I have my 10D since September and after updating my firmware to 2.0.1 I have the same problem... After the first 30-50 photos I gert the low battery status... and after about 150 pics (with LCD off) it shuts down! I have to intone that it happend immediately after updating the firmware!

I have not done any firmware update.

Thank you all for your advice and testimony. I guess I shall have to get a new battery and see what happens.

Harold

I have my 10D since October last year and made about 3000 photos with it. I upgraded to firmware 2.0.1 as soon as it was available. I don't have the problems with my batteries (I have one spare battery) you describe. I can make a few hundred photos before the battery runs empty. taltosgr, I think the fact that you got problems after upgrading your firmware are just a coincidence.

Note that the LCD eats a lot of battery power. If you are looking at your photos on the LCD frequently, and if you have the brightness of the LCD turned up high, the batteries will drain faster. Also, if you are using IS lenses, the IS will also cost extra battery power.

Mine used to drain fast too, but I started leaving it charging for like 8 hours (while I sleep), and it worked well after that..

Also another thing that you may want to look at is if the servo function is on. That thing eats batteries fast!!

Either of a few things here.

(1) You might have a funky battery. They are cheap to replace.
(2) You might have a funky charger, and it is not "topping off" the battery charge.
(3) You might have a funky charger, it is is overcharging the battery, so it made the battery funky.

I would start with (1).

We discussed this earlier. There can be a conductive "growth" of copper crystals that forms on poorly manufactured printed circuit cards. This will show as an abnormal power drain of unpredictable amount. This could be inside the case of the battery pack, or it could be inside the battery compartment of the camera, or it could be deeper inside the camera. This problem is very difficult to find without a loupe or a microscope.

---Bob Gross---

Oh really? I wasnt aware of that. Makes sense though