1DMKIII battery 1 Year old ????

My 1DMKIII is about a year old, the battery is marked September 07 and in the last week my 2,000+ battery performance has dropped to 600.

I don't have a spare, it's been TOOOOO reliable but this AM I was caught out with a flat battery, it was low the previous night and I avoided charging it as it had been charged very recently, dead camera on a job ~ never happened before [job done on backup no sweat] but I'd like to hear from others with year old 1DMKIIIs.

I either need a new battery, seems toooo obvious, or I've a power management problem with the camera.

When you put it on charge, what sort of battery condition does it read it as?

I don't often charge mine - let it drain quite low over several shoots.
Just checked mine, and it's showing 47% remaining, 2117 done

GerBee wrote in post #6319584
My 1DMKIII is about a year old, the battery is marked September 07 and in the last week my 2,000+ battery performance has dropped to 600.

I don't have a spare, it's been TOOOOO reliable but this AM I was caught out with a flat battery, it was low the previous night and I avoided charging it as it had been charged very recently, dead camera on a job ~ never happened before [job done on backup no sweat] but I'd like to hear from others with year old 1DMKIIIs.

I either need a new battery, seems toooo obvious, or I've a power management problem with the camera.

I'm not sure this will be of any help but during the last year have you recalibrated the battery when the camera says you should.

I'm thinking that maybe if you have never recalibrated the battery that may have lead to the decreased performance.

Mine only drains if I leave the 500mm on the camera, for one or other reason that lens drains my batteries, the 1Ds II can be drained overnight, on the 1D III it takes a bit longer. I have learned to remove the battery if I am leaving the lens on. But I have spares so it has never been a major issue just rather a pain. Try the "Calibrate" function on the charger. If that does not work you will have to remove the battery from the camera after each use and then see if you still have low performance. That way you will also know if it is the battery or the camera that is at fault.

All depends on the number of uses. I believe that the MKIII battery has a half life of 25 charge cycles or something of that nature. If it's gotten more than that many charge cycles (fully up and down, if you add up all downs and all ups), may be time to get a new one. If you had the Ni hydride batteries of the 1d, then you would have had to change them a long time ago.

It asked once, I did, the charger won't let me condition it, I still get the three lights, which seems to indicate it should be fine.

Palladium wrote in post #6319611
I'm not sure this will be of any help but during the last year have you recalibrated the battery when the camera says you should.

Good plan. And as you mention it, I am carrying a different lens than 'normal'. It fits my suspicion of a power drain ~ I'll watch that closely.

Goshawk wrote in post #6319711
Mine only drains if I leave the 500mm on the camera, f

Once a week for a charge, maybe two sometimes, yes, I can see, and agree with this too, unless very busy, tended to let it run down below 20%, I'd always have 1,800 for a quite week to over 3,000 on sports.

It's probably done its work all right.

basroil wrote in post #6319745
I believe that the MKIII battery has a half life of 25 charge cycles or something of that nature..

Aside from a dying battery, do you have any custom functions turned on, such as noise reduction functions, that drain the battery faster? It sounds to me like you are really getting hit there -- I'd think a year shouldn't wear out a battery, although I haven't had my 1DM3 for a year.

Were you shooting any differently than usual? More live view? More chimping? More shooting with an IS lens? More focus tracking? Longer lens than usual? Mine is no where near a year old, so I can't speak from that side, but I'd just suggest you make sure to rule out other possible causes (you already said you were using a different lens than usual) first.

4725 with 33% remaining?

After this post, I stopped using the 24~105L with IS on. My 1DMKIII battery has given a new record of nearly 5,000 on one charge, this does include a few matches where one has 800/1000 shots in a short time, but also it's covering two weeks.

I've also taken to switching the camera off in the evenings.

I have previously blamed IS for poor battery performance but this experience is an extreme potential example.

Not sure if it applies to the Mark III battery but this source as well as other says that NiMhs can be charged up to 1,000 times without effect. Also they don't have that memory effect so don't require fully discharging.
I'll be very interested to learn of your findings if you perhaps send it to Canon for an explanation.

My mark III battery bought in June 07 still runs like new. It's been calibrated once when the camera suggested it. Maybe you're just unlucky and your battery is dying.

My 24-105 pretty much lives on my MKIII. IS is always on. Second place in on-camera time is the 100-400, and IS is almost always on with that one, too. For me, the only time battery usage has been abnormally high was when I did a bunch of liveview shooting.

I can see IS having an impact, but you really seem to have an extreme case there.

Goshawk wrote in post #6319711
Mine only drains if I leave the 500mm on the camera, for one or other reason that lens drains my batteries, the 1Ds II can be drained overnight, on the 1D III it takes a bit longer. I have learned to remove the battery if I am leaving the lens on. But I have spares so it has never been a major issue just rather a pain. Try the "Calibrate" function on the charger. If that does not work you will have to remove the battery from the camera after each use and then see if you still have low performance. That way you will also know if it is the battery or the camera that is at fault.

i dont have that 500mm problem at all that lens is alway left on my mk3 , strange that yours drains.
Rob.