Charging battery for the first time

What is the normal procedure for charging a battery for the first time

I have had the BP-511A for my Canon on for 5 hrs, since it indicated it was finished charging within a couple of hours, thought that was far too fast for charging for the first time

Whenever the indicator says its done, its done! Usually 2.5-3 hours.

400dabuser wrote in post #10051207
What is the normal procedure for charging a battery for the first time

I have had the BP-511A for my Canon on for 5 hrs, since it indicated it was finished charging within a couple of hours, thought that was far too fast for charging for the first time

2Hrs is about right.

Naturalist wrote in post #10051226
Whenever the indicator says its done, its done! Usually 2.5-3 hours.

It is a weird charger, gives these blinking red led to indicate it is charging, then no blink, but red led to indicate charged up

That's right.

The "Fully charged" light usually appears when the battery's around 90% charged and it changes to trickle charge. It'll reach full 100% charge in another 3 hr. or so.

400dabuser wrote in post #10051280
It is a weird charger, gives these blinking red led to indicate it is charging, then no blink, but red led to indicate charged up

And to really confuse you, Canon also put out chargers, like the one for the 1DmkII and earlier models, that are steady red when charging and blink when done.

Jon wrote in post #10051395
The "Fully charged" light usually appears when the battery's around 90% charged and it changes to trickle charge. It'll reach full 100% charge in another 3 hr. or so.

When the charger says full, my 7D says 100%... although that may be due to the batteries being LP-E6s.

The indicators in the cameras are one click away from worthless especially with Li-ion batteries. Li-ions hold their voltage and then suddenly crash.

As said before, it's generally a good idea to leave the battery on the charger for a good long while after it finishes (says complete) on the first charge.

That said, doesn't really matter when a BP511 knockoff from Sterlingtek is so cheap.

J.

NicolasRubio wrote in post #10058162
When the charger says full, my 7D says 100%... although that may be due to the batteries being LP-E6s.

Right - I think Canon's charger gets its info from the chip same as the camera does, which would explain why you can't charge 3rd party batteries on the Canon charger. I'd wonder about what you'd see with the Canon battery using a third-party charger even if they do apparently charge Canon batteries. As OP's asking about BP-511s, it really doesn't enter into it.

It may have already been charged some from the factory.

When they make the batteries, they charge them to 50% to (a) test them and to (b) set the plate spacing.

J.

Every time I buy knockoff bp-511's off ebay, two for $14, I usually get an average of 1 good one. I've sent some back, others I just throw out. Still much more worth it compared to buying OEM Canon ones for $50+ each... I have a decent set of at least 3 or 4 that work and charge up fine now, for the price of one Canon oem battery.

Yeah 2-2.5 hrs is about right for a full charge.

Have you bought from SterlingTek? I bet I've bought 10-15 there and they have all gone as long or longer than the Canon ones at 1/5th the price. Even if they didn't last as long, it would be well worth it.

j.