battery mystery

Hi there , thanks for all the nice feedback previously ,

I had a question about my battery pack for my 1D Mark3
I keep getting a "red text" telling me my battery pack needs calibration"
How ever , when I put the battery pack on the charger , I don't get a red blinking lamp
for calibration. The problem I have with the battery pack is this . I leave the battery in the
camera most of the time and turn it off. But recently I have found that after a full charge and a few days not using, the battery has totally drained itself for several times now. !!
Should I leave out the battery pack when the camera isn;t used , and how should I go about calibrating the battery?

Thanks a lot


Ralph

Have you thought of calling Canon Tech Support it's FREE (800) 828-4040 during regular business hours (currently Monday-Friday 8:00 a.m. - 12:00 midnight. EST Saturday 10:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m., excluding holidays).

Ralph Honsbeek said:

Should I leave out the battery pack when the camera isn;t used , and how should I go about calibrating the battery?

Click to expand...

It shouldn't matter if we're not talking about months of non-usage. Maybe the battery has reached its end of life (maybe too soon for some reason). I' haven't had the opportunity to recalibrate my battery yet, so maybe I'll run into a similar issue when the time comes. I cannot trigger a recalibration either, but perhaps that is as designed when the capacity is still good.

Bart

can you discharge it in the charger?

Then do it and it should charge again.
I read, that when getting a new battery you should do this charge/discharge 3 times at the beginning, and later on occasionsly.

http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/controller?act=GetArticleAct&articleID=886&fromTips=1
Down near the bottom you will note that it says-- "Calibration (which can also be recommended by a blinking red “Cal/Charge” LED on the charger" The charger may or may not tell you the battery needs calibration. It just says that if the camera or the charger says to recalibrate then recalibrate. Of course the battery could be just bad for whatever reason. Due to no fault by you. I would just put the battery in press the cal button and wait for 10 hours.

Thanks for that Number , but im not calling to the US from my location .
I was just asking, By the way I didn't get a red blinking red Cal/Charge lamp , so basically I keep getting the messagge after each charge

Ralph Honsbeek said:

Thanks for that Number , but im not calling to the US from my location .
I was just asking, By the way I didn't get a red blinking red Cal/Charge lamp , so basically I keep getting the messagge after each charge

Click to expand...

If you are not located in the USA then go Canon's website there is probably contact information for your area. Or just sent a email to tech support!

Ralph Honsbeek said:

Thanks for that Number , but im not calling to the US from my location .
I was just asking, By the way I didn't get a red blinking red Cal/Charge lamp , so basically I keep getting the messagge after each charge

Click to expand...

So Ralph,

Where are you located?

Asher

Ralph Honsbeek said:

Hi there , thanks for all the nice feedback previously ,

I had a question about my battery pack for my 1D Mark3
I keep getting a "red text" telling me my battery pack needs calibration"
How ever , when I put the battery pack on the charger , I don't get a red blinking lamp
for calibration. The problem I have with the battery pack is this . I leave the battery in the
camera most of the time and turn it off. But recently I have found that after a full charge and a few days not using, the battery has totally drained itself for several times now. !!
Should I leave out the battery pack when the camera isn;t used , and how should I go about calibrating the battery?

Thanks a lot


Ralph

Click to expand...

Hi Ralph
Canon do recommend to recharge the battery the day before or the same day of shooting.

I had the really same message a few days ago. A message on the back LCD of camera but no blinking charger.

I looked at the manual and did put the battery in the charger and pressed the "Calibration/Performance check button". It took a night ang now my battery is as new… (and of course no more message from LCD screen).

Below is page 22 of the manual.
If you don't have the manual, a quick Google search for "eos 1Ds Mark III manual" will bring you to many download sites…



Hope it helps !

Asher , I am in Seoul South Korea ^^

Nicolas , thanks for the kind info ,
I just recharged my battery regulary , and now refitted it to the charger , and by God , I found the red blinking light , quiclky pressed the calibration button and now lets wait it out, i'm sure it will be alright... How did you calibrated with out the red blinking light though, you just pressed anyway and waited for it ? Anyways thanks for all the patience ... and info guys , pleasant Spring ...

www.flickriver.com/photos/dslr_mania

Ralph Honsbeek said:

Asher , I am in Seoul South Korea ^^

Click to expand...

Ralph being you did not want to call the USA - here is Canon's support site in Korea. http://www.canon-ci.co.kr/

Thanks for the feedback ,

I re-calibrated the battery well , and the message is no longer showing.
However , my fully charged battery seems to drain itself quite quickly.
After fully charged , I shoot for a day or two and then turn off the camera , after a few days I want to re-use it and the battery are fully drained.
The battery and camera aren't one year old.

Any reasons why this might be the case ?

Thanks

There's not enough information here to give a definitive answer. Could you answer these questions:

1. How many shots per charge are you getting?
2. How many shots in total have you taken with this battery since you purchased the camera?
3. Are you using the Live View function a lot?

Chuck Westfall(Canon USA) said:

There's not enough information here to give a definitive answer. Could you answer these questions:

1. How many shots per charge are you getting?
2. How many shots in total have you taken with this battery since you purchased the camera?
3. Are you using the Live View function a lot?

Click to expand...

Chuck , Alright ,,,

Answers

1. Not sure , the battery is dead when I start it up any day I start shooting , hence I can't enter the menu and go to battery info menu.
2. How can I find this out , (always wanted to know) I hear nikon users use certain software to find out how many shots their camera has taken since the un-boxing.
3. Never use that Live View thingy ... Do like to view the photos every now or then on the LCD but no crazy long lcd operations...

Thanks for the feedback

Ralph

Hi, Ralph:

Thanks for the answers. I understand that you cannot see exposure count on the camera when the battery is dead, but can you estimate how many shots you're getting per charge before the battery dies? Perhaps you could check your CF cards?

Ralph Honsbeek said:

I just recharged my battery regulary , and now refitted it to the charger , and by God , I found the red blinking light , quiclky pressed the calibration button and now lets wait it out, i'm sure it will be alright...

Click to expand...

Hi Ralph,

I just got my 1Ds3 back from the service job done on the Err 99 and AF fix. Lo and behold, I now also got my first suggested recalibration notice ever on the camera LCD, and the first ever opportunity to use the battery (re)calibration upon recharging (red flashing notice on the charger, which I acknowledged). I'm not sure if it's related to the fixes, it might just be a coincidence.

Ralph Honsbeek said:

I re-calibrated the battery well , and the message is no longer showing.
However , my fully charged battery seems to drain itself quite quickly.
After fully charged , I shoot for a day or two and then turn off the camera , after a few days I want to re-use it and the battery are fully drained.
The battery and camera aren't one year old.

Any reasons why this might be the case ?

Click to expand...

My camera showed a drop in available capacity after only 24 hours after the calibration to something like 92%, while I hardly had time to use it (I basically just checked my personal CF settings and switched the camera on/off several times with hardly any image reviews). That had me worried a bit. Most of my personal settings were as I had set them before sending in. The only difference I detected was that they switched application of the prior AF microadjustments to off, rather than to, per lens (which makes sense after fiddling with the AF mechanism). I have yet to check for the new AF micro adjustment settings, I'll probably have some time this weekend. After more than 48 hours after the check, my battery power returned to 98% after switching on, and I have sensor cleaning enabled for both switching on and off. A little later it showed 99% after switching it on again.

From what I've read on the internet, do double-check whether your camera's "Auto Power Off" setting is switched on! I can imagine it will be switched to off during service, but it should be returned to its prior setting after service (my camera was). If it's set to "Off", it'll drain the battery while in your bag, if the camera isn't manually switched off.

Bart

Bart , Got you !!! Turn Auto Power off to NOT "off" I always have it on 1min anyways