Yes!

Not hard if you know how. Just offer it as (partial) payment on what ever you are purchasing. Then pay the balance with what ever method you like.

No, leg down. Look at specs!! If you really want to upgrade you should consider the T6i or T7i.

No, it is not good for a battery to "fully discharge" As I have explained, if fully discharged, a charger will not apply charging voltage out of concern that to do so will overload the charging circuit.

Yes, there are some that recommend letting the battery run down to the point where the camera will no longer use it, and this condition is often referred to as fully discharged..... But it isn't.

True, some older tech batteries had a characteristic referred to as "memory" where a battery that has been left charging during operation, would not deliver enough current and would run down quickly. NiCad batteries are especially bad in this regard. Li-Ion batteries used in modern cameras do not tend to exhibit this characteristic, Nor Do Ni-Mh Batteries.

I thought I explained that when a functional working camera indicates an "empty" battery and shuts down, there is still a small voltage across the battery terminals. It is just toolow to power the camera, but it is enough voltage to indicate to a charger that it is safe to charge.

If for any reason the battery is discharged to the point that there is little or no voltage across it's terminals, a functional charger will refuse to apply charging voltage to it out of concern that it may be a shorted out battery (total failure) that would overload the charger and even possibly cause the bad battery to explode.

There are a at least three ways a battery could get in this severely discharged state:

1.) There could be a short circuit in the camera that would quickly empty the battery.
2.) There is a small current flowing in the camera even when the camera is off, and if a battery is left in the camera for an extended period of time, it could empty the battery. The camera manual probably mentions that there is current flow even when off that is necessary to keep certain functions alive.
3.) The battery itself could develop an internal short circuit.

Glad to help.

Wrong answer!!! There is no shutter count info in the EXIF data with his Canon Camera and so your idea will not work. There are some utility programs available that will read the shutter count when the camera is connected to a computer via the USB Port. This information is also available using the "Magic Lantern" camera firmware extension.

I use a utility program called "Shutter Count" by Dire Studio. It costs something like $3 but once you have it you can use it as often as you like on as many Canon Cameras as you like.

The camera is designed to not run with a battery that is discharged below a certain level. When working correctly, the camera will not discharge a battery below this level (which is not completely run down). So even if you allow the battery to discharge until the camera indicates no charge, there is in fact some lower voltage available across the battery contacts. It is therefore still chargeable. If a short circuit were to run the battery completely down, the charger will see it as a dead battery and will not charge it. This is an intentional design feature of the charger so it will not apply charging voltage to a dead battery and possibly overload the charger.

My advise to the OP is as follows:
If you have a spare battery, put it in the charger and see if the charging light comes on indicating normal charging. If you do not have a spare battery, get one and put it in the charger!!! Better yet, get a least two new batteries - it is unwise to not have a spare battery.

Once you have a charged battery available, put it in the camera and carefully check the camera out for normal operation.

You are absolutely correct. If a battery is discharged below a certain level, the charger will not recognize it and charge it. That is probably why the charger light is flashing.

If this is what is happening, the question then becomes why was the battery so run down when presumably it was fully operational when the camera was turned off. Makes me wonder if something was wrong with the camera and it ran the battery down even though it was turned off. I suspect there is nothing wrong with the charger and I am betting it will work normally if a new battery is inserted. My bet is there was/is a fault in the camera. I wonder if the camera will work correctly with a new battery?

Since it shows up in all the images made with the camera, it is definitely not on the mirror! Nothing on the mirror will be recorded in images made with a DSLR or SLR Camera. It will show in the view finder only, not in images.

I do not believe the camera is continually metering at any time let alone when in sleep mode. The camera meters when the shutter is half pressed and only for a designated period of time.

This is not true. The primary cause of "oily diaphragms" is that the grease used on focusing helix's and aperture stop rings breaks down and looses viscosity; i.e. it becomes more oily. When this happens, the oily residue of the grease can, and often does, migrate onto the aperture blades. I would venture to say it would be very unusual for anyone to oil the internals of lenses, especially since to do so would require disassembly of the lens. Oily aperture blades are very common with lenses from some manufacturers, further illustrating that the cause is not some fool oiling the lens.

Not enough dog images here so another closeup portrait of my favorite model, and yes, he spends all his time attempting to control my time.

(Download)

In case anyone doesn't know, the Auto Designation on Pentax Takumar and many other old lenses refers to the fact that when set to "A" or "Auto" the aperture remains full open for focusing and in some cases for exposure readout. These lenses then "Automatically" stop down to the f-stop set on the aperture control ring when the shutter is tripped. It accomplishes this feat with a pin that gets pressed in or with a lever that gets moved. Sooo, you see, these lenses are not "auto nothing". They are "auto aperture".

Very bad advise. Pencil Eraser is abrasive. Contacts have very thin gold plating that can be damaged by eraser.