Mr.Ft Loc: Central New Jersey

Hi, when I charge my batteries in the canon charger for my 5D m4, the charger says the batteries are charged, When I put them in my camera the battery info says the charge is between 67% to 91% depending on the battery. The camera says the recharge capability is either 2-3 bars depending on the battery. Is this normal?

Thanks
Tom

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

How old is the battery?

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Are they Canon or third-party? Are they the new LP-E6N or older LP-E6? Stepping away from the charge reading, how do they perform? The LP-E6N is rated for 900 shots. What are you experiencing for number shots / longevity?

Mr.Ft Loc: Central New Jersey

They are canon batteries, they are a mix of older LP-E6 and LP-E6N 2 of each. I'm getting no ware near 900 shots out of any of them. Maybe 200-350 shots out of each about 1/2 day..

Thanks
Tom

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I date my batteries with a sharpie or label.
I recently disposed of an 8+ year old Lenmar battery that the charger said "charged" after a few minutes,
but my camera blinked "empty" for it.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Time to invest in a couple of new batteries

no12mo

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

In some applications, battery chargers are set up to charge batteries quickly up to somewhere around 80% or so, turn on the "Complete" light, then finish the job with a trickle charge over the next few hours. This is a good strategy for several reasons, including long-term battery durability and safety (it keeps the batteries from getting excessively hot at the end of the charge). I have no idea whether your charger is set up to do this or not, but the first thing to check here is to leave your batteries in the charger for a few hours after you get the full charge indication. This may or may not solve your problem completely, and it may or may not make things better at all. But it costs nothing and is worth a try.

Be aware that modern high-energy content batteries (especially lithium ion and their friends and relatives) are born "wearing out." They slowly lose the ability to hold as much charge as they had when new. This is not a defect...it is just a characteristic of that type of battery. They will just gradually lose capacity until they have lost enough that they annoy you enough to go out and buy replacement batteries. By the way, long periods of non-use will hasten this decay, and sometimes a few charge/discharge cycles can reverse it to some extent.

So I'd try the extended charge and see if it makes any difference. After that, you just have to decide if the battery wear is sufficient to make you go out and buy replacement batteries.

Mr.Ft Loc: Central New Jersey

Thanks, I'll give that a shot.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Before you decide the batteries are bad because of the limited number of shots, do you have the WiFI turned on and/or you using live view? Both will dramatically shorten battery life. Also, image stabilization lenses can affect battery life if they remain on continuously (rather than just being activated when you press the shutter). If you want to know the actual state of charge, a DVM (Digital voltmeter) is a very useful device for this and many other applications, and they are not expensive. If ALL your batteries are showing part charge when inserted in the camera after charging, I’d be looking at the charger...

Mr.Ft Loc: Central New Jersey

Thanks, I have a volt meter and will check it out. Thanks

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Also on line you can find instructions for "refreshing" or "reconditioning" rechargeable batteries and I have found that it sometimes gets very good results with older batteries. I have only done it to laptop batteries and rechargeable flashlights but I know people who do it with camera batteries also. I seem to remember once seeing an ad for a recharger/battery refresher device that would do the charge and drain controlled by a chip. My vague memory is that it was made/sold by one of the third party battery brands.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

What if one "charges" the battery, put it in the camera, and the camera instantaneously indicates less than half a charge. Something that that battery never did prior. I replace those.
I'm not waiting to see "how many pictures" I get out of a "suspect battery" before it totally craps out.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Depending on the age.
For a battery of 8 years old, I'm replacing it, not putting it on life support.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Maybe it really is half charged - could be the charger. A voltage measurement will tell.