parkhurst6 Loc: Spanaway, WA

Well....Hi- Ho Hi- Ho....its the battery grip wouldnt ya know? Has anyone had this problem with the grips on a T3i? seems to work fine when its not on...but soon as I put the grip on it...BAM!!! Its lights out in a over night....wth? Anyone have any suggestions? I bought it of course online...and I just got my newer camera about a month ago.....

JR1 Loc: Tavistock, Devon, UK

Every camera I have owned has had a grip all from independents GOOD suppliers such as hahnel and cheap ones I have rarely in fact only once had a power problem and that was a lose connection I would never buy cannik own makes as the quality from others is as good in fact I DO have a 60D non canon and canon no one can tell which is which

parkhurst6 Loc: Spanaway, WA

well thanks JR! ;)

Al FR-153 Loc: Chicago Suburbs

Technically, what you are saying does not add up. The battery grip is nothing more than a battery container with a couple of switches (the shutter button and the power switch). You have two batteries instead of the standard one and they are positioned in such a way that they are in a parallel circuit, meaning that instead of adding voltages of the batteries, they add in the ability of additional current (amps), thus sharing the load.

As long as the camera is not on, there should be no current draw on either battery. They should just sit there and look dumb. Even if you were to keep the power switch on the grip on, if the camera is off, there should be no current draw on the batteries. If however, you leave the camera on (sleep mode after XX minutes) yes, there is current draw because the camera is not truly off. It is asleep, ready to respond at your first command. Could that possibly be your issue?

I have the grip on my 60D and personally think that the two batteries combined actually extend the use more than double (more than if I used the two individual batteries inside the camera itself). I have attributed that to the fact that the batteries share the load, thus do not heat up as much, thus at least a little more shooting power.

All of the above is being said assuming that you do not have a battery issue with one or both of the batteries themselves. I am also assuming that you are using stock LP-E8 Li-Ion type batteries and not just AA batteries in your pack.

parkhurst6 Loc: Spanaway, WA

AL FR ......In response to above I am using both AA and the Canon lithium batteries that you can purchase that go into the battery tray. I have 2 types of trays. Im not sure what the sleep mode would have to do with the charge...like I said...,.if I remove the battery grip...or just the batteries that go into it its fine...once I leave them in...they go dead....I dont know why but in the past on here I recall some one saying the same thing...I just cant remember what they did to resolve the issue....

GW Loc: Idaho

What brand is it ? Newer released a Canon one that has a short problem where the battery unit makes contact to the housing . There 's four contact strips and they are so close together that they can develop a short and cause battery drain . If this is the problem it's easy to see and can be corrected by slightly bending the offending strip ...I have one that had the same problem , not the same name ,but made by the same company....Hope you find the trouble ...good luck....

bullfrogs Loc: Chico, Calif.

Park,
Sorry to hear you are having trouble with the T3i and the NEWER Battery Grip. I have both of these and I also have had a problem with the SET UP described....The problem I had manifest itself as a unintentional shutter release. After a bunch of head scratching and inquiry I narrowed it down to the battery grip. It had to do with the part that goes up inside the camera and connects the terminals inside the camera. The plastic male receptical part of the holder, wiggled just a small amount, but just enough to trigger the shutter release when bringing the camera up to the eye view position. It would release multiple times and finally stop, or start-up again after a short pause for several other releases.
REMEDY: I used aluminum tape and secured the Male portion on the battery grip that goes up in the camera. You need to be careful with the aluminum tape to prevent unwanted contact. After this process it hasn't given one false shutter release.
All this to say nuttins perfect no matter the price
I leave my T3i on most of the time without battery drain problems.
One other thing you might try is to remove the grip and place the battery in the camera fully charged and leave the camera turned on to see if it discharges or not, then go from there. One last thing I had trouble with was the ability to release the shutter with the Wire remote. When I made the repair, this also went away????
Let us know.
bullfrogs

parkhurst6 Loc: Spanaway, WA

GW and Bullfrogs...thank you so much for the tips! Im gonna try that this weekend and see what happens...I knew that I wasnt going nuts....and to some I wasnt making sense. I recalled that there was a posting a few times regarding that issue...I will try your suggestions and get back to you all! Thank you once again!