p.4 #1 · Canon R5 Mk II - battery issue in cold weather
Scott Stoness wrote:
Please provide details.
In how many hours?
Were the 3 batteries charged near 100% at start?
Which batteries?
Was it landscape or wildlife?
Did you check battery(s) after to see that it was really discharged, or just the issue identified above (false sensing of low battery)
If landscape, did you leave it to sleep on the tripod as per the reports above?
Did you try the reinsert the low batteries to see if came back?
If wildlife (or landscape), did you have precapture on? Precapture effectively means that the camera is continually taking pictures when pressed 1/2 down - continually drawing on battery.
Sure.
So I hiked with these batteries in my pack for two days. Similar temps. This is the second day. Batts were full charge start of day one.
I went through the three batteries in about two hours. Wildlife. No Precapture. My camera settings for power saving are set to the minimums for power conservation even though I'd rather not have to wake up the camera so often. This camera was a preorder so im familiar with the short life of the batteries over the last couple months and trying to get the most from them. Ive been shooting 24+ days a month since I got the camera. We've just now hit these low temps.
One battery charged to 94% in about 4 minutes when back on the charger so it likely was false reporting. The other two charged like a normal drained battery would.
It's a bummer to be taking a step backwards in regards to capabilities in the most basic sense going from mark 1 to mark 2.
p.4 #2 · Canon R5 Mk II - battery issue in cold weather
I was disappointed at the r5 battery life now that it's getting cold here, if the vii is worse I'd be miffed. I would love a grip that takes a couple 21700's, or 18650's I've got plenty.
p.4 #3 · Canon R5 Mk II - battery issue in cold weather
Borno. I've carried the r5 since 2021and still do alongside my R52. The battery issues with r52 is not even close to comparable. Wishing I would have bought a second R5 instead.
Dec 01, 2024 at 06:51 PM
NickPeters Offline • [X]
p.4 #4 · Canon R5 Mk II - battery issue in cold weather
The "battery empty" error on the Canon R5 Mk II in cold weather is likely due to reduced performance of lithium-ion batteries in low temperatures. Here are a few recommendations:
Keep Batteries Warm: Store spare batteries in a warm place (pocket or dedicated case).
Minimize Camera Sleep: Avoid letting the camera go into sleep mode in the cold.
Keep Camera Warm: Keep the camera warm, use thermal protective covers.
Check for Firmware Updates: Ensure you have the latest firmware version installed.
Avoid Condensation: Allow the camera to gradually warm up when moving from cold to warm environments.
These steps should help reduce the likelihood of the error in cold weather.
p.4 #5 · Canon R5 Mk II - battery issue in cold weather
My 6 years old 5D4 batteries are flawless in the cold, although they were abused. I remember that a 6d was even better. It must be the high consumption of the R5, but this is bad, nonetheless.
p.4 #7 · Canon R5 Mk II - battery issue in cold weather
I had my first cold weather experience with the R5II today and I think there is a problem. I started out with a freshly charged battery and went out in ambient temperatures of -5C (23F). I walked for about 2 hours before I raised the camera to my eye to take my first shots. The battery indicator was down to 2 of 4 bars. I had a short session of shooting that brought down the battery indicator to 1 bar. I walked for approximately 1 hour and the next time I went to take a photo the battery was completely dead. Battery life was about on par with the R5 in warmer temps and I never experienced this cold weather drain with the R5.
p.4 #8 · Canon R5 Mk II - battery issue in cold weather
NormQ wrote:
I had my first cold weather experience with the R5II today and I think there is a problem. I started out with a freshly charged battery and went out in ambient temperatures of -5C (23F). I walked for about 2 hours before I raised the camera to my eye to take my first shots. The battery indicator was down to 2 of 4 bars. I had a short session of shooting that brought down the battery indicator to 1 bar. I walked for approximately 1 hour and the next time I went to take a photo the battery was completely dead. Battery life was about on par with the R5 in warmer temps and I never experienced this cold weather drain with the R5. ...Show more →
Contact Canon!!!!
They need to fix this- Everyone needs to contact support
p.4 #10 · Canon R5 Mk II - battery issue in cold weather
I've had the R52 for a couple of weekends as a replacement to an original R5 that I damaged shooting in some pretty heavy rain at an NFL game. The first NFL game I shot with it in temp around 40 I was able to get through the entire game on two sets of the new batteries. The second NFL game I shot with temps in the mid-20s I had issues. I'm also using the new grip that allows me to plug in an ethernet cord to send pictures to my editor about a dozen times throughout the game, so that is using up even more battery. I'm also shooting with a 200-400 zoom on that camera so I'm guessing thats using more power than a shorter zoom lens. In this past game I got a noticed while trying to send around the end of the first half that my battery power was too low to send pictures, I had about 50% battery power remaining at that point. I dropped in a second set of batteries I had been keeping warm in my jacket and was able to make it to the start of the 4th quarter before those batteries dropped too low to allow the camera to send photos. I replaced those with the first set of batteries that I had been warming up in my jacket and I made it to about halfway through that quarter before I wasn’t able to send again. I was able to still shoot the rest of the games, but I just couldn’t send any more photos. I put the camera back into our workroom to warm up as I left for about 20 minutes to shoot a press conference and when I came back the camera and batteries had warmed up enough that I could send photos again.
The fact that this setup won't allow me to send photos when the batteries are still at 50% power is very frustrating.
I shot a basketball game with the camera for the first time over the weekend and shot close to 4,000 frames with this camera and the batteries never dropped below 50%.
I'm based in Wisconsin and do a lot of outdoor shooting in the winter so I'm very concerned with the cold weather issues I'm having with this camera.
p.4 #12 · Canon R5 Mk II - battery issue in cold weather
So do we all get new batteries or will firmware fix this? Is this why the batteries were in short supply considering maybe they discovered something defective after the initial batch?
This couldn't possibly be something hardware related in the camera could it?
p.4 #13 · Canon R5 Mk II - battery issue in cold weather
If this problem really exists wide spread, my guess is that the power demand, particularly video, is greater than what they can easily supply from such a small battery. As a result they have it programed to cut off when their algorithms tell them there is insufficient power to do some of the video things as well as some still features like pre capture and 30 fps. I'm guessing it maybe a software upgrade which changes their cutoff parameters and may include cutting off certain features in the cold rather than the whole camera. My guess is there is little more they can do with the battery storage capacity because of its physical size. How much sensing hardware is built into the battery may be the bigger issue to its future.
I'm about done with canon. Their emphasis on video seemingly ignoring still photography and the whoop de doo lenses is not where I am. Too much of what they do seems to be to prove their technical prowess rather than providing what I need as a photographer. I tried Sony for a brief period. Maybe it is time to try Nikon.
p.4 #14 · Canon R5 Mk II - battery issue in cold weather
Flowernut wrote:
If this problem really exists wide spread, my guess is that the power demand, particularly video, is greater than what they can easily supply from such a small battery. As a result they have it programed to cut off when their algorithms tell them there is insufficient power to do some of the video things as well as some still features like pre capture and 30 fps. I'm guessing it maybe a software upgrade which changes their cutoff parameters and may include cutting off certain features in the cold rather than the whole camera. My guess is there is little more they can do with the battery storage capacity because of its physical size. How much sensing hardware is built into the battery may be the bigger issue to its future.
I'm about done with canon. Their emphasis on video seemingly ignoring still photography and the whoop de doo lenses is not where I am. Too much of what they do seems to be to prove their technical prowess rather than providing what I need as a photographer. I tried Sony for a brief period. Maybe it is time to try Nikon. ...Show more →
What was wrong with Sony? I'm heading in that direction.
p.4 #15 · Canon R5 Mk II - battery issue in cold weather
artsupreme wrote:
So do we all get new batteries or will firmware fix this? Is this why the batteries were in short supply considering maybe they discovered something defective after the initial batch?
This couldn't possibly be something hardware related in the camera could it?
As reported by the OP's first post, this sounds like a camera issue and not the new battery. He had the same thing happen with the older LP-E6NH.
It sounds like this could/should be an easy FW fix just like they had to do with the R5's heat shut downs. They just error to much to the safe side upon release apparently.
You have to admit it's kinda funny the original R5 was reported as bursting in flames with influencers showing it with cute flames coming out of it and now the same influencers are showing the R5II with ice and frost covering it.
IMHO the overheating was never that big of a deal to 99% of the still photographers. I've had the R5 since day one from the first shipments and have never had any heat issues.
However, this cold temp shut down on the R5II is going to effect a lot of photographers as we enter into winter time and there will be a shit ton of justified bitching going on. I'm sure Canon knows this and will be sending out a FW to fix this quickly. Hopefully.
p.4 #16 · Canon R5 Mk II - battery issue in cold weather
lighthound wrote:
As reported by the OP's first post, this sounds like a camera issue and not the new battery. He had the same thing happen with the older LP-E6NH.
It sounds like this could/should be an easy FW fix just like they had to do with the R5's heat shut downs. They just error to much to the safe side upon release apparently.
You have to admit it's kinda funny the original R5 was reported as bursting in flames with influencers showing it with cute flames coming out of it and now the same influencers are showing the R5II with ice and frost covering it.
IMHO the overheating was never that big of a deal to 99% of the still photographers. I've had the R5 since day one from the first shipments and have never had any heat issues.
However, this cold temp shut down on the R5II is going to effect a lot of photographers as we enter into winter time and there will be a shit ton of justified bitching going on. I'm sure Canon knows this and will be sending out a FW to fix this quickly. Hopefully.
Good news about being a camera problem and not a battery problem. I was thinking along the lines of GoPro batteries, and how they have regular batteries and different cold/all weather batteries. Their normal batteries act like what the R5II batteries do in the snow. But surely Canon wouldn't mess that up considering their previous bodies/batteries work fine in the cold.
I'm holding onto my R5's for now and won't be selling them until this gets sorted now that we are headed into winter months. I need to play with R5II settings more but as it is right now I was not very impressed with my R5II batteries in the hot/humid tropic weather in Indonesia. I had them setup very similar to my R5's and they seem to burn through batteries quicker. I'm not using precapture either as I know that eats even more battery life.
p.4 #17 · Canon R5 Mk II - battery issue in cold weather
artsupreme wrote:
Good news about being a camera problem and not a battery problem. I was thinking along the lines of GoPro batteries, and how they have regular batteries and different cold/all weather batteries. Their normal batteries act like what the R5II batteries do in the snow. But surely Canon wouldn't mess that up considering their previous bodies/batteries work fine in the cold.
I'm holding onto my R5's for now and won't be selling them until this gets sorted now that we are headed into winter months. I need to play with R5II settings more but as it is right now I was not very impressed with my R5II batteries in the hot/humid tropic weather in Indonesia. I had them setup very similar to my R5's and they seem to burn through batteries quicker. I'm not using precapture either as I know that eats even more battery life....Show more →
What would be nice is if everyone that owns the R5II would test this out with both old and new batteries just to make sure it's a solid fault on the camera. These folks could just toss their camera in the coldest area of their fridge while turned on with a sleep mode enabled and let it set in there for 30 minutes then yank it out to see if it wakes up. OR freezer if they are daring.
Although I suspect by now Canon has walk in freezers packed full of R5II's being tested.
I mentioned this here about a year or so ago, but I see the writing on the wall when it comes to these small batteries being used in these ever increasingly power hungry modern marvel cameras. We've reached the limit that these little batteries can handle and I suspect Canon and others are going to have to break away from these old compact designs.
It's unfortunate and I'm sure this is the last thing any manufacture wants to do with such long design histories, but the writting is on the walls. Hopefully there will be some new breakthrough in battery tech such that the size doesn't need to be much larger.
We've all wanted all the cutting edge tech crammed into our cameras and now we will likely have to deal with the consequences in the near future.
p.4 #18 · Canon R5 Mk II - battery issue in cold weather
I've written my second letter to Canon regarding this situation. I referred them to this post. They have every right to ignore us since the manual states a recommended operating temp of 32˚ to 100˚ F. Of course, who looked up this spec in the manual BEFORE making the purchase?! They are going to have a LOT of unhappy high end customers this winter.
p.4 #19 · Canon R5 Mk II - battery issue in cold weather
Jeffrey wrote:
I've written my second letter to Canon regarding this situation. I referred them to this post. They have every right to ignore us since the manual states a recommended operating temp of 32˚ to 100˚ F. Of course, who looked up this spec in the manual BEFORE making the purchase?! They are going to have a LOT of unhappy high end customers this winter.
The same operating temperature is specified for the R5, and it was not problematic. Obviously, I purchased the R5II with that expectation. I'm out in extreme cold regularly during winter. I seriously hope this is not a big issue. Temperatures have climbed here, so I can't do any further testing for a few days. I spoke to Canon today also. Obviously this is a new issue and I guess the pool will expand as colder weather arrives, but for now they have no service advisory and don't have much of a response.
p.4 #20 · Canon R5 Mk II - battery issue in cold weather
I used my MKII outside on Sunday for 4 hours in 32f temps and had no issues. 2300 pictures and only used 75% of dual batteries in BG-R20 grip.
The lowest temp this year so far in my area has been 15F. Placed gripped camera outside in on position. Went outside every 15 minutes for 1.5 hrs and woke camera up without a problem.
