Hello Everyone,
Recently got a Canon R6 Mark III. I'm noticing a battery drain when the camera is not in use. Battery drained from 100% to 50% while not in use for 2 weeks.
Using the Canon LP-E6P battery that came with the camera. I have airplane mode set to ON in settings. Any suggestions on how to stop the drain? The Canon Support rep suggested removing the battery when not in use... I should not have to do that
I don't own the MK II but my R6 MK II battery stays at 100% for weeks if left unused. If I enable bluetooth and/or Wi-Fi, it drains out after a few days, even with airplane mode enabled. Apparently bluetooth and Wi-Fi draw current even when the camera is off and airplane mode enabled. I rarely use bluetooth and Wi-Fi so I turned them off.
No, it should not. I don't have that model, but R5 II drains only a little faster with the battery in than out, nowhere near what you are seeing. Is there a lens on the camera? Historically on DSLR bodies there have been some situations that caused a drain if there were a software error and something did not complete on the camera-lens communication.
Uarctos wrote:
Keep it shut down and see what happens. My 5D4 loses 1%/day if not switched off, so around 15% in 2 weeks. Mirrorless batteries are weaker.
R6 III is gimped when using DSLR LP-E6s because they're literally weaker. Functions are cut back. You need the newest LP-E6P to have enough power to run the camera at full capability. Even then, when you hit about 15%, the camera still pulls back performance. Better off switching to a full battery at that point, if for no other reason than the longer mechanical shutter blackout a low battery causes.
My post has nothing to do with the battery types for the R6III. A mirrorless body drains batteries much faster regardless of their type, compared to older DSLR's. 5D4 was used just for reference.
Uarctos wrote:
My post has nothing to do with the battery types for the R6III. A mirrorless body drains batteries much faster regardless of their type, compared to older DSLR's. 5D4 was used just for reference.
That's rather general. Which cameras have you compared power off current drain and were they set to radios off/airplane mode?
spina wrote:
Hello Everyone,
Recently got a Canon R6 Mark III. I'm noticing a battery drain when the camera is not in use. Battery drained from 100% to 50% while not in use for 2 weeks.
Using the Canon LP-E6P battery that came with the camera. I have airplane mode set to ON in settings. Any suggestions on how to stop the drain? The Canon Support rep suggested removing the battery when not in use... I should not have to do that
That's typical with a brand new camera, until the battery has been recharged a couple of times. In addition to the time you're spending going through the menus setting things up, it's also charging up the camera's internal memory battery.
I've had batteries get completely killed, will not take a charge again, by leaving them in DSLR for too long. (yes, I said DSLR, the last time I let it happen was that long ago in 5D4)
I do not leave batteries in cameras any more unless it's during a period I know I will be using it. When they hit the shelf, batteries out.
CyberDyne wrote:
I've had batteries get completely killed, will not take a charge again, by leaving them in DSLR for too long. (yes, I said DSLR, the last time I let it happen was that long ago in 5D4)
I do not leave batteries in cameras any more unless it's during a period I know I will be using it. When they hit the shelf, batteries out.
Bad advice. You need to know how your camera powers its clock backup. If it's an internal clock battery, that's a quick way to kill it. Cross your fingers that it's actually replaceable and not integrated into the motherboard. The other situation is a capacitor, which is fine to discharge.
I have many cameras 10+ years old like 5D4, 5DsR, 5D IIIs, a bunch of xxD DSLRs, half-dozen 1D series, etc. that never house batteries. That is not to mention the modern R series that is too new to matter. I normally take the camera batteries out when returning home country and only use them again months or sometimes over a year later.
Again I cannot speak for other barnds, so they may be different. But I just pulled a 5D III, installed an LP-E6P and the time was set to a place where it would have been used around 2015, though I may have installed a battery at some later point. I don't recall using such an archaic camera in the field after 2015/2016 when I had the 5DsR and 5D IV. As of today the clock is ~25 minutes slow. The menu was as it would have been whenever I used it last so it seems to have retained everything somehow. I thought Canon used supercaps since the 2000s, but not likely to retain charge that long.
I've had a couple of cameras (RX100 V, Fuji S5 Pro) lose their clock battery life, resulting in a full time/date/zone reset every time the battery was pulled and not replaced in under like 2 seconds. I also shoot with someone who's had this issue, but luckily was able to restore his internal battery by leaving a full battery in the camera for a week, untouched. It's why older Canon DSLRs had user-replaceable clock batteries. I'd assume most newer cameras (past 5-7 years?) use bulletproof capacitors to hold a charge, but most teardowns don't go looking for stuff like that. Remember that both clock batteries and capacitors draw their charge from the camera's main operating battery, so leaving that out could result in a reset or repair.
I recently had to replace a CMOS battery in a 2015 model NAS.
Every time the power was turned off it would reset to like 1999. The OS was NOT enjoying that although SMB was working with the proper file dates.
What a ridiculous teardown and oddball lithium battery it used. They really built products better back then.
spina wrote:
I will try and disable bluetooth & Wifi and will try to see if that stops the drain. With that said this should not happen if in Airplane mode
Indeed, it should not happen. When I switch on airplane mode on the R6 Mark III, the camera automatically switches off bluetooth & Wi-Fi.
Maybe it's behaving like modern smartphones with respect to airplane mode? I mean, with my current phones I can turn on airplane mode and also have wifi and bluetooth on. As I type this, the phone I use to play music from is in airplane mode but is connected to my bluetooth headphones. The only thing apparently disabled is cellular service. But yeah, I would expect airplane mode to by default turn off all radios on a device.
