So, I received my 1D MKII and the extra battery. Of course both batteries are deader than a doornail, so I whip the battery charger out and stick both packs on the charger like it says in the 1D MKII manual (which makes reference to some NC-E2 manual/instructions which I didn't get).
Now one of the batteries is getting a solid red charge light, while the other one is getting a slowly blinking light; this does not appear to be the 2 blinks/second that the manual says shows that the battery is charged, but rather about 1 flash every second or so. What, if anything does this mean?
Are their actually instructions somewhere for the NC-E2 (I've looked in Google, the CanonUSA website, etc... and I can't find anything)? I am fairly confident there is nothing wrong going on here, but it would be nice to RTFM!
Strangely enough, the one that was on solid starting blinking rapidly after about 2 hours (apparently indicating it was no longer thirsty), then the one that was initially blinking more slowly went into a solid red state.
Hmmmm.... Can this puppy only charge 1 battery at a time and when the 1st one is done the 2nd one starts and the slowly blinking light indicates the battery that is waiting to start charging? I did notice that the battery with the solid red light was warmer (not hot, just a bit warmer) than the one with the slowly blinking light; and now the 2nd one is warming up.
The solid one indicates in use (charge) and the slowly blinking indicates charge finished. The charger supports two but the charging is actually one at the time. I assume you know that you need condition the new battery 3 times for the optimum hold.
Thanks Jeff, I figured I it needed conditioning, but I didn't know if there was a recommened number of times. I assume a charge, refresh, charge, refresh, charge, refresh, charge should do it?
You need discharge (refresh), charge, discharge, charge, discharge, charge and ready to go (total of three charge and ready to go). It is said that if you disconnect the charger from the outlet while refreshing the battery, it goes further discharge state. I tried it and it did (just a little annoyed since you need to put the plug back to the wall
Also, you can discharge (refresh) a battery while the other is charging to speed up the process.
You need refresh once every month if you shoot the camera professionally (charge the battery everyday) but fewer if you do not do that from Chuck Westfall at Rob Galbraith site.
I'm just about finished with the 1st refresh/charge cycle (I went ahead and hit refresh even though both seemed dead and they went into charge after a very short refresh period). I'll do another tonight and tomorrow night and I should be ready to give them a good workout this weekend.
Just a thought, you may not what to fully charge the second battery the third time (done with the prep) immediately since the NiMH does loose charge rather quickly, unlike to the Lion which holds the charge well. With added battery life in Mk2 that each fully charge one can do more than a thousand clicks, unless you plan to do rapid machine gun style , it probably better to fully charge the second battery until the 1st one is about to run out of juice.
Dwight, one other point to remember. The 3-5 recharging cycles for "optimum" cell retention is only a recommendation. There is nothing wrong with charging up a brand new battery once and immediately using it. The downside is that it won't hold the charge as long as it will after the initial 3-5 charges. While the NiMH batteries do not suffer from the drastic memory problems that NiCad's do, they still have a slight memory issue which is why it's recommended to discharge them fully every now and then. Jeff's remark about once a month for professional use sounds adequate.
You assertion is true only if you fully drain the battery before recharge. Remember the camera shuts down way before the battery is actully fully drained so you need to hit the refresh button before charge at least the first three times. According to Rob's test, the first charge only holds 75% and after 1 proper refresh the hold is to 90% and 97% after the third.
jeffH70 wrote:
Dwight,
With added battery life in Mk2 that each fully charge one can do more than a thousand clicks, unless you plan to do rapid machine gun style , Jeff
Oh yes, oh my YES! Machine gun style, all the bells, whistles, lights, long display review, constantly chimping on the LCD light, and every other electronic doo-dad will be turned on and going full blast! This is my version of the GameBoy! That's why I bought a 2nd battery!
Slow flash -- waiting to charge
Solid red -- being charged
Rapid flash -- ready/maintain
Yellow -- refresh
Only one pack can charge at a time, and it's always the one first plugged in.
To refresh, hold down the button for 3 seconds (IIRC), until the light goes yellow. The battery will discharge and then automatically go to charge when done. The full refresh cycle takes about 10 hours. Do it on all new batteries, even if you already charged and used it a bit. Then do it every few months to keep them in good shape.
IIRC two packs can discharge simultaneously, but then will recharge one at a time.
A pack can discharge while another is being charged.
I didn't think I was that old. Geesh. So is there a website somewhere dedicated to internet acronyms, how on earth is one supposed to keep up with these... Thanks Dwight
, it probably better to fully charge the second battery until the 1st one is about to run out of juice.