Battery Life on Canon EOS 3 ?

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percymon

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Had my EOS3 for about 2 months now, its shot no more than 3 rolls of film in that time and the new Duracell Ultra 2CR5 battery i put in when i received the camera is now at the point the 'bc' warning is on the camera display and the camera fails to light up.

Some of thse shots will no doubt have been with a Canon IS L lens so perhaps the battery drain will be a bit higher than a normal non stabilised lens, but 3 rolls of film seems a bit mean ?

I've measure the battery voltage with a multimeter and it registers a constant 4.79V - seems reasonable for what is supposedly a 6V battery.


Do i have a duff battery or could the 'bc' warning be something more serious ??


I have to admit i didn't try the battery check function on the camera - will try that later tonight when i'm home.
 
3 films sounds a little short, have you done much looking and focusing but not taking the photo?
 
That does sound a bit odd, I guess IS will be using a bit more power than usual but still 3 films is ridiculous. I think I generally get around 50 rolls from a battery in my EOS 5.
 
Asked in a few camera shops today and all seemed a bit surprised as well - the concensus was that IS lenses will draw a bit more but not THAT much more.

I'm louthed to buy another battery at £10 each at the moment, especially since the current battery seems reasonably healthy (if i work on the basis that a 1.5V AA battery actually delivers 1.2V, then 4 x AA = 6V on the label but measured 4.8V).

Time to read the manual i think !
 
Well i guess i did a fair bit of messign around with it when i first got it - i've ordered 3 batteries via ebay for less than the Duracell cost me in Boots last time, so we'll see how these Panasonics last.
 
i take it you dont leave it on as iirc it doesnt auto power off like modern SLR's the manual rates the battery life to roughly 50 rolls.
Bigger motors in bigger glass may drain it more, and with IS even more so but i would be expecting to see 10 times the amount.
 
Could well have left it on - i was using the 0/1 switch on the command dial as the on/off for a while (DOH !!) rather than the true power switch at the base.
 
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