Battery Life confusion.

PVNPhotography

Hey everyone, I bought an aftermarket Battery grip for my Canon XSi/450D last year. The grip is great and it feels very comfortable in your hands and it hasn't given me any problems yet. However, I'm getting a bit annoyed because it seems like my battery bar on my LCD screen does not move until it's about to die. I have an OEM Canon Battery and an Opteka Battery in my battery grip. I just wanted to know how I can find out a way to know when I should charge my batteries again so when I go out for a random photo-shoot, I'd have full batteries and not like 20% battery life left on each battery.

Overfocused

PVNPhotography wrote: »

Hey everyone, I bought an aftermarket Battery grip for my Canon XSi/450D last year. The grip is great and it feels very comfortable in your hands and it hasn't given me any problems yet. However, I'm getting a bit annoyed because it seems like my battery bar on my LCD screen does not move until it's about to die. I have an OEM Canon Battery and an Opteka Battery in my battery grip. I just wanted to know how I can find out a way to know when I should charge my batteries again so when I go out for a random photo-shoot, I'd have full batteries and not like 20% battery life left on each battery.

Try checking it through 'Battery info' in the camera menu. Personally in the menu of MKII I use, you can see the actual % left, not just a bar.

ziggy53

With the type of Lithium batteries used in most of todays cameras, there is no penalty to charging after each use. I recommend charging as soon as possible after each heavy use, that way you get maximum use for the next event.

JasonMorrowPhoto

ziggy53 wrote: »

With the type of Lithium batteries used in most of todays cameras, there is no penalty to charging after each use. I recommend charging as soon as possible after each heavy use, that way you get maximum use for the next event.

Also check the mah rating on each. The one with the lower mah will determine the life of your use in your grip. Its like having a 5gal pail and a 10 gal pail. With a hole in each the 5gal will empty first and stop working before the 10 gal.

racer

I believe the rebel XSI only has a couple little marks that show battery life? When I was using the XTI it was the same way, because the battery indicator only had a few marks, it was more of a warning that your battery was going to die soon rather then showing the battery level. With my 50d, there are a couple more marks, but again, it is more of a warning that your battery is going to die soon, then actually showing a percentage of power

Digic

MassUnknowledged wrote: »

Also check the mah rating on each. The one with the lower mah will determine the life of your use in your grip. Its like having a 5gal pail and a 10 gal pail. With a hole in each the 5gal will empty first and stop working before the 10 gal.

That's true of batteries in general, but not sure if it's always true with battery grips. The batteries in my 5D MkII for example are monitored totally seperately and I noticed that it seems to continue to utilize the full capacity of the higher rated battery even after the lower one is exhausted. I know it's got fandangled techno batteries but my 20D seems to do the same.

Si.

chrisjohnson

PVNPhotography wrote: »

Hey everyone, I bought an aftermarket Battery grip for my Canon XSi/450D last year. The grip is great and it feels very comfortable in your hands and it hasn't given me any problems yet. However, I'm getting a bit annoyed because it seems like my battery bar on my LCD screen does not move until it's about to die. I have an OEM Canon Battery and an Opteka Battery in my battery grip. I just wanted to know how I can find out a way to know when I should charge my batteries again so when I go out for a random photo-shoot, I'd have full batteries and not like 20% battery life left on each battery.

This is really typical. When the battery bar is below 100% it is time to charge. Like Ziggy says, I charge every time I plan to go shooting seriously. Especially when the battery is old (say 1-2 years), or "aftermarket" it can lose effective charge very fast, like almost instantly.

In general I do not economize on batteries, especially lithium based. Lithium can even be dangerous when you do not trust the supplier 100% - capable of exploding in your face.