My Mark III battery died

After a rainy night, both my Mark III cameras seemed to be dry and working. But when I tried to charge the batteries the next day, there was no lights on the charger. I then tried my other charger, it died as well. So, when I put the batteries back in the camera, the display for one them tells me that "camera can´t communicate with this battery". The other battery works fine.

This morning (two days after my last assignment) I tried to put the working battery in one of the chargers. Now it charged the battery just fine. The other still don´t work.

None of the batteries was wet at any time, as far as I could tell.

So basicly, I have a battery that will not work on my cameras, as well as it will put my chargers to sleep for several hours if I try to charge it. And it seems completely impossible to get new Mark III batteries for the next month or so. A Mark III camera without power is no fun.

Any idea what caused this, and how to fix it? I will of course contact Canon tomorrow, but I only have a few hours before I´m off for a two week assignment (I better bring my compact camera as well).

Sounds like a bad battery. Several places show the LP-E4 in stock. You could order one and send the old one to canon for replacement under warrenty. That would give you a spare battery when Canon sent you a replacement.

jerry
--
jerryk.smugmug.com

jerryk said:

Sounds like a bad battery. Several places show the LP-E4 in stock.
You could order one and send the old one to canon for replacement
under warrenty. That would give you a spare battery when Canon
sent you a replacement.

Click to expand...

I need a battery tomorrow for the next two weeks, but it seems like a plan for later. Where excactly are the batteries in stock?

(Tomorrow it´s time to find out what my CPS membership is good for...)

eirik_u said:

Where excactly are the batteries in stock?

Click to expand...

http://shopper.cnet.com/power-devices-batteries/canon-lp-e4-camera/4014-3509_9-32461123.html

Looks like Amazon's got them. Not cheap, but I don't know what the going rate's supposed to be om these gems.

Lithium Ion Batteries that are allowed to go dead and completely often cannot be recharged. In the model aircraft hobby, we have special sensors that shut down in time to avoid this. It only takes one time.

joseph papa said:

Lithium Ion Batteries that are allowed to go dead and completely
often cannot be recharged.

Click to expand...

I have never heard of this. Can you direct me to references?

I have had the following experience, though. I have an old G3 Powerbook (Pismo) that ran on Li-Ions. After storing it for a year or so, I wanted to wake it back up. No battery. Plugged it in vis the AC charger. No dice. Battery didn't even start accepting charge. Tried to go AC-only (sans battery). Nope. I left the charger in with the battery installed. Came back a day or two or three later, and all was right. Good to go! Don't know why, but it did take a significant amount of time plugged in to start taking a charge.

I had the same problem, however, mine was straight out of the box. Same error msg. Just have the battery replaced, that's what I did.

Battery: Try Tallyn's, somewhere in the US.

Good luck!

see here for lithium ion battery stuff:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_ion_battery#Disadvantages

interesting stuff!

Dean Baird said:

joseph papa said:

Lithium Ion Batteries that are allowed to go dead and completely
often cannot be recharged.

Click to expand...

I have never heard of this. Can you direct me to references?

I have had the following experience, though. I have an old G3
Powerbook (Pismo) that ran on Li-Ions. After storing it for a year
or so, I wanted to wake it back up. No battery. Plugged it in vis
the AC charger. No dice. Battery didn't even start accepting
charge. Tried to go AC-only (sans battery). Nope. I left the
charger in with the battery installed. Came back a day or two or
three later, and all was right. Good to go! Don't know why, but it
did take a significant amount of time plugged in to start taking a
charge.

Click to expand...

--It's true. They are nearly indestructible, but a full discharge can damage them.

I'm sure the camera has a built low charge sensing cut off point to prevent this.

If they were shorted this could cause damage, always keep cover on when not in use, if supplied.

Batteries are in short supply; there may be a problem. Maybe this is why so few cameras have been released?

-nothing beats a fast lense, except a fast girl-