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Canon XH Series HDV Camcorders
Canon XH G1S / G1 (with SDI), Canon XH A1S / A1 (without SDI).

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Old September 12th, 2008, 10:50 AM   #1
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Batteries Losing Charge

I upgraded to A1's from GL2's earlier this summer. With my GL2's, I could charge the camera batteries after shooting a wedding, and a month later they would still have a full charge. However, with my A1 batteries, I can charge them and by the next weekend they've lost charge and have to be recharged. Is this strange to anyone else?
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Old September 12th, 2008, 02:41 PM   #2
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Doesn't sound right to me.

I have two batteries for my A1.

One lasts me usually a month (I'm not filming long sequences) before it's half drained.

The spare (after being charged) has been in the bag for a month after charging and still shows as full when I fit it in the camera.
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Old September 12th, 2008, 02:45 PM   #3
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Doesn't sound right to me.

I have two batteries for my A1.

One lasts me usually a month (I'm not filming long sequences) before it's half drained.

The spare (after being charged) has been in the bag for a month after charging and still shows as full when I fit it in the camera.
That's odd then. I bought two A1's, and both of their batteries seem to do this. I also bought 2 larger batteries and they seem to do it as well.
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Old September 12th, 2008, 03:44 PM   #4
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Both my batteries hold a charge for many weeks. I have one that's not been used for about a month and a half now and it's still fully charged. Both of mine are the standard size, not the bigger ones. You may have some defective batteries, or it could be the charger not charging them fully. The fact that both batteries are doing the same thing makes me suspect the charger.
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Old September 12th, 2008, 03:51 PM   #5
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Both my batteries hold a charge for many weeks. I have one that's not been used for about a month and a half now and it's still fully charged. Both of mine are the standard size, not the bigger ones. You may have some defective batteries, or it could be the charger not charging them fully. The fact that both batteries are doing the same thing makes me suspect the charger.
Yeah, I actually have 4 batteries doing this, and I have 2 chargers. I did notice that the non-Canon batteries don't quite trigger the charging of the charger (if that makes sense). I have to place a rubberband around the battery/charger to get them to contact fully and thus charge. But the Canon batteries fit the charger perfectly. They certainly don't hold a full charge for weeks. I guess maybe I need to contact Canon.
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Old September 12th, 2008, 06:21 PM   #6
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Just adding to the consensus. I've not had this problem. I have the stock Canon battery and the high capacity Impact brand. If I shoot a race on Saturday, I'll sink the Impact by about half. I recharge it Saturday night or Sunday and it's still topped up on the next Saturday's race.

As an aside, it used to take batteries a few charge cycles to get to their full capacity and capability. Don't know if this happens with L-ion but it was common Nimh and especially so with Ni-Cad. You might give it a half-dozen charge cycles to see if they come around.
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Old September 12th, 2008, 07:24 PM   #7
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Just adding to the consensus. I've not had this problem. I have the stock Canon battery and the high capacity Impact brand. If I shoot a race on Saturday, I'll sink the Impact by about half. I recharge it Saturday night or Sunday and it's still topped up on the next Saturday's race.

As an aside, it used to take batteries a few charge cycles to get to their full capacity and capability. Don't know if this happens with L-ion but it was common Nimh and especially so with Ni-Cad. You might give it a half-dozen charge cycles to see if they come around.
Good thoughts. I've used/charged the batteries at least a dozen times now, so I don't think that's the issue, though. I wish it was. I'm using Impact brand as well.
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Old September 12th, 2008, 09:57 PM   #8
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Silly question this, but, maybe not.

Are you leaving the battery on charge until the orange light glows permanently?
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Old September 12th, 2008, 10:02 PM   #9
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I'll add to this by saying that the Canon batteries are hands down the best at length and holding a charge that I've ever worked with. They amaze me. I can go through a whole wedding without changing a battery. I just shot 2.5 hrs of High school football without even changing the battery meter. Unreal. There is definately something wring with your setup. Are you using the charger that came with the camera or another charger?
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Old September 13th, 2008, 12:56 PM   #10
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Silly question this, but, maybe not.

Are you leaving the battery on charge until the orange light glows permanently?
Yes. Thanks, though, sometimes it IS the simplest thing!
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Old September 13th, 2008, 12:58 PM   #11
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I'll add to this by saying that the Canon batteries are hands down the best at length and holding a charge that I've ever worked with. They amaze me. I can go through a whole wedding without changing a battery. I just shot 2.5 hrs of High school football without even changing the battery meter. Unreal. There is definately something wring with your setup. Are you using the charger that came with the camera or another charger?
Bill
Nope, I'm using the Canon charger. And during the wedding the batteries seem to work just fine. It's just that went I get back to the office and charge them fully, a week later they no longer have a full charge.
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Old September 14th, 2008, 06:52 AM   #12
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I am sure that I read somewhere in the manual that the internal battery that holds the memory is charged from the removable battery so if you keep your removable battery in the camera it wil be constantly keeping the memory battery charged hope this helps.

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Old September 14th, 2008, 10:03 AM   #13
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These are LiIon Cells in the Baterries. Directly after charging have they a little higher Voltage as some hours later. But the capacity ist still here.
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Old September 26th, 2008, 12:29 PM   #14
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Just thought I'd give an update on this.

So it's been about 2 weeks since I last fully-charged my batteries, and they haven't been used since then. Today I put each of them on the charger and it took about 20-25 minutes for each of them to get back to a full-charge .. except the 4th battery .. which already showed a full charge for some odd reason. So the 2 Canon batteries took about 20 minutes and 1 of the 2 Impact batteries took about 25 minutes, whereas the other showed a full charge already.
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