# 5D4 Phantom Battery Drain



## cookestudios (Oct 20, 2016)

Hey everyone,

With my 1DX2 and 6D (and previous 5D3), I could leave batteries in the camera and pick it up days later without any substantial discharge. However, with the 5D4, after two days or so, my battery is often half-depleted. Has anyone else experienced this?


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## Mikehit (Oct 20, 2016)

There are several reports for the 6D that if GPS is activated it is pinging away even when the camera is (in theory) switched off and this can drain the battery. Could this be the reason on the 5D4?


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Oct 21, 2016)

Even when the 5D MK IV is turned off, in Mode 1, the GPS keeps going. This, of course, uses battery power. In Mode 2, GPS does stop when the camera is turned off. Of course, if the camera is on, it auto powers down, but GPS keeps using power.

https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/products/details/cameras/dslr/eos-5d-mark-iv


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## IglooEater (Oct 22, 2016)

One of the reasons I've not been terrible supportive of putting gps in a camera... A (digital) camera with a dead battery has zero features and no image quality whatsoever. Battery life is the number one most important specification of a camera imo.


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## fentiger (Oct 22, 2016)

if you really need to be sure of no battery drain when not in use, remove the battery.


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## Don Haines (Oct 22, 2016)

I must confess that I like an on/off switch that totally kills power......

For instance, they added "tracking and monitoring" functionality to all our research vehicles at work and now if you leave them for a week the parasitic draw will drain the battery..... We ended up putting battery disconnect switches on them, so now off is OFF!

GPS enabled is the same, it is never really off..... Unless you disconnect the battery.....


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Oct 22, 2016)

I'd be one to set my GPS to mode 2, but I am in the habit of leaving my camera on, since after auto powerdown the battery will stay charged for months.


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## IglooEater (Oct 22, 2016)

Don Haines said:


> I must confess that I like an on/off switch that totally kills power......


+1


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Oct 22, 2016)

IglooEater said:


> Don Haines said:
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> 
> > I must confess that I like an on/off switch that totally kills power......
> ...



So far, I haven't seen a Canon DSLR that totally kills power with the off switch. It used to be the case with cars, back in the 1960's and prior, before the electronics hit cars.


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## privatebydesign (Oct 22, 2016)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> IglooEater said:
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> > Don Haines said:
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My 1DS MkIII can have a battery in it for months and not run it down. What does the CR2025 lithium battery do if it isn't to maintain essential functions, memory and time/date when the power switch is in the off position.

The 1DX MkII (and I presume others) have a GPS selection, Option 2, where it is turned off with the power switch, or indeed never turned on, Option OFF, what power is used in those situations that the CR2025 doesn't do?


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## Valvebounce (Oct 22, 2016)

Hi PBD. 
One thing that carries on running with the switch turned off is the transmissive viewfinder screen (turn the camera off then look through the viewfinder as you remove the bttery) also there is no CR2025 battery in some of the new cameras, 7DII for example. 

Cheers, Graham. 



privatebydesign said:


> Mt Spokane Photography said:
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> > IglooEater said:
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## Zen (Oct 22, 2016)

I haven't done an exact count comparison, but my 5d4 seems to use up the battery significantly faster than my 5d3 - even with GPS function disabled completely. Sounds like others are noticing the same. Does anyone know if there is any data available from Canon on this subject.

Zen


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## rfdesigner (Oct 22, 2016)

Don Haines said:


> I must confess that I like an on/off switch that totally kills power......
> 
> For instance, they added "tracking and monitoring" functionality to all our research vehicles at work and now if you leave them for a week the parasitic draw will drain the battery..... We ended up putting battery disconnect switches on them, so now off is OFF!
> 
> GPS enabled is the same, it is never really off..... Unless you disconnect the battery.....



Love that

I've spent most of my career on the R&D of battery powered end of electronics. I always prefer to see propper off switches, but IP ratings, programming over air and other functionality demands all push for batterys that are permeenetly connected.

I did once get involved with a PC that had to "commit suicide" by pulling out its own power supply after it had done it's stuff.. very satisfying to see a power demand at zero.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Oct 23, 2016)

privatebydesign said:


> Mt Spokane Photography said:
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> > IglooEater said:
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Your memory card is monitored, try putting it in or removing it with the power off, it is still powered.

Canon stopped using removable cr2025 batteries a few years back. They now have a internal rechargeable battery for things like the clock. It is charged from the main camera battery. I had one go bad, and the clock kept working fine until I removed the camera main battery. After re-installing the main battery and resetting the clock, it was fine until I pulled the main battery to recharge it.


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## privatebydesign (Oct 23, 2016)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> privatebydesign said:
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> > Mt Spokane Photography said:
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The 5D MkIII and 1DX both have a backup battery, so the move to built in is pretty recent. As for the card being monitored, my camera does nothing if the power switch is off and I open the card door.


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## Valvebounce (Oct 23, 2016)

Hi PBD. 
I think the move to built in rechargeable batteries started quite a while ago in the xxxD bodies, a friend bought a 450 which kept loosing the date, couldn't find how to change the cell, eventually found it was built in. A bit of searching the manuals, (don't take this as definitive) it looks like the 450D, 60D, 7DII, 5DIV and 1DxII are the introduction models, tested on the consumer, perfected for the prosumer and finally rolled out to the pro's once they had enough background to be confident it wouldn't let them down! ;D

Cheers, Graham. 



privatebydesign said:


> Mt Spokane Photography said:
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## RunAndGun (Oct 25, 2016)

Valvebounce said:


> Hi PBD.
> One thing that carries on running with the switch turned off is the transmissive viewfinder screen (turn the camera off then look through the viewfinder as you remove the bttery) also there is no CR2025 battery in some of the new cameras, 7DII for example.
> 
> Cheers, Graham.



I turned my 5D4 off, looked through the VF and then pulled the batt while continuing to look through the VF and there was absolutely no change. It appeared completely off(zero info, grid, etc. displayed) with the camera switched to OFF and with the battery pulled.


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## RunAndGun (Oct 25, 2016)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> Your memory card is monitored, try putting it in or removing it with the power off, it is still powered.



Yep. If there is a battery in the camera and you insert or remove a card, the red "access" light on the back will flash several times

I read in another thread that the frame rate will also drop when the battery is below 50% or so. I noticed this yesterday shooting one of my GF's softball games. Normally I start on a full batt, but this one was in the 60%'s when I started shooting. At some point I noticed that the frame rate seemed to really drop. I was shooting wide open, high shutter speed and flicker reduction was off. I checked the battery and it was in the low/mid 40%'s. Put a hot battery in and frame rate was back up.


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## Valvebounce (Oct 25, 2016)

Hi RunAndGun. 
Both my 7D and 7DII have this, you switch off and all the info disappears, pull the battery, give it a few seconds and it goes progressively darker, (but not black) and fuzzy, putting the battery back in causes an instant reversal, I guess they may have changed the way it behaves on the 5D IV. 

Cheers, Graham. 



RunAndGun said:


> Valvebounce said:
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> > Hi PBD.
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## RunAndGun (Oct 26, 2016)

Valvebounce said:


> Hi RunAndGun.
> Both my 7D and 7DII have this, you switch off and all the info disappears, pull the battery, give it a few seconds and it goes progressively darker, (but not black) and fuzzy, putting the battery back in causes an instant reversal, I guess they may have changed the way it behaves on the 5D IV.
> 
> Cheers, Graham.
> ...



Interesting. Maybe it's just the 7 series. I don't recall that happening in my 5D III, either. But I never looked for it.


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