# 5DIV: Very high Battery consumption when using GPS



## xps (Sep 18, 2016)

I use the 5DIV wth two original Canon E6N batteries, but when I activate the GPS, both battieres are empty after 2-3 hours (even if I do not take an photo in this time). When shooting with activated GPS (Gps signal is always just blinking in the top monitor), after 1 hour the batteries are empty.

In the GPS menu, the GPS-Information menu can not be displayed. Changing the GPS update interval does not influence battery draining. Also no influence when changing the Modus. Activated GPS means empty batteries in 2-3h

Can you help me please? Canon support did not know how to deal with this, as the main serviceman who is able to handle the 5DIV is on holiday....


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## iaind (Sep 18, 2016)

Had same problem with 7d2. Just switch it on when needed.


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## xps (Sep 18, 2016)

iaind said:


> Had same problem with 7d2. Just switch it on when needed.


I´m not sure if there is an hardware problem. The GPS sign is just binking. It does not get the GPs positiion.


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## MJ (Sep 18, 2016)

xps said:


> Canon support did not know how to deal with this,  as the main serviceman who is able to handle the 5DIV is on holiday....




WTF?! Awesome timing


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## Don Haines (Sep 18, 2016)

xps said:


> iaind said:
> 
> 
> > Had same problem with 7d2. Just switch it on when needed.
> ...



If you are indoors or under heavy tree cover, surrounded by buildings, etc, you will not get a GPS lock. Try it somewhere with a decent view of the sky.....


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## CSD (Sep 18, 2016)

GPS is a battery hog in almost all devices, even mobile phones will use A-GPS rather than full GPS to get a broad bearing to save power. There's also the question of how efficient the GPS antennae is for satellite tracking and getting a positioning reading and/or does the camera keep the last known position to save power and getting a satellite lock. 

As always disable GPS unless you need it specifically for locations, and always carry spare batteries. This is the standard advice for any GPS device. Always get clear of tall buildings/tower blocks, trees and any radio masts all of which can block or interfere with signals.


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## xps (Sep 18, 2016)

MJ said:


> xps said:
> 
> 
> > Canon support did not know how to deal with this,  as the main serviceman who is able to handle the 5DIV is on holiday....
> ...



Maybe he was very busy  answering questions of 5DIV users.... 8)


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## xps (Sep 18, 2016)

Don Haines said:


> xps said:
> 
> 
> > iaind said:
> ...



Clear sky over me. I was in plain area. Nothing around that could interfer


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## xps (Sep 18, 2016)

CSD said:


> GPS is a battery hog in almost all devices, even mobile phones will use A-GPS rather than full GPS to get a broad bearing to save power. There's also the question of how efficient the GPS antennae is for satellite tracking and getting a positioning reading and/or does the camera keep the last known position to save power and getting a satellite lock.
> 
> As always disable GPS unless you need it specifically for locations, and always carry spare batteries. This is the standard advice for any GPS device. Always get clear of tall buildings/tower blocks, trees and any radio masts all of which can block or interfere with signals.



I was used ofthis option from 6D, 7DII. But the drain is three to four times higher than known from my older cams.


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## zim (Sep 18, 2016)

Can I ask, if you switch GPS off is it properly off... off ?


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## xps (Sep 18, 2016)

zim said:


> Can I ask, if you switch GPS off is it properly off... off ?


No, the GPS signal continues blinking


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## Don Haines (Sep 18, 2016)

xps said:


> Don Haines said:
> 
> 
> > xps said:
> ...


The first time it is turned on, GPS can take a long time to find a satellite..... but 30 minutes should be the extreme end of the scale..... You also need to have 5 satellites visible, but if you are in the middle of a field you should have more than that easily....

Try borrowing a handheld GPS (garmin or the like) and try to get both devices to sync at the same time..... the handheld will tell you how many satellites are visible and the signal strength, and if you still get no luck with the camera with the handheld showing good coverage, snap a picture of the handheld display and send it on in to Canon support.... you may have a bad GPS module and can get a warranty replacement.


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## arthurbikemad (Sep 18, 2016)

1DX2 takes ages to first find a signal.


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## Corydoras (Sep 18, 2016)

arthurbikemad said:


> 1DX2 takes ages to first find a signal.


7D Mark II is also slow to get the GPS signal. Sometimes even painfully slow. For some reason my 6D is often much faster getting the GPS locked than the 7D. Maybe 6D benefits from having less metal in its body.


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## nigel (Sep 18, 2016)

I have mine set to Mode 2 where GPS is off if the camera is off. The battery lasted a few days with regular use of the camera. I quit using it on the 6D most of the time because of the need to turn it off in the menu after each use.


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## Deleted member 91053 (Sep 18, 2016)

Just saw Corydoras post - WOW my 7D2 has GPS! I never knew that! I will never turn it on but it is nice to know that part of the purchase price was wasted on something that I have no use for.

Perhaps I am just missing something (quite possibly) but don't photographers know where they are? Or were?


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## Old Sarge (Sep 19, 2016)

The GPS on any camera will effect the battery life but I don't notice this kind of extreme. I use the GPS on my 7DII when traveling and if I remember to turn it off at the end of the day I can get a full day or two of shooting. Sometimes I have forgot and will start shooting the second day and have to change batteries. Certainly I notice a difference between it and my 7D but not to the extreme mentioned here.


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## Valvebounce (Sep 19, 2016)

Hi xps. 
I found the first lock on my 7DII took ages, and does again if I move by considerable distances (hundreds of miles) before turning it on. Also the battery disappears fast when it can't get a lock, but day to day re acquisition only takes a couple of minutes. There is one thing I have found that appears to hinder signal lock and that is carrying the camera on a sling strap by the tripod mount screw, i.e. upside down, in this condition it won't get gps lock and hammers the battery, turn it right way up and let it lock on and then let it dangle and it stays locked on! 
If the GPS stays flashing when you set it to off in the menu that would seem to indicate a problem. 

Hopefully Canon will do a firmware update adding a mode 2 off condition to the other GPS enabled cameras like the 6D and 7DII so that we don't have to keep going to menus to enable disable GPS. 

Cheers, Graham.


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## Don Haines (Sep 19, 2016)

johnf3f said:


> Just saw Corydoras post - WOW my 7D2 has GPS! I never knew that! I will never turn it on but it is nice to know that part of the purchase price was wasted on something that I have no use for.
> 
> Perhaps I am just missing something (quite possibly) but don't photographers know where they are? Or were?


For me at work, GPS is the most useless function that Canon ever included..... I work in an RF shielded building and there is no signal. Even cell phones do not work...... Plus, when the photos are processed all the metadata is wiped


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## TeT (Sep 19, 2016)

GPS is a major power suck on most any electronic device...


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Sep 19, 2016)

I've seen untold numbers of posts demanding GPS. When they get it, they are unhappy and did not know there was a price to pay, that being battery life.

There are good arguments for having GPS, but one has to be willing to take a hit on battery life.


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## pwp (Sep 19, 2016)

TeT said:


> GPS is a major power suck on most any electronic device...


Doesn't seem to hit my iPhone too hard. How is it with other GPS enabled cameras? There will always be a power usage penalty, but this sounds extreme. Something that a firmware update may address? 

-pw


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## CSD (Sep 19, 2016)

pwp said:


> TeT said:
> 
> 
> > GPS is a major power suck on most any electronic device...
> ...



Mobile phones use a wide range of tricks to mitigate the power usage of GPS the biggest one is A-GPS where it uses the telecom towers to triangulate the phone. They also keep a database of satellites in memory to pre-determine which ones to try and lock on to. There are other tricks that MS can use server side triangulation not sure if Apple or Google does this to reduce processor load. A good way to determine how much battery life of a GPS is switch on a SatNav app, that will kill any battery and usually max out the processor. That's also partially due to the display but you can disable that in some apps.


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## xps (Sep 19, 2016)

Thankls for all replies.
Just Contacted Canon support, seems to be an hardware problem. Has to be sent to CPS.
The technican told me that GPS is not an full working Gps system, so I do not have to expect wonders....


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## kaihp (Sep 19, 2016)

CSD said:


> pwp said:
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> > TeT said:
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Triangulation on cell-towers and GPS positions for known wifis. 
Like TeT and others write, "real" GPS is a power-hog - think around 30mA while tracking, more when acquiring the location.


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## LordofTackle (Sep 19, 2016)

johnf3f said:


> Perhaps I am just missing something (quite possibly) but don't photographers know where they are? Or were?



Well, sure I usually know where I am and where I was, but GPS can be useful sometimes 
For example, I've shot several hundred pictures at the Grand Canyon and the Bryce Canyon last year...but it became very difficult later on, to determine at which point exactly a picture was taken...so here GPS would have been very helpful for me


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## IglooEater (Sep 19, 2016)

LordofTackle said:


> johnf3f said:
> 
> 
> > Perhaps I am just missing something (quite possibly) but don't photographers know where they are? Or were?
> ...



Hmm that's annoying, gps could have helped you there indeed. However Date and time are built into exif data and that should solve the puzzle by and large.


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## weixing (Sep 19, 2016)

LordofTackle said:


> johnf3f said:
> 
> 
> > Perhaps I am just missing something (quite possibly) but don't photographers know where they are? Or were?
> ...


Hi,
An external GPS is more accurate and consistent, such as the garmin etrex series GPS. Then before you import to lightroom, use the GeoSetter to embed the GPS info into the RAW files.

Have a nice day.


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## Old Sarge (Sep 19, 2016)

LordofTackle said:


> johnf3f said:
> 
> 
> > Perhaps I am just missing something (quite possibly) but don't photographers know where they are? Or were?
> ...



Like you, I usually know where I am.....but at my age remembering where I was can be more problematical.



Valvebounce said:


> Hi xps.
> I found the first lock on my 7DII took ages, and does again if I move by considerable distances (hundreds of miles) before turning it on. Also the battery disappears fast when it can't get a lock, but day to day re acquisition only takes a couple of minutes. There is one thing I have found that appears to hinder signal lock and that is carrying the camera on a sling strap by the tripod mount screw, i.e. upside down, in this condition it won't get gps lock and hammers the battery, turn it right way up and let it lock on and then let it dangle and it stays locked on!
> If the GPS stays flashing when you set it to off in the menu that would seem to indicate a problem.
> 
> ...



An as usual Graham, you have a great idea. I wish they would do a firmware update adding that ability. Might help me with that memory problem I mentioned....I did mention it didn't I....earlier.


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## LordofTackle (Sep 19, 2016)

IglooEater said:


> LordofTackle said:
> 
> 
> > johnf3f said:
> ...



In most cases that would be enough, indeed. However, in that case we travelled all the vista points on the south rim of the GG and I had a really hard time to identify which photo was taken at what point. In the end, I had to go to google maps and compare pictures from the respective points with my own pictures. :-[


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## LordofTackle (Sep 19, 2016)

weixing said:


> LordofTackle said:
> 
> 
> > johnf3f said:
> ...


Hi Weixing,

yes that would be a possible solution. 
However, most of the time, as others pointed out, it is sufficient for me to look at the time and to know where in general I have been. Also, I don't really want to carry around another item, additionally to all the photo and hiking stuff. (I know, it would be rather light, but still..).

Now I have the 1DXII and have the possibility to use GPS when I need it. 
(most of the time it's off though, as it sucks to much power for my liking)

Cheers,
Sebastian


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## Deleted member 91053 (Sep 19, 2016)

LordofTackle said:


> johnf3f said:
> 
> 
> > Perhaps I am just missing something (quite possibly) but don't photographers know where they are? Or were?
> ...



Thanks I see your point. We don't have things like the Grand Canyon over here so it hasn't been an issue for me, but now I could see a use for it somewhere like that.


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## xps (Sep 23, 2016)

Got my 5D IV back from repair center.
GPS works. Found the position after 1 min.

Maybe Sony offers more inventions and is better in a lot of specs. BUT: Fixing my cam took just a few days (thanks CPS Gold), Sony took a lot of weeks and did not solve my problems....
This is why I stay with Canon


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## LordofTackle (Sep 23, 2016)

xps said:


> Got my 5D IV back from repair center.
> GPS works. Found the position after 1 min.
> 
> Maybe Sony offers more inventions and is better in a lot of specs. BUT: Fixing my cam took just a few days (thanks CPS Gold), Sony took a lot of weeks and did not solve my problems....
> This is why I stay with Canon



Nice to hear that they solved your problem 
CPS Germany?


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## Luds34 (Sep 23, 2016)

xps said:


> Got my 5D IV back from repair center.
> GPS works. Found the position after 1 min.
> 
> Maybe Sony offers more inventions and is better in a lot of specs. BUT: Fixing my cam took just a few days (thanks CPS Gold), Sony took a lot of weeks and did not solve my problems....
> This is why I stay with Canon



Awesome, glad to see you got it fixed!

I just want to throw in my 2 cents on GPS. Generally speaking I don't really use it. Sure I leave it on, and it's kind of a "nice to have". However, the last couple years I've taken the 6D on my canoe trips into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area that borders the US and Canada. I can tell you the GPS is an awesome tool to help document the trip, the various places we made camp, the portages we crossed, the lakes we visited, etc. In short, it's a great tool to help document your trip with not only pictures, but locations as you're moving through the wilderness.


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## xps (Sep 23, 2016)

LordofTackle said:


> xps said:
> 
> 
> > Got my 5D IV back from repair center.
> ...



Yes, CPS partner in Berlin


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## xps (Sep 23, 2016)

Luds34 said:


> xps said:
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> > Got my 5D IV back from repair center.
> ...


I+1
And it is nice to add pictures to Google and other sites so that others can see, what it is looking like there


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## LordofTackle (Sep 24, 2016)

xps said:


> Luds34 said:
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> > xps said:
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That's how I "reverse-engineered" the exact location of some of my photos


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## jeffa4444 (Sep 25, 2016)

I mainly use the GPS on my 6D when shooting in wilderness areas so I know what the landmarks were at a later date, such as the Tors on Dartmoor. For all other locations I leave it off after all if your shooting scenes at Hadrians Villa for instance you know where you are!


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