# Battery Drain on Pixel Vertax Grip for 5D3?



## justsomedude (Jul 21, 2012)

Can anyone comment/report on battery drain issues on their Pixel Vertax BG-E11 battery grip for the 5D3? I charged up 4 LP-E6's last week (all official, no knockoffs) and put them in my 7D and 5D3 grips (attached to their respective bodies). They sat stored in the cameras inside a bag for 7-8 days. Then last night I had a gig; I pull out the 5D3 and the battery level had only 2-bars, and quickly dropped to 1-bar. 

Both the 5D3 body and the grip were switched OFF while in storage. The grip was also OFF during my shoot, as I was doing landscape orientation shots. Within 45 minutes of shooting I had to swap batteries as they were fully drained. I pulled out the 7D, turned it on, and it was fully charged. I swapped the batteries into my 5D3, and it too showed a full charge. 

I completed the gig with no issues, but this really got me worried that the Vertax grip has a battery drain. I'm doing a controlled test this week with fresh batteries to see what happens after a few days of storage.

Has anyone else noticed this battery drain issue or done any tests?


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## swampler (Jul 21, 2012)

Same thing for lots of people, it appears. Pixel told me via email they had fixed the issue. In process of trying to get replacement or refund for mine.


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## ChrisAnderson (Jul 22, 2012)

Same issue here, it's ruined some photo outings...
I emailed the eBay seller, we'll see what they say. From what i've read on dpReview, people end up paying shipping back to HK, and you'll be without the grip for about 2 weeks.
After a fresh charge put the batteries in the removable cartridge, and store it removed from the grip - i think that's the best workaround at this point. The camera seems to draw a standard amount of power while you're shooting, it's just while it's sitting idle that you're losing 15-20% charge each day.


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## drjlo (Jul 22, 2012)

Oh, Cr^^@! My Pixel grip is still on its way to me, and I sure hope it doesn't have this issue :-[


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## justsomedude (Jul 22, 2012)

swampler said:


> Same thing for lots of people, it appears. Pixel told me via email they had fixed the issue. In process of trying to get replacement or refund for mine.



Thanks for the head's up, Swampler. I guess I gotta contact them to try and get a replacement. What a mess.


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## Sony (Jul 22, 2012)

OMG! Thanks for posting soon enough for me. I want a grip but Canon made is too expensive. Im waiting for Polaroid's version bcause I bought for T1i and 50D and they are very good and fair priced, but there has been no smoke from Polaroid so far. Im considering to buy the Pixel's version, and then this posting comes. Thanks again, and continue waiting for Polaroid's.


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## drjlo (Jul 24, 2012)

Well, my Pixel Vertax arrived. Good news is it works fine off the bat. Placed fresh batteries and turned everything off; let's see if the battery drain issue rears its ugly head..




SAM_0074A by drjlo1, on Flickr


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## te4o (Jul 24, 2012)

I was just about to start a thread with the same question. My grip arrived from mainland China two weeks ago and it really chews the batteries. I was wondering how should the battery management by the grip normally be? Start one battery until empty, start both until empty? One goes down earlier than the other but both a drained during camera on standby over the day. I'll switch it off now and see what happens.


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## te4o (Jul 24, 2012)

Ok, camera was off overnight, one battery stayed at 64% the other dropped from 72 to 68%. I'd say normal. Obviously both are used in parallel by the grip.


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## drjlo (Jul 24, 2012)

te4o said:


> one battery stayed at 64% the other dropped from 72 to 68%. I'd say normal. Obviously both are used in parallel by the grip.



Why would that be "normal"? Battery should not drop from 72 to 68 overnight with camera and grip turned off, right?


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## skyrunner369 (Jul 25, 2012)

According to PIXEL, the battery drain problem has already been solved. This problem happened in a particular batch of goods only. The currently produced ones do not have this problem. If yours has this problem, you may exchange it with PIXEL authorized dealers in your country.


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## smithy (Jul 25, 2012)

Mine's still being shipped over from China. Hopefully it'll be okay, but if not, I'll just store the batteries separately.


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## drjlo (Jul 25, 2012)

skyrunner369 said:


> According to PIXEL, the battery drain problem has already been solved. This problem happened in a particular batch of goods only. The currently produced ones do not have this problem. If yours has this problem, you may exchange it with PIXEL authorized dealers in your country.



My Pixel that just arrived 2 days ago has the drain problem still. The problem is far from over, as Pixel resellers apparently are still shipping the problem units. 
Where is a Pixel "authorized dealer" in United States? I'm not aware of any, and my understanding is we are forced to pay for return shipping to China/HK to receive a replacement.


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## swampler (Jul 26, 2012)

drjlo said:


> skyrunner369 said:
> 
> 
> > According to PIXEL, the battery drain problem has already been solved. This problem happened in a particular batch of goods only. The currently produced ones do not have this problem. If yours has this problem, you may exchange it with PIXEL authorized dealers in your country.
> ...


Yep, that's the way I understand it. Sending mine back tomorrow (about $15) and Canon grip arriving tomorrow (more than $15!).


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## drjlo (Jul 26, 2012)

The Pixel Vertax battery grip drain problem:

Time 0:
Battery 1 100%
Battery 2 100%

Time 12 Hrs:
Battery 1 80%
Battery 2 100%

Time 24 Hrs:
Battery 1 70%
Battery 2 90%

Time 36 Hrs:
Battery 1 60%
Battery 2 90%

Time 51 Hrs:
Battery 1 53%
Battery 2 85%

Have emailed the reseller in HK, but I have low hopes for a good outcome, i.e. not getting stuck with shipping charge from U.S. to HK.


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## drjlo (Jul 27, 2012)

Another funny thing I found was that even if the grip is turned "off," the camera body turns on and still functions completely fine. I wonder if this is part of the battery drain problem.


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## ChrisAnderson (Jul 27, 2012)

drjlo said:


> Another funny thing I found was that even if the grip is turned "off," the camera body turns on and still functions completely fine. I wonder if this is part of the battery drain problem.



This is normal behavior - the "Off" switch position just disables all the buttons on the grip, to prevent accidental presses. On my camera, having the grip set to OFF makes the multicontroller behave normally, instead of super-sensitive when the grip is enabled.


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## te4o (Jul 28, 2012)

I left the battery in the camera overnight, without the grip and there was no change from 100%. Haven't tried 24 hrs.


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## smithy (Jul 28, 2012)

My grip arrived yesterday, and I'd say that there is a slight battery drain happening. I don't think it's the end of the world though. My main comment about the grip is that I find it quite uncomfortable to hold in the vertical position. Since it's nearly identical to the Canon grip, I'd say it's not the fault of the Pixel grip, but more my personal preference on comfort. A 1-series body would be a better option for me, probably.


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## drjlo (Jul 28, 2012)

smithy said:


> My grip arrived yesterday, and I'd say that there is a slight battery drain happening.



Time 72 Hrs:
Battery 1 53% 
Battery 2 63%

Even with almost half the batteries drained at 3 days, the battery indicator on top still shows 3 out of 4 bars, so one MUST go into "Battery Info" in menu to check the actual battery charge in order to be sure.


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## kevl (Aug 9, 2012)

Canon says not to store batteries in the camera or grip when the system is not in use in the manual shipped with the 5D3 because of battery drain. In fact is says to leave the batteries in for no more than 24 hours prior to a shoot. 

Perhaps the drain that is been seen is excessive, but is it really an issue? If you're not going to use the camera for 5 days take the batteries out like Canon says you should.


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## justsomedude (Aug 9, 2012)

kevl said:


> Canon says not to store batteries in the camera or grip when the system is not in use in the manual shipped with the 5D3 because of battery drain. In fact is says to leave the batteries in for no more than 24 hours prior to a shoot.
> 
> Perhaps the drain that is been seen is excessive, but is it really an issue? If you're not going to use the camera for 5 days take the batteries out like Canon says you should.



The drain with the Pixel Vertax grip is real, and they've since acknowledged the issue. I wrote a blog post on my site specifically about the problem and the resolution:

http://www.akphotodenver.com/pixel-vertax-bg-e11-battery-drain-issue-canon-5d3/

Pixel has fixed the problem in newer grips. If you have a grip with the battery drain problem, simply contact them for a replacement.


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