# What's the normal battery drain for a 5D3 that's off?



## jm977 (Mar 30, 2013)

I had a pair of 7Ds and have swapped one for a new 5D3. I don't know if anyone out there goes through periods of inactivity with their photography where their camera may sit unused for weeks at a time but it does happen to me. I've noticed that the 7D will pretty much pick up weeks or a month later virtually where the battery left off. For example if I stopped shooting at 65% battery, a month later it'll be close to it though I never really paid attention to it as it sure wasn't 0. But I've noticed now that my 5D3 after it's first little bit of inactivity has drained it's battery when off. Now, the other day I charged up two of my batteries and left them on the charger for some time after the solid green light. I may be jumping the gun here as it's only been two days since I did this but already I see my 7D battery level at 100% and the 5D3 is registering 99%. How is it that the 5D3 sucks up more juice when off than the 7D? Unless it's an actual fault with the camera, I'm going to really have to pay attention to either removing the battery or charging it up during the times when I'm not using it so much. By the way, the 5D3 was just sitting with the 24-105 on it. I know in the past people have had issues with the Tamron 24-70 and I think there's a grip that used to cause a drain but that's not my situation. Anyway, I'm just curious to know if the tiny drain on the 5D3 is normal with the 7D less being an unusual bonus or if it's the other way around. Again, I assume most people here are avid shooters and don't have a lot of downtime but maybe someone knows. I may also send off an email to Canon and find out what they have to say as to what is normal and not. Thanks in advance.


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## Universeal (Mar 30, 2013)

I could say 98-97% for a month didn't measure exactly but close to that. It reach 99% quick it does not stay 100% a lot maybe it's a reason.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Mar 30, 2013)

Don't leave your 5D3 on for months without using it, it will discharge the battery more than previous models. Both of my 5D MK III's do this. I leave mine turned on, and use it almost every day for a few photos. In this mode, the battery will drop to half in a few weeks.


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## jm977 (Mar 30, 2013)

Thanks for the replies so far. I am probably nitpicking over 1% in two days time. I just never noticed this so much as I've never gone more than a week without touching my cameras. Due to illness, it's been pushing three long months since I turned on a camera. I really should have at least taken the batteries out of them I guess but my cameras were the last thing on my mind lately. 

Mt Spokane...I notice you mention it will discharge faster than previous models and you say with it "on". I always turn mine off with the switch when done with a shoot rather than letting it go to sleep. Did you mean "on" for months or were you saying "don't not use it" for months? 

In any case, as I said it's only an issue I noticed since I went an unusually long time since last turning on the camera. Now if it went from 100% to 10% overnight (when turned off), that would probably be a big deal.


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## archiea (Mar 30, 2013)

jm977 said:


> I had a pair of 7Ds and have swapped one for a new 5D3. I don't know if anyone out there goes through periods of inactivity with their photography where their camera may sit unused for weeks at a time but it does happen to me. I've noticed that the 7D will pretty much pick up weeks or a month later virtually where the battery left off. For example if I stopped shooting at 65% battery, a month later it'll be close to it though I never really paid attention to it as it sure wasn't 0. But I've noticed now that my 5D3 after it's first little bit of inactivity has drained it's battery when off. Now, the other day I charged up two of my batteries and left them on the charger for some time after the solid green light. I may be jumping the gun here as it's only been two days since I did this but already I see my 7D battery level at 100% and the 5D3 is registering 99%. How is it that the 5D3 sucks up more juice when off than the 7D? Unless it's an actual fault with the camera, I'm going to really have to pay attention to either removing the battery or charging it up during the times when I'm not using it so much. By the way, the 5D3 was just sitting with the 24-105 on it. I know in the past people have had issues with the Tamron 24-70 and I think there's a grip that used to cause a drain but that's not my situation. Anyway, I'm just curious to know if the tiny drain on the 5D3 is normal with the 7D less being an unusual bonus or if it's the other way around. Again, I assume most people here are avid shooters and don't have a lot of downtime but maybe someone knows. I may also send off an email to Canon and find out what they have to say as to what is normal and not. Thanks in advance.



5D markiii has wifi ability with an eyefi card... but for it to work consistently, I had to disable the sleep mode on the camera. Just leaving the eyefi activated will drain the battery quick. Check the camera's sleep setting to see if its within a minute. Also remember when it sleep mode, while in a bag, hitting the shutter button will wake it. now I use the actual off button whenits in the bag.. ;D

I hope his gives you some items to scratch off your debug list ...


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## Universeal (Mar 30, 2013)

Turned off. I don't use very often my 5dmk3 because i don't need it, only in special situations when i need the high iso. My main camera is 550d. Also and the battery will lose power if not used over time so it's not just the camera.


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## jabbott (Mar 30, 2013)

I don't notice battery drain while my 5D3 is off, I just notice it while I'm shooting. Mine only gets 300-500 shots per battery, and I'm using genuine batteries. :-[


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## zim (Mar 30, 2013)

Universeal said:


> I don't use very often my 5dmk3 because i don't need it, only in special situations when i need the high iso. *My main camera is 550d. *



   seriously?


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## Garfield (Mar 30, 2013)

Some weeks ago I've measured the current consumption of my 5Dmark3 with the 24-105mmF4 attached.
I'm working in the electronic industry and have quite good equipment available. A old LP-E6 battery was modified to measure the current in different scenarios.
Here's the result:

70µA (0.07mA) Camera main switch off
70µA (0.07mA) Camera switched off automatically after 1 minute, top LCD display is off
50mA Camera idle (viewfinder display is off but camera has not yet switched off automatically)
280-350mA watching and scrolling through pictures at the rear LCD screen (depends on screen brightness)

If you wonder what's the current from the small backup battery (CR1616), when no LP-E6 is in the camera:

0.7µA (0.0007mA)

From the capacity you can roughly calculate how long the corresponding battery will last.

LP-E6 1800mAh
CR1616 55mAh

For the LP-E6 battery it's a bit more complicated, because the electronic inside this pack needs also a small amount of energy.
Every lithium-ion battery has a self discharge rate as well (~5% per month).
Under normal circumstances the main battery should last many month when not using the camera and *no *WiFi SD card is insert.

I hope it's a bit helpful.


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## Brand B (Mar 30, 2013)

jabbott said:


> I don't notice battery drain while my 5D3 is off, I just notice it while I'm shooting. Mine only gets 300-500 shots per battery, and I'm using genuine batteries. :-[



Really? Are you shooting raw + jpg, or are you using a large lens with a big motor? I have easily gotten over 1000 shots on a single charge using a 28-70L, RAW only.


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## TAF (Mar 30, 2013)

jm977: The absolute accuracy of the cameras battery reading isn't that good. If it dropped from 100% to 90% in a day, I would be concerned. 100% to 99% is well within measurement error.

Garfield - Thank you very much for that data!

Based on Garfield's data, the "OFF" power drain is little more than the self discharge rate for the Li batteries. So even with the battery sitting in your camera bag by itself, it's going to discharge eventually. Unless you plan on putting the camera away for a year, I wouldn't worry about it.

Personally, I charge both my batteries before a shoot, and when things are quiet (usually meaning the day job is too busy to enjoy much photography, although there is always a photo or two during a normal day with my cats...), I swap the battery in the camera once a month or so (charging the one that has been in the camera). I've not found the in camera battery down more than 20% or so.


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## JonAustin (Mar 30, 2013)

Garfield's data all sound very reasonable. I I picked up a 5D3 at the end of last year, and haven't found its battery performance to be noticeably different from the 5D I've owned for more than 5 years.

I've also had a 20D for 8+ years, and after I use any of these bodies, I remove the battery at the same time I remove the CF card, before putting the camera away. (I usually leave what ever lens was mounted attached, to minimize the introduction of dust into the mirror / sensor chambers.) I've never had to replace any of the button cell backup batteries.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Mar 30, 2013)

jm977 said:


> Mt Spokane...I notice you mention it will discharge faster than previous models and you say with it "on". I always turn mine off with the switch when done with a shoot rather than letting it go to sleep. Did you mean "on" for months or were you saying "don't not use it" for months?


Many people leave the switch on, the camera uses very little power when it sleeps. I thought that was what you were referring to.
Li-on batteries also self discharge over time, you are not supposed to store them with a full charge, but most of us do. Its likely that you are seeing normal self discharge, but if the power switch is off, and it loses a lot of power in a week or two, there is a problem either with the battery or with camera drain.


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## jabbott (Mar 30, 2013)

Brand B said:


> Really? Are you shooting raw + jpg, or are you using a large lens with a big motor? I have easily gotten over 1000 shots on a single charge using a 28-70L, RAW only.


Yes really, unfortunately. I primarily shoot RAW only, with non-IS or a couple 70-200 IS lenses. The lens I use doesn't seem to make a difference. I also tend to use one shot AF, have it set to sleep after the minimum time, use only one CF or SD card, etc. Now that Garfield has posted some numbers (thanks!!) I'll compare. Garfield, were you able to run the LP-E6 outside of the camera for your measurements and if so, did you have to fool the camera into thinking the battery was inside with the door closed?

I wrote to Canon about the low shot per battery issue and they said I should mail the 5D3 in for service. I'd like to figure out where the problem resides first, as it could just be a faulty charger.


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## Krob78 (Mar 30, 2013)

zim said:


> Universeal said:
> 
> 
> > I don't use very often my 5dmk3 because i don't need it, only in special situations when i need the high iso. *My main camera is 550d. *
> ...


I don't think I could do that! If I had the 550d and the 5d3, the 550d would be collecting cobwebs!


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## Krob78 (Mar 30, 2013)

jabbott said:


> I don't notice battery drain while my 5D3 is off, I just notice it while I'm shooting. Mine only gets 300-500 shots per battery, and I'm using genuine batteries. :-[


+1 I notice my batteries shoot down quickly in my 5d3 compared to my 7d. I have similar results as you, averaging about 575 images per battery! I can more than double that in my 7d with one battery. Excellent results with the 7d being gripped of course but I'm not comparing that. My 5d3 is not gripped.

I've been disapointed with the battery life in my 5d3 since the first install. I've traded out the batteries with the 7d and still get the same performance with them switched, in either camera... I just figured it had something to do with the 5d3 capturing larger files?

I shoot most often in AI Servo with IS on...


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## jabbott (Mar 30, 2013)

Krob78 said:


> +1 I notice my batteries shoot down quickly in my 5d3 compared to my 7d. I have similar results as you, averaging about 575 images per battery! I can more than double that in my 7d with one battery. Excellent results with the 7d being gripped of course but I'm not comparing that. My 5d3 is not gripped.
> 
> I've been disapointed with the battery life in my 5d3 since the first install. I've traded out the batteries with the 7d and still get the same performance with them switched, in either camera... I just figured it had something to do with the 5d3 capturing larger files?
> 
> I shoot most often in AI Servo with IS on...


There are a couple things I'm going to try before mailing my 5D3 in for service... in April, Canon is supposed to be releasing a new firmware update. I'll try updating to that and see if helps. If it doesn't, I was thinking about trying a hard reset technique like the one posted here: http://ilucato.com.br/lucatowp/lang/en-us/como-fazer-o-reset-de-fabrica-na-canon-rebel300d-xti400dhow-to-hard-reset-canon-rebel300d-xti400d/

Maybe I'll just try the hard reset first... need to write down my AFMA settings first though!


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## Krob78 (Mar 30, 2013)

jabbott said:


> Krob78 said:
> 
> 
> > +1 I notice my batteries shoot down quickly in my 5d3 compared to my 7d. I have similar results as you, averaging about 575 images per battery! I can more than double that in my 7d with one battery. Excellent results with the 7d being gripped of course but I'm not comparing that. My 5d3 is not gripped.
> ...


Ha! Yes, definitely write them down first!! Let us know how that works out, I'm very interested! Thanks!


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## drmikeinpdx (Mar 30, 2013)

jabbott said:


> I don't notice battery drain while my 5D3 is off, I just notice it while I'm shooting. Mine only gets 300-500 shots per battery, and I'm using genuine batteries. :-[



I have taken over 900 shots with mine and the battery is still about 40+ percent charged. Wonder what causes the difference? I guess we don't have to consider flash usage since the 5D family has none. LOL

I almost never use live view, do you use it a lot? I'm using non-stabilized lenses and no Eye-Fi card.


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## jm977 (Mar 31, 2013)

Thank you everyone for the information. I didn't realize that the issue of batteries could generate so much interest. 
I'm hoping that my issue is simply of one of neglect. As I mentioned I went an unusually long period of time where I didn't even touch my camera and I never realized how poorly these batteries hold a charge. I knew it was bad but didn't think it was that bad. It would seem I lose approximately 1% a day. I'm going to try my best not to touch it for a week or two and see how it goes. That seems like a lot of loss (dead in 90 days -ish) to me but again, I've never gone more than a week without charging and shooting so for all I know it is. 

Anyway, to clear up a little regarding some other points brought up....
I do not have a wifi card. I have gotten what I consider very good shooting capability from the battery/5D3 which if I remember correctly gave me in the area of 900 shots with some battery to spare on my last shoot 3 months ago with I would think around 20%+ to spare. I hate to drain it below 20% on a shoot ( so that's how I know I had at least that in reserve ) and I think 900-1k with IS lenses, AF but no live view and some chimping is pretty good. And of course (no offense to third party manufacturers ) my batteries are all Canon. 

So thanks for all the input. I'm glad I signed up to the forum. Nice bunch of people here. And that's some cool investigative work there Garfield.


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## jabbott (Mar 31, 2013)

drmikeinpdx said:


> I have taken over 900 shots with mine and the battery is still about 40+ percent charged. Wonder what causes the difference? I guess we don't have to consider flash usage since the 5D family has none. LOL
> 
> I almost never use live view, do you use it a lot? I'm using non-stabilized lenses and no Eye-Fi card.


I rarely use Live View... I also rarely use stabilized lenses, and don't use an Eye-Fi card. I chimp but not excessively. It's puzzling. At first I thought it was because I spent a lot of time in the menus configuring the camera, but then the high battery drain behavior continued well after that. If the firmware update and hard reset don't help, I'll just send the camera into Canon as it's still under warranty for the next few months. From what I've read online, there are some folks who get great battery life from their 5D3 (some of which exceed 1,000 shots per charge) and others who only get mediocre battery life (300-600 shots per charge). I didn't realize until I wrote to Canon that the battery charger itself may be to blame. I may also try borrowing a friend's charger to see if it charges the batteries more.


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## jabbott (Mar 31, 2013)

By the way, I found a Flickr discussion forum where a lot of people have had similar issues:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/canondslr/discuss/72157628002945669/


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## Krob78 (Apr 2, 2013)

jabbott said:


> drmikeinpdx said:
> 
> 
> > I have taken over 900 shots with mine and the battery is still about 40+ percent charged. Wonder what causes the difference? I guess we don't have to consider flash usage since the 5D family has none. LOL
> ...


Is it possible that AI Servo could drain them more quickly? I do notice that often times I'm holding that back button down for a while at times, waiting for certain images... I do it with my 7d though too, it's also configured for back af-on button focusing on mine...


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## jabbott (Apr 3, 2013)

Krob78 said:


> Is it possible that AI Servo could drain them more quickly? I do notice that often times I'm holding that back button down for a while at times, waiting for certain images... I do it with my 7d though too, it's also configured for back af-on button focusing on mine...


I would think that AF Servo would consume a lot more battery power than One Shot AF. Garfield are you still there?  To follow up to my previous posts, I did some shooting with the 5D3 this weekend for Easter and ended up with much better battery life, but I was shooting much more than usual rather than taking an occasional shot and letting the camera idle. I noticed this effect as well with my T2i - I was once able to get 2,000 shots on one battery, but I was doing rapid fire shots nearly constantly for a rock concert. I wish the 5D3 had a smaller time period setting for auto power off, such as 5 seconds instead of a minute. For now I just shut off the camera after each shot when I'm shooting periodically.


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## JonAustin (Apr 3, 2013)

jabbott said:


> I wish the 5D3 had a smaller time period setting for auto power off, such as 5 seconds instead of a minute. For now I just shut off the camera after each shot when I'm shooting periodically.



Per the measurements made by Garfield, you aren't really gaining anything by switching the camera off, rather than just letting it idle. In fact -- particularly if you have sensor cleaning set to engage each time you switch the camera on and off -- you may be discharging your battery more than you would by just letting the idle timer do its job after each 1 minute period of no activity.


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## jm977 (Apr 3, 2013)

I would think that over the years, for the most part discussion about batteries has been pretty much covered. However, I appreciate all who took a few minutes to talk about them here. If it hadn't been for my unexpected long time where I did not do any shooting, I probably would have gone on without a care about battery life but in case anyone's interested, I did hear from Canon regarding the matter.
So, according to Canon, they don't have any specific data on how long a battery will go until dead while it sits in your camera on your shelf unused. They do of course recommend you don't store your camera for long with the battery in it and I wouldn't but unexpected circumstances struck me. Anyway, with six days of leaving my 7D and 5D3 unused with fully charged batteries (difficult to do now that I'm back in the game), the 7D reports 98% charged and the 5D3 97% charged. Canon agrees (though they don't have "data" on normal) that this appears normal as any time they've seen real problems, it's because the battery has gone down drastically in far less time. 
While it's only a matter of a few percentages, it's just another reason to charge em before you use em I guess. Now, on to using the darn cameras instead of wasting time looking at battery percentages  !


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## Hugo Fisher (Apr 3, 2013)

I do simply over 2500 pictures per single charge of an original 5D3 battery. The record which I had was over 2700 pictures..

I think that 5D3 battery is just amazing. I am not switching the camera off between shots or something. I just do not look at every picture which I had taken. Because I do not need to.


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## Krob78 (Apr 4, 2013)

jabbott said:


> Krob78 said:
> 
> 
> > Is it possible that AI Servo could drain them more quickly? I do notice that often times I'm holding that back button down for a while at times, waiting for certain images... I do it with my 7d though too, it's also configured for back af-on button focusing on mine...
> ...


I think that's it in my situation. I think the AI servo combined with the more powerful AF system must be draining my system quicker. The 7d AF is good but not nearly as powerful as the one on my 5d3, based on my keeper rate. I'm doing a lot of sports and bif, so I'm pressing that back button AF a lot... combined with the IS, I suppose thats the answer... I went out this last weekend and tried to let go of the AF button more and noticed a difference in the number of images I was able to take on the one battery... Enjoyed the post. ;D


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## Skirball (Apr 4, 2013)

For the record I noticed the same thing on my 6D. My 400D with old generic batteries last longer. But the camera is new so I've been playing with live view and wifi and whatnot and just fiddling with setups, so I attributed it to that.

One thing that could explain the large variance people are getting is how much people chimp and if you turn off the screen or keep it on the info screen when you shoot.


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## Rienzphotoz (Apr 4, 2013)

I have the same problem, battery drains within 4 or 5 days without any use ... But this only happens if I charge the battery with the charger that came with 5D MK III which is meant for USA switches (I bought my 5D MK III from USA but I love in Middle East) ... but when I use the old 60D charger to charge the battery than there is no problem.


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## Skirball (Apr 4, 2013)

Rienzphotoz said:


> I have the same problem, battery drains within 4 or 5 days without any use ... But this only happens if I charge the battery with the charger that came with 5D MK III which is meant for USA switches (I bought my 5D MK III from USA but I love in Middle East) ... but when I use the old 60D charger to charge the battery than there is no problem.



Well that's interesting. Do the new ones trickle charge after the green light comes on? Or maybe just stopping early? Neuro, come edumacate us on the inner workings of the Canon chargers, past and present!


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## Krob78 (Apr 5, 2013)

Skirball said:


> Rienzphotoz said:
> 
> 
> > I have the same problem, battery drains within 4 or 5 days without any use ... But this only happens if I charge the battery with the charger that came with 5D MK III which is meant for USA switches (I bought my 5D MK III from USA but I love in Middle East) ... but when I use the old 60D charger to charge the battery than there is no problem.
> ...


Hmm, that's interesting...


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## jabbott (Apr 6, 2013)

JonAustin said:


> Per the measurements made by Garfield, you aren't really gaining anything by switching the camera off, rather than just letting it idle. In fact -- particularly if you have sensor cleaning set to engage each time you switch the camera on and off -- you may be discharging your battery more than you would by just letting the idle timer do its job after each 1 minute period of no activity.


I disabled auto sensor cleaning for that very reason. When I was in Nepal for three weeks last year without ready access to power for recharging, I found that doing this and shutting the 5D3 off after shooting seemed better than letting it auto power-down. Then again, perhaps shutting it off just prevented me from tinkering with it and needlessly engaging AF. The CIPA standard (found at http://www.cipa.jp/english/hyoujunka/kikaku/pdf/DC-002_e.pdf) assumes one shot taken every 30 seconds, with a powerdown/powerup every 10 shots. The 5D3 is CIPA-rated at 950 shots, so that equates to approximately eight hours of continuous use. I was able to shoot a few hundred shots over a few days on one battery, so it doesn't seem so bad in comparison. Interestingly, the CIPA standard doesn't prescribe a power off time, they just say it should be an amount of time which doesn't change measurement results. So to the OP, it looks like the camera companies may measure off-mode battery drain, but only to determine at what point it isn't detrimental to the battery performance that they report.


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## Rienzphotoz (Apr 6, 2013)

Krob78 said:


> Skirball said:
> 
> 
> > Rienzphotoz said:
> ...


Interesting indeed ... I am not sure if it has anything to do with it being an American power compatible charger or if it is the charger itself ... I'm waiting for a friend of mine to come back from his holidays to test if his 5D MK III charger (also bought from USA) does the same thing.


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## Krob78 (Apr 7, 2013)

Rienzphotoz said:


> Krob78 said:
> 
> 
> > Skirball said:
> ...


I charge my 5d3 batteries in my 7d charger...


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## Rienzphotoz (Apr 8, 2013)

Krob78 said:


> Rienzphotoz said:
> 
> 
> > Krob78 said:
> ...


... and I charge it with 60D charger now


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