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Topic: IS verus battery level (Read 7361 times)
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Frank Kolwicz
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I have some non-Canon batteries that don't have the chip to talk to the camera/lens: is it possible that when a battery is at a low level there might not be enough power to run the image stabilizer properly? This assumes, of course, that the Canon batteries will shut off, if the power is below par for IS. This is with an EF600/4 LIS lens.
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Bob Atkins
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It's possible but it's probably unlikely. I'm sure the camera monitors battery voltage and shuts off when it's too low for the camera to safely operate. I don't know what the current draw of the IS system is and if it's enough to significantly drop the battery voltage. I doubt there is a condition where the camera will still operate if the battery voltage is too low to run the IS system.
I think the reason that some 3rd party batteries don't display a battery status on the LCD display is that they lack the built in data storage that the Canon batteries have and so can't store battery charge level data. However the camera does still look at the battery voltage I think, otherwise the battery would drain fully and that's NOT something you want.
That being said, anything is possible. Canon don't give out info on how they monitor battery state of charge and what criteria they use for shutting down the camera. They certainly don't run the battery all the way down because of the risk of corrupting data if it fails during a memory write cycle.
To be 100% safe, maybe get some 3rd party batteries with chips (assuming you don't want to spend the $60 or so for a genuine Canon battery).
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Frank Kolwicz
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Sorry for sitting on this one for a while.
If the camera can monitor the battery level with 3rd party, non-chipped batteries, what is the purpose of the chip? Just to add that little bit of hassle to the start-up sequence when you use a non-Canon product?
I thought that the chip must do something more sophisticated than that, although thinking about Espon's chipped carts, maybe it is just a marketing strategy to sell batteries, like Epson's ink.
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Bob Atkins
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The chip stores information on battery condition. It also contains a battery ID number I think. The charger can put info in there about how well it's charging etc.
The chip isn't needed for the camera to actually measure the battery voltage of course, so the camera can shut down safely if the battery voltage gets below a safe point.
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KeithB
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Generally the chips are also there to monitor charging and prevent teh battery from overheating or exploding (!) if a short develops in a cell. My wife's Mac just developed a battery problem where it got really hot, and the computer is signalling a warning to replace the battery.
She panicked and ran out and bought a new Air...
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Johnny
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She panicked and ran out and bought a new Air...
Women are obviously smarter than most men...!  |
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