Battery Charging

[TheRoff]

Today was a fairly typical photo outing for me. I shot about 200 images with the 5DmkII and about 100 with the 30D. I started the day with freshly charged batteries in both. Both battery indicators are still showing a full charge. I rarely look at the images in the LCD except for a quick glance at the histogram immediately after shooting.


My question is what charging routine is best for the batteries? I suspect that tomorrow I may shoot 50 to 100 images with each camera. Should I recharge or let them drain to near zero? I do have a back-up battery for each.


Thanks in advance for your knowledge.


Larry

[Atomhot]

I leave my five BP511's partially charged between use. The night before a shoot I top off two or three of them ( N + 1 ). I don't fully deplete them, nor do I leave them fully charged for storage.

[Julius]

On a full charge, you should be able to shoot at least 800 images as long as you are not shooting in RAW.

[STL]

My question is what charging routine is best for the batteries? I suspect that tomorrow I may shoot 50 to 100 images with each camera. Should I recharge or let them drain to near zero? I do have a back-up battery for each.

Lithium-ion batteries don't need to be depleted between charges, as they don't have the "memory effect" of the older Nickel-Cadmium. Still, they are supposed to last around 3 years and start to lose charge capacity after that. This is caused by the very nature of this kind of battery and can't be prevented.


They also don't need to be charged for 24 hours the first time. Somehow, this B.S. is still repeated to customers, even though this applied to the batteries made like 10 years ago (Ni-Cads again). When you first charge them, you can take them off the charger when the green indicator lights up.


A good resource for battery info (albeit being slightly technical) is Battery University


STL

[Julius]

I prefer to drain the batteries completely before recharging them. Since you have a back up battery anyway and usually only shoot an average of 200 shots each time you go out, you shouldn't have a problem of your battery running out of steam.

[Oren]

Julius, with lithium batteries you can charge them *whenever* you want - you don't need to drain them completely at all. I even heard that you'd better charge them BEFORE they are completely drained.

[Maleko]

True, battereis aren't liek they used to be :P

I let mine go low before I charge it in every day use, but i always make sure its fully charged when going out for the day or to a wedding etc.

[STL]

I even heard that you'd better charge them BEFORE they are completely drained.

Actually, there is a control chip on the battery that will shut off the output if the voltage is too low to prevent you from damaging the battery. If a li-ion is discharged completely, it becomes unusable and can't be charged again.