Is this another 20D to send back?

My first 20D had enough dust on the sensor to grow a nice crop of

potatoes but it was replaced by the retailer This replacement has

performed well for four months but has now developed a power supply

problem. The battery indicator had been showing only the minimum

level for a number of days. Even with a newly bought and fully

charged battery the full indicator level was only present for a few

shots. Assuming it was a level indicator problem and one that I

could live with i set out into the wintry night but after a couple

of test exposures the crucial long exposures were ruined by the

camera completely shutting down during its busy period and doing the

same with the spare battery. Is there something I'm missing here?

Besides a few brain cells and the sense to have a spare body. Is

there some quick fix? Custom function 19 perhaps?

What type of weather conditions are you shooting in? Batteries usually have issues when the wind chill is well below freezing. A long exposure in those conditions would only multiply the problem i can imagine.

 

Is it just me or am I the only one with no 20D dust problems? I change lenses all the times outdoors. In 3.5 months of having the 20D I've shot about 6500 images and have had only one spec on lint which I dusted off with the blower.

 

<a href="http://www.rwongphoto.com">www.rwongphoto.com</a>

no Richard...I had dust on my 20D sensor when I bought the cam...simple bulb blower and it was cleaned...that was November of 2004, just cleaned it again last week...February 2006 for a piece of dust. I too am always changing lenses outdoors. I just am careful and swap quickly and keep the cam opening pointed down and sheltered by my body if any wind.

 

as for the power drain thing.........yeah, cold kills batteries like crazy, although yours seems rather excessive. does it do the same thing inside?

At the risk of triggering a cliche, "How cold WAS it?" Does the battery drain that fast at room temp? What lens were you using? My experience is that other than running the LCD for extended periods, the 20D seems pretty frugal with power use.

I bought two 20D's & sent both of them back. I was not happy with either one of them. The focusing was out on both cameras. & the dust was just incredible. For a new camera to have so much dust, I wonder.

 

For the money a very poor camera in my opinion.

 

I am waiting for the replacement camera to be released. Hopefully the quality control is much better on this new replacement camera.

Thanks for the answers but no one has answered my question Should I send it back? Temp was 2Celcius for long exposures but yesterday had similar problems in daytime. The camera just does not seem to recognise that it has a full battery . Having used a 300D for a year which produced some amazing results with no dust and no faults I was really looking forward to using a 20D. Clearly the extra money you pay for a 20D does not go towards quality control.

Clean the battery contacts in the camera. Use a Q-tip and alcohol, or, VERY LIGHTLY with a pencil eraser.

Thanks , i did clean the contacts and battery but to no avail. The story has moved on, the body now refuses to function with the spare recharged battery (independent make)and even with the original battery the lcd display sparks up showing minimum battery level but it refuses to take a photo when the shutter is pressed and then shuts down completely. It is going back today but Im not sure what to say if they offer to repair it, i do not know if i would trust it again.

Thanks , i did clean the contacts and battery but to no avail. The story has moved on, the body now refuses to function with the spare recharged battery (independent make)and even with the original battery the lcd display sparks up showing minimum battery level but it refuses to take a photo when the shutter is pressed and then shuts down completely. It is going back today but Im not sure what to say if they offer to repair it, i do not know if i would trust it again.

Just as a last check, do you have a voltmeter and could you check the batteries to make sure you're getting over 7 volts dc on a fully charged one?

 

If you are, that pretty well ties it up, and it's time to send it for service.

Are you using the battery grip by any chance? The grip has known issues with giving low

battery readings. If you are, I'll post more info.

The fault is all mine!

I have not been charging the batteries correctly. Please accept my appologies for wasting everyones time especially as you have been so helpful.Somehow i had contrived to slide the batteries in, activating the reassuring charging lights but without making proper contact with the terminals on the charger, i was always careful to leave them for an hour to confirm full charge but then on installing the batteries in the camera i stupidly assumed that the battery level indicator was faulty when it showed minimum. I should have had more faith in the camera and I feel i have slurred the reputation of the 20D unneccessarilly. I think i have learned my lesson and i hope my only punishment was the missed shots.

Thanks for your last suggestion jim that voltmeter idea of yours would have been a clincher. My trouble was that id moved the charger to a different position to the one i was used to. I couldnt feel the location of the battery any more only see the lights.

I'm a farmer and i have bought hundreds of 20d's to grow my spuds, infact i cant wait for the new model to come out so i can sow some beans and peas.

 

All of my 20d's had focussing errors so i removed my right eye and the problem was easily solved, and as for the battery problem, i just carry a kilo of plutonium in my pocket which not only warms me up on the coldest days but boost my battery power aswell.

 

Get a life you lot, my story is more believable than yours.

Actually, I had encountered the mysterious 'not-fully-charged' battery phenom, but in my case, it disappeared seemingly spontaneously, after swapping them around in the grip, and putting one or more of them back in the charger.

 

I'm aware of a problem with the grip pulling away from the body, but no other battery contact problems. This is the more recent grip, which can be identified (besides the serial number) by the gold contacts on the removeable AA battery tray. Is there something else going on with the grip I've missed?

 

As far as the 'not in the charger properly' idea, I hadn't thought of that angle. I'll look carefully at the battery/charger interface when I next think of it, and see if it is indeed possible to get an indication from the charger, but not have the battery in charge mode. That would be unusual, in my opinion, since I believe that the sense terminal is either integrated with one of the charging terminals, or lies between them, such that it would pretty hard to get the charger to lie to you about what it thought it was doing.

 

For reference, my charger is the one with the little fold-out wall plug prongs. I'm aware that the 20D seems to have been packaged with more than one charger type, the other having a line cord that plugged into the body of the charger, instead (same as the one supplied with the 300D I used to ahve).