Power Usage of 20D while not taking photos

[dcheung]

So I was on a hike where I stayed overnight at the top of the mountain. I had

planned 2 fresh BP511A batteries for the hike and should have been plenty.

Before going to bed, I switched out the first battery and put in a fresh one to

use for the 2nd day. The camera showed it has full batteries and I turned the

camera off as usual.

 

The next morning, I wake up to discover that the 20D was on! The switch in the

back was at the ON position and the battery indicator says it's out of power.

EEEK! So, I probably bumped the camera to the ON position when putting it back

into my bag in the evening, but how the heck does it stay on and use power? I

have it set to auto power off. Even if it doesn't auto power off, is the camera

unable to sustain being on and doing nothing for the 4 hours that I slept? How

much power does it use up when it's not taking any pictures and you aren't

reviewing any pictures?

 

Luckily for me, the first battery still had enough juice left to power me

through the second day (while using the camera sparingly). Thanks to Digic II.

The 10D would have never made it.

[uriah]

"The next morning, I wake up to discover that the 20D was on! The switch in the back was at the ON position and the battery indicator says it's out of power. EEEK!"

 

The elves came by later that night and borrowed your camera ;)

[PuppyDigs]

"I probably bumped the camera to the ON position when putting it back into my bag in the

evening, but how the heck does it stay on and use power? "

 

If your bag was tight enough to engage the power switch, it was surely touching other

controls as well. MAybe it was focusing all night... I like my bags on the loose side. Easy to

get in and out and no button pressure if I forget to power down.

 

I've left my 20D on for days and the battery still worked fine and read full.

[ulrich_brandl]

Power usage of the 20D in "Auto off" is extremely low, I often forget to turn off the power switch at the end of a day. Even after several days I do not see a significant discharge. So my guess is either a defect of your battery or leak currents in your camera (or the hypothesis of Puppy Face is right).

 

Ulirch

[JeffOwen]

I leave the power switch on my 20D all the time and the battery is fine even after a couple weeks! However whenever I put the camera in or out of my bag I find that I touch the shutter release just enough to set the exposure and AF. Not a real problem but if your bag is tight and there is pressure on the release button in your bag then this probably is the cause of your battery discharge.

[ronald_moravec1]

I left my Nikon turned on for days in a dark place to see what would happen. No battery discharge. Canons can`r be much different.

[jcolwell]

I think Puppy Face has it figured out.

[steve_dunn2]

<p>With the camera turned on, set to go into power-saving mode after a few minutes of inactivity, and with no other controls being activated, power consumption is so low as not to matter; it's supposedly not much more than having the thing turned off (which still consumes a tiny bit of power, but not much).</p>

 

<p>The biggest reason to make sure it's turned off when you're not using it is so that if the bag, a curious critter visiting your campsite in the middle of the night, or whatever else happens to push buttons or turn knobs, nothing happens - no photos will be taken, no power will be consumed, no settings will be changed.</p>

 

<p>I turn my camera off when I put it away. I don't usually bother turning it off while I'm "using" it; if I stop shooting for a few minutes, it will go to sleep and not drain any appreciable quantity of energy from the battery.</p>

[johnson_d.]

I strongly suspect that the difference between "on" but asleep and "off" is that "off" simply prevents the camera from waking up when a button is pressed and that the power consumption is the same either way. I've notice no difference in battery life, which in incredibly long, between these two states.

[chris_laudermilk]

AFAIK Johnson is correct, off simply prevents an inadvertent wake up. I leave my 20D on & asleep for weeks at a time & return to a still-full battery. Either something prevented the camera from going to sleep mode, or something's defective.