1DsmkIII LP-E4 battery calibration

[tonybrown]

<p>I bought my 1DsmkIII in 2008. After about a year the camera indicated the battery should be recalibrated. I recalibrated the battery - but the camera has continued to recommend recalibration ever since. Now over three years since purchase the camera and battery perform well. I get over 600 shutter counts per charge even though I use the battery to download photographs. My neighbour has had an identical experience with his 1DsmkIII. We suspect a problem with the 1DsmkIII firmware. Our primary concern is that recalibration does not cancel the recalibrate message. Does anyone else have a similar experience? I have talked to Canon - who would naturally like to sell me a new battery! But at the present shutter count the battery is adequate. Does anyone else have this problem? Thanks in advance. Tony</p>

[scott_ferris]

<p>I have had that with a couple of my 1Ds MkIII batteries too.</p>

<p>But recalibration does nothing to the battery, it just adjusts the levels to give accurate available power figures. For instance, if the battery was 2,300mAh when new, when you got down to 1,150mAh the level indicator showed as 50% left, but when the capacity, through age, goes down to 2,000mAh 50% doesn't show until 1,000mAh is left.</p>

[tonybrown]

<p>Scott: thanks for the input. I agree, recalibrate does not change the battery. What puzzles me and others is why, after recalibration, the camera immediately recommends recailbration? After all recalibration takes a lot longer than simple re-charging.</p>

[steven_crist]

<p>I have firmware 1.1.4 in my 1DS3 (which I believe is the newest) but wasn't aware that had anything to do with battery issues. I have two spare batteries I rotate usage and all typically get over 1000 shots. I also have a 1D3 and get about the same in that body too. Usually battery life is such a non-issue I don't concern myself. I only perform a calibration when I get the message. I may be wrong but I thought the calibrate message came up on a schedule of a certain number of charges versus actual battery condition. My batteries are all about 3 years old now so I may watch them a little closer.</p>

[zml]

<p>600 shots on a charge? Seems very low... On every 1Ds3 I use (my own + 4 other bodies) I routinely get 1500-1700 shots from 3 year old batteries so there must be something wrong with your batteries, charger(s) or the body. I use only original Canon batteries purchased from a reputable dealer (the fact that the battery looks like the original, doesn't mean it is a real McCoy: I suspect that 10% of the population of China makes good living from knocking off brand name batteries...)</p>

[tonybrown]

<p>Michael,<br /> thanks for your input. The battery is the original Canon battery that came with the camera. As pointed out earlier, my neighbour has an identical situation with his 1DsmkIII and original battery. I don't suspect the camera body since it only started to request a re-calibration of the battery after the first year of operation. I don't suspect the charger since the charger has two independent charging circuits and both behave identically. I do wonder about the battery - which as noted is now over three years old - however we have experienced this identical probem on two separate cameras and batteries - a problem which in both cases began after the camera and battery were a year old. So I posted this issue to find out if others had experienced it also. So far, Scott reported it on two of his batteries.</p>