Either my charger is wrecked or battery flat how to know?

[h_._jm]

<p>Hey people;</p>

<p>quick question I got the 5d Mark I</p>

<p>I noticed the charger and/or battery not working. Now battery also fully used and so I need to buy either a charger, battery or both. </p>

<p>If there is a much higher chance it's a battery that's dead I would prefer to buy battery only and try. Given the charger not been knocked or anything like that isn't it safe to assume it's a battery thing?</p>

<p>also pls someone nice tell me name of batter on 5D mark I is itcalled E160814 or BP-511A since that's what I see on the back of my battery. Also I want to buy the cheap Ebay one e.g. chinese for $10 rather than the Canon original at $60-80 any experiences there.</p>

<p>thanks</p>

[JosvanEekelen]

<p>Search the archives for info about reliable 3rd party batteries. In your case I'd buy a few 3rd party batteries, they are not that expensive. When you can't charge them your charger is at fault. Also check the power cord if applicable.</p>

[justin_m4]

<p>take the battery into a camera shop , get them to charge it , they will tell you .</p>

[dhbebb]

<p>If you do not have a multimeter (not very expensive these days) you can make a simple tester for the charger from a 12V automotive bulb (a 5W taillight bulb should cost about $2) and a short piece of wire. The charger outputs 8.4 V so the bulb will not be as bright as usual but you can see if the charger has an output. If the charger's OK then of course the battery is at fault!</p>

[peter_j2]

<blockquote>

<p>...pls someone nice tell me name of batter on 5D mark I is itcalled E160814 or BP-511A...</p>

</blockquote>

<p>BP-511A</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Also I want to buy the cheap Ebay one e.g. chinese for $10..</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Do not buy. The one I bought from eBay was smaller and moved around inside the Canon charger. Also, read up on eBay's opinion on the cheaper batteries. It could cost you your life.</p>

[yuri_yupiter3]

<p>Remember when there were local camera shops?</p>

[Marcus Ian]

<blockquote>

<p>Also, read up on eBay's opinion on the cheaper batteries. It could cost you your life.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I'm just curious about how somebody came to that conclusion. The absolute <em>worst</em> thing I've ever heard or seen a camera battery do was explode into flames. That cost the photog her camera, and some reasonably severe burns on her hands (of course she was using an OEM batt). </p>

<p>How even<em> that</em> (worst case) could cost you your life is a bit mysterious to me.</p>

<p>OP- I'd recommend buying a charger w/ a couple of those knockoffs. For the most part, they are as good or better than the OEM BP-511a s. But please buy one of reasonable quality, Amazon's reviews are a good indicator (as opposed to ebay) - you don't want it to explode, burn down your house, and kill your family (a logical conclusion right ;-) ).</p>

[peter_j2]

<blockquote>

<p>How even<em> that</em> (worst case) could cost you your life is a bit mysterious to me.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Think about it. Therefore, no need to explain.</p>

[Marcus Ian]

<p>I forgot to mention, due to the battery chemistry of the Li-Ion batts, you'll likely get far better results from a 'new' cell in a 3rd party 'case' than you will from a Canon OEM batt that's been sitting on a shelf for 3 yrs - I don't know if 'new' stock is available to order from Canon any longer, but I'd be pretty surprised if it was.</p>

[peter_simpson1]

<p>Electrical Engineer here. It's very rare for a charger to fail and typical battery lifetime is 4 to 5 years. I would recommend spending the money on a genuine Canon battery. Reason being that the OEM ones are of uncertain qulality, capacity and reliability -- there's no identifiable company standing behind them, and, as always, you get what you pay for (sometimes less, but only very rarely more).</p>

[arie_vandervelden1]

<p>Buy some batteries from sterlingtek.com</p>

<p>They are good quality and a fraction of the cost of Canon batteries.</p>

[kerry_grim]

I totally agree with Peter. Batteries ARE everything. Trying to save a few bucks with cheap batteries makes

no sense to me, especially in the long run. I would rather have two expensive batteries that are reliable

than having to buy four half-assed batteries which you may or may not be able to trust.

[Spearhead]

<blockquote>

<p>Trying to save a few bucks with cheap batteries makes no sense to me,</p>

</blockquote>

<p><br />What data do you have to show that cheap batteries are inferior?</p>

[sarah_fox]

<p>I agree with Peter that it's most likely the battery. Batteries do go sour after a while and hold almost no charge. As for the charger -- I once got an aftermarket charger (ebay, chinese) that I could plug into my cigarette lighter. It worked fine for a while, and then it started trashing my batteries. I tossed it out and no longer use non-Canon chargers.</p>

<p>I've had better luck with aftermarket (cheap Chinese ebay) batteries and have even found that they outlive and outperform my OEM batteries. So far nothing has exploded, and I'm pretty sure I'm still alive. The batteries I've purchased were constructed of made-in-Japan cells that were connected together, attached to terminals, and encased in plastic in China. It's really hard to botch up the Chinese part of the manufacturing process.</p>

[pictureit]

<p>Don't know if the batteries for your camera are chipped or not but its worth knowing that a spurious cheap battery can destroy your OEM charger. Happened me on my 1Ds Mkiii. I've no alternative but to use cheap ebay batteries with a cheap ebay charger now after charging the cheap batteries on the canon charger. It stopped working and a repair is seemingly not possible. a new charger is almost £300.00 new. Buy only OEM batteries is my advice.</p>

[poulbh]

<p>I got some cheap batteries for my 5D and the worked perfectly.<br>

I always charge my batteries about once month and after 1/2 year I was going on a 2 month trip to South East Asia and put one of the cheap batteries in the camera to test some settings and it ran out within 10 minutes. I tested all of the others (6 batteries) and only the original Canon batteries had maintaned their capacity.<br>

Luckily my son had the same camera, so I met up with him at the airport and borrowed 2 original batteries from him.<br>

I now only buy original batteries.<br>

PS: I also bought a chinese adjustable charger to be able to emergency charge batteries in my car. It worked perfectly but just stopped working after a year</p>

[jo7hs2]

Chances are pretty good your battery is dead. If the charger lights up and appears to be doing anything at all, it probably

isn't dead. I'll echo the comments several others have made...avoid knockoff and third-party batteries. I've had terrible

results with third-party batteries in my Canon equipment. No, they didn't explode, but only about half of them maintained

"rated" capacity for more than a few months, and almost none of them held a charge for more than a few days...certainly

not as long as my OEM batteries did. I look at it this way...you spent hundreds or thousands on that camera, so treat it

right and just buck up and buy the $60 OEM battery...but I only learned that lesson by spending $60 on off-brand

batteries first. I'm not saying that ALL third-party batteries are lousy...just that my experiences were lousy. I've used

SterlingTek and a few others, btw.

[jamie_robertson2]

<p>My advice is to avoid <strong>both</strong> the genuine Canon batteries and the el cheapo Chinese eBay specials. Go for a good 3rd party battery like those made by Ansmann or Samsung. They cost a fraction of the price of the Canon ones, are well made and come with good guarantees. I've just bought an Ansmann battery for my Olympus EP-3. It cost £9.99 instead of £50 for an Olympus one.</p>