New AA Alkaline batteries - camera says they are dead and shuts down

[olnacl]

I have a bunch of Ray-O-Vac AA alkaline batteries that I bought on sale some time ago, a year or two maybe. Retail packaging. I put them in a Canon camera and after maybe one or two pictures the battery warning message appears and the camera shuts down. I checked the batteries on a cheap Chinese battery tester (no load, I'm sure) and they are well into the "good" range.

Looking on the web, I found posts about my model Canon camera failing with that symptom. I called Canon and they said they don't repair my model camera any more. I went and bought a new camera and loaded batteries into it and had similar results. Yesterday I went to Costco and bought a 40 pack of Duracell alkalines. I put those batteries in and after a few shots, the camera seems to be OK.

I'm wondering whether anyone else has run into an issue like that where a battery tests good with a voltmeter yet fails under load?

I don't know if I'm out of the woods yet - I'll have to snap a bunch more pictures with the new batteries to see if I get the expected number of shots before they fail, but at first glance it seems the batteries were the problem rather than the camera.

Come to think of it, it seems, using those batteries in my MS wireless mouse, I have to replace them more often than usual.

[cbelt3]

olnacl-

Sadly the Ray-O-Vac batteries ARE "Cheap Batteries" these days. I would not be surprised if they were low quality. I avoid them.

[Filliam H. Muffman]

What is considered "good" by the voltmeter? Is it 1.20 V under a small load (which is nearly drained). IIRC, 1.382 V is what a new NiCd battery reads and 1.415 V for a new NiMH AA battery. I have a 7 year old Nikon and it now needs a fairly new freshly charged NiCd for it to not display low battery warning.

[space-time]

when I saw the title, even before I opened the topic, I guessed this was going to be about a Canon camera. Been there, done that. It is probably a combination of weak batteries and flakey camera. You can try the following:

-clean camera contacts really well (I heard a pencil rubber eraser will fit into camera and clean contacts inside well)
-try a better brand (Duracell, Energizer, Kirkland)
-try Eneloop. Even though the rated voltage is 1.2V, they are 1.4 when fully charged (and drop to 1.3V later) but will maintain that 1.3V under heavy load, unlike alkalines
-try the Ni-Zn (I think).Also rechargeable, higher voltage (1.65V) but lower calacity (only 1000 mAh). I never used these but I think I came across reports that these work in Canon cameras. you also need a special charger

http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&keywords=nizn%20battery&page=1&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Anizn%20battery

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel-zinc_battery


-finally, thy those Energizer Lithium batteries, they start around 1.7V IIRC and have a much higher capacity than alkalines. not a cost effective soltion in the long term though

[Forrest]

On your Canon camera - see if there's a setting for battery type and if so, make sure it's set for Alkaline. A new Alkaline battery has a different voltage than a Lithium or NiMH or NiCd

[freeradical]

I had that happen with a Canon point and shoot digital camera - a 570is. It will not work with any battery. It quit working after only a few years. Amazing.

On the other hand hand, I have 30+ year old film cameras that work just fine.

[olnacl]

To respond to a couple questions: the new Ray-o-vacs measure 1.60 v while the new Duracell measure 1.62 on a multimeter. Question would be, what do they measure under load? I suppose there is a battery tester that applies a load, but I don't have one. Maybe when I have more time, I'll rig something up so I can check the voltage under a load - just add a resistor, light bulb or the like I suppose. Maybe a trip to the rat Shack is in order.

BTW, it IS a Canon A570is, but I got the same experience from a new (to me) reconditioned Samsung

[davester]

I'm wondering why you're trying to use alkaline batteries in a camera. Camera are high drain devices, for which alkaline batteries are completely inappropriate. You really need to use something with much more capacity for camera use. I would only use alkaline batteries in a pinch. Also, even if you can find batteries that last more than a few shots, it will be much more expensive to buy alkalines than to buy rechargeables.

[mikebw]

space-time wrote:
-clean camera contacts really well (I heard a pencil rubber eraser will fit into camera and clean contacts inside well)

:agree:

[freeradical]

davester wrote:
I'm wondering why you're trying to use alkaline batteries in a camera. Camera are high drain devices, for which alkaline batteries are completely inappropriate. You really need to use something with much more capacity for camera use.

That would be alkaline batteries...





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AA_battery