EOS 70D and internal battery problem?

[cbaeck]

First of all hello to everyone, I am new to this community, so I am sorry in case I have missed something...

Since I got my EOS 70D more than a year ago I am struggling with the same issue that pops up once in a while: When I have not used the camera for a while (but the main battery still has enough power), all date and time settings are gone. I then set it again and even in the menu it keeps on resetting to 1-1-2013, 00:00. After I have been shooting some pictures and have not turned off the camera in between (let's say for 30 mins), the camera keeps the date and time settings. When switching it off again over night, all settings are lost again.

I was several times at a Canon dealer, however there the issue could never be reproduced - obviously when I was checking about the issue at home it started to build up enough energy to keep the date and time when this was tested by the dealer.

As the internal battery does not seem to be user-replaceable anymore - what shall I do now? Is anybody else having a similar issue?

Thanks and best regards,

Chris

[ebiggs1]

The date/time is indeed built in.   When fully-charged, the date/time can be maintained for about three months. Recharge time for backup battery is approx. 8 hours.  You are probably not using the camera enough to fully charge it. 

[TCampbell]

Are you leaving the LC-E6 battery stored inside the battery compartment when the camera is not in use?

The internal battery is supposed to take it's charge from that "external" (LC-E6) battery.  If you are removing it, then I'd say you aren't allowing the internal battery to come up to a fully charged state.

Sometimes rechargeable batteries need a few cycle attempts to get them to take on a charge if they've been allowed to drain down to an empty state.  Someone in-the-know from Canon would probably have to tell us what battery technology the internal battery uses and if there are any electronics that control it's ability to charge.  

This can happen with the LC-E6 battery too.  You pop it on the charger... and after a couple of minutes the charge light flashes indicating a charging error.  But if it really is a somewhat new battery you can remove and re-insert it a handful of times (because the charger will always try to charge it for a minute before testing to see if it's taking on a charge and, if not... will flash the error light and give up).   Repeating the cycle a few times gets just enogh of those "roughly" 1 minute charges that it gets it over the hump and the thing will FINALLY start to take on a real charge.

Of course you are talking about the internal battery... not the external battery.  But if technology is the same then it may have the same issue.  If so... it may be that you have to insert the LC-E6 battery... wait 2 minutes, remove it... wait 1 minute... insert it... wait 2 minutes... and do that 3 or 4 times just to get that internal battery enough of a tiny charge that it will FINALLY accept a full charge.  Basically it's a form of reconditioning the battery.

Again... I don't _know_ this to be the case, but I do know the LC-E6 battery can do this so I'm guessing the internal battery may be refusing to take on a charge until it gets a few tries.

[cbaeck]

Thanks for your answers so far - let me add a few details which were missing in my initial post:

- I have the LP-E6 battery usually charged and installed in the camera when not using the camera. So over the last year the internal battery should have had enough time to charge.

- I saw the topic with charging the LP-E6 on my batteries too and this is what I have done with the LP-E6 as well. I have however not tried this with the camera and the internal battery so far, so I might give this a try.

Thank you so far, will kep you updated.

[ebiggs1]

You are just not using the camera long enough.  Does the 70D have a 'power down' setting you can disable for a while?  If it does do so.

[jvidia]

Hello!

I have a similar problem with my 6 month 70D that I rarely use .... when I put the main battery for charging, and then put it on the camera the date/time must be inserted again ! 😞

My question is .... the internal "date/time" battery only charges when the camera is in use/ON?

Leaving the main battery in the camera, but the camera OFF dosen't charge the internal date/time battery?

Thanks,

Jorge