topic PowerShot SX740 HS spontaneous power on = battery drain in Point & Shoot Digital Cameras

PowerShot SX740 HS spontaneous power on = battery drain

Lifer — Thu, 22 Jul 2021 17:39:10 GMT

I've had my SX740 since December. The battery life while turned off is really poor - batteries get completely drained in a week or so. I've noticed the camera turns on spontaneously several times per day in "Playback Mode" and powers down after a few minutes because it's not being used. These repeated power cycles are probably what's draining the battery. I have the Canon app on my phone, but it's not running when the camera powers up.

What would cause this? Should I send the camera back for repairs while under warranty?

Thanks

Re: PowerShot SX740 HS spontaneous power on = battery drain

Waddizzle — Thu, 22 Jul 2021 21:13:57 GMT

@Lifer wrote:
I've had my SX740 since December. The battery life while turned off is really poor - batteries get completely drained in a week or so. I've noticed the camera turns on spontaneously several times per day in "Playback Mode" and powers down after a few minutes because it's not being used. These repeated power cycles are probably what's draining the battery. I have the Canon app on my phone, but it's not running when the camera powers up.

What would cause this? Should I send the camera back for repairs while under warranty?

Thanks

I am not familiar with how wireless works on PowerShots. But, it sounds like your wireless connections in your camera are what is waking it up. While it may not be your phone that is doing, there could be another nearby Bluetooth device that is waking it up.

Disable all of the wireless connections in the camera when you are not using them, because they DO consume power.

Re: PowerShot SX740 HS spontaneous power on = battery drain

Lifer — Fri, 13 Aug 2021 20:04:18 GMT

Thanks for the ideas. Yes, turning off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth seems to keep the batteries charged longer.

I'm really disappointed in Canon with this design. One of the reasons I bought this model was for the somewhat seamless GPS connectivity with my phone (as long as the Canon app is running in the background on my phone).

Now, with camera Bluetooth off, I have to manually go through 3 steps to turn it back on, and back off every time I want to use the camera. I would return it if I was still able to do so.

A complete oversight by Canon designers on this one. There absolutely should be a mode that turns on Bluetooth when the camera is powered up, specifically to grab GPS from my phone. Why in the world would burning batteries while the camera is off be the default for bluetooth. The only reason for this is to remotely power on the camera via bluetooth. How many people need to use bluetooth to power on the camera remoley? This was a really poorly thought-through use case! I'm really annoyed by this oversight.

Re: PowerShot SX740 HS spontaneous power on = battery drain

Crowshooter — Thu, 01 Dec 2022 17:33:38 GMT

I, too, have been plagued by battery depletion during storage (non-use). I thought it was because a button was being pushed while in the case, but it happened with the camera untouched on a bookcase shelf. I will check the wireless settings and disable everything, as suggested.