HF M41 button battery replacement

[TomHirsch]

Hello, one of my Canon HF M41 camcorders has a dead CR2025 button battery.  I could not find info on where the battery is located.  The instruction manual, Canon website & online searches did not provide any info.  Please advise how to access the button battery in this camcorder.  Thank you

[Stephen]

Hi there!

What makes you think it has a dead button battery?

[TomHirsch]

Hello Stephen, the camera does not retain the time and date setting, and does not retain the selection to record onto the specified SD card, and does not retain other settings.  This occurs even when a charged camera battery is left on the camcorder.  This is one of 4 HF-M41 camcorders I have, and it is the only one to have this problem.  Thanks for any information you can provide.

[shadowsports]

Greetings,

This is what I found regarding the internal battery:

See page 182.

hfm40-hfm41-hfm400-im-n2-c-en.pdf (c-wss.com)

I did not find any information about its replacement either.  The manual does state to leave the unit plugged and turned off to recharge this battery.  After 13 yrs, its hard to say if that will actually resolve it.  I cannot advise on its location as there is no reference material readily available. 

[TomHirsch]

Hello Rick, thanks for your information.  I have charged camcorder batteries on this camera, and the HF-M41 did not retain the clock/date settings, and other settings.  Do you use DaVinci Resolve for most or all of your video editing?  What are the most effective, efficient, and quick/easy to learn video edit software products that you can suggest?  I do videos for TV news broadcasts and for charities, so I need software that will edit in time to meet deadlines.  Adobe Premiere Elements and VideoPad are the two products I have used.  Thanks for any info you can provide.

[normadel]

A CR2025 battery is NOT rechargeable.

Looking on Amazon I see batteries called LIR2025, which are rechargeable.

The manual says to recharge the internal battery by connecting the AC adapter for 24 hours. Then it says to replace the internal battery with a CR2025. 

This makes no sense. If the internal battery is charged by the AC adapter, that would be a big problem with a non-rechargeable CR2025. You'd have to get an LIR2025.

In any case, opening up the camera to replace the internal battery may not be an easy task. And the battery may be soldered or spot-welded in place. Better to see if Canon can do it.

[TomHirsch]

Hello and thanks for your response.  You're certainly correct that opening the camcorder is not an easy task.  There is a plastic plate on the bottom of the camcorder that is secured with 7 very small screws.  I suspect that the battery is under this plate.  But the screws are very tight, and my first attempts to remove these screws was not successful.  Before proceeding, I wanted to know for sure that the button battery was under this plate.  The button battery also might be under the camcorder's right side cover, by the handgrip.

[shadowsports]

Hi Tom,

In my opinion, the top 3 editors are Premiere, DaVinci and FinalCut depending on your platform.  No particular order.  I chose Resolve because I don't care for software subscriptions. I own MAC's too, but prefer Windows.  DR is a one time (lifetime) license.  It supports Windows, MAC and Linux.  The free version does 4K 60 3840x2160.  The paid version picks up at 4096x2160 > 32k, adds GPU acceleration and a bunch of other stuff.  The BlackMagic website has great tutorials, as does youtube.  I'm sure adobe does too.