6D GPS Drains battery when idle

[heyjp]

Got my new EOS 6D for christmas (present to self... how else did Santa know what I need want).

Great camera.  Love the low light.  Love the WiFi.  ALMOST love the GPS.  The GPS tends to drain the battery about 25% per day.  On a 8-10 hour heavy shooting day, that's not a problem.  I can still shoot 500-600 shots and the GPS only drains 8-10% during that time.

However, when the camera is in the bag... you can shut off the camera and shut off the GPS logging, and it still drains 25% per day.  Leave the camera in the back for 4-5 days... and the battery is shot.

Only option is to take the battery out or use the menus and disable GPS and re-enable when you use camera again.

I think Canon needs a separate GPS timeout of about 3-6 hours.  If GPS logging is disabled, GPS should shutdown after a few hours of non-use.

It's a drag to take your camera out after leaving in the bag for a couple of days and battery is already 50% down or more.

Jim

[heyjp]

So far, I've turned off the GPS.  Now battery drain is negligible.  Still at 97% charge 10 days after recharging and used the camera several times.

Of course, I've only remembered to turn the GPS back on once, so most of the shots are without the location. 

I do hope they put a timeout on the GPS or just have it go off when you turn off the camera. 

Jim

[ender78]

The reason for leaving the GPS on is that it can be slow to re-acquire a signal once turned off.  Leaving it on allows it to lock quickly onto the satellites.

[heyjp]

Yeah, but I'll take a couple of minutes to re-lock when I start shooting over losing 50% of my battery in 48 hours. Seems pretty "expensive". And, worse case, after a few shots the GPS is locked and I have a record of where the "roll" was shot.

Jim

[7D5D]

Sounds like a C. fn is necessary:

GPS state when power switch is off
0 = On
1 = Off
2 = Off after 60 minutes

[heyjp]

I'd vote for something like that!

Jim

[domina]

what happens if I take out the battery?

[heyjp]

Well, your battery certainly won't drain while it's out, but your camera uses a second small battery to maintain control settings and clock. Normally that battery does'nt get used much except while changing batteries. It lasts for a couple if years or more. But, with battery oit, I assume it drains much faster.

[caleb]

To make it easier to turn the GPS off, add the GPS command to My Menu.

Notice that when the internal GPS receiver is enabled, the LCD display shows "GPS" even when the camera is switched off. 

Between those two things, I think it's easier to keep the GPS in the state you want than to remove the battery every time you put the camera in your bag.

You can set the time interval between GPS location fixes. If I understand the manual correctly, more frequent fixes require more battery power. So, if you like having GPS on but want to minimize its impact on the battery, set it to the longest interval (5 minutes).

Finally, whether you use GPS or not, it's definitely a good idea to keep a spare battery in your bag.

[hsbn]

Wish they will release a firmware to address this issue. I want to save spare battery for GPS while shooting not when the camera is off.

[heyjp]

I did read a couple of days ago that a 6D firmware update is scheduled for May or June . Hopefully this is an issue that is covers!!

Jim