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

[bigal1000]

Can't you just turn it off or carry a spare battery?

[heyjp]

I always carry a spare battery, but I would rather the spare battery be a spare battery. 🙂 If you are a pro or use your camera daily, not a big issue. But if you weekend warrior, your main battery will be dead every weekend.

I am currently hitting the menus and turning GPS off after every use, but that's a bit of a pain. Sometimes I forget to turn on which defeats the purpose of having GPS. Or forget to turn off and main battery is dead in 3-4 days.

Might be easier to just take the battery out after every use, but that seems silly.

Jim in Boulder

[hsbn]

Or when you travel around a lot too. For example, sometimes I travel to 3-5 different places in a day to shoot. And they're often 30min to 1h apart. So if I forget to turn off the GPS every time I got into a car, I will loose about 20-30% (just my observation) of the charge. Also, taking photos with GPS on also takes more power. With all of those combined, 4 of my spared batteries sometimes cannot last me a weekend. Yes, it's not "critical issue" but it is nice to have an option.

[Sami]

I think caleb's idea of adding GPS to My Menu is the best option for the moment. The latest firmware from last December only fixes a Youtube issue. So, perhaps add it to My Menu and we'll hope for the best that the next firmware will have the C.Fn. function 7D5D mentioned. Or at least something similar.

[MicheleF]

I came "this close" to returning my camera today because the last 3 times I've taken it out, the battery was drained.  The first two times, I was sure it was my own fault - but this time, I knew it wasn't.

I came home and put a new battery in.  Then I noticed the GPS blinking in the LCD screen.  Aha!  Eureka!!  I did a google search, which brought me here, and while I do not like the answer, at least I know there IS a reason.

I too - shall wait for the firmware update.  And hopefully remember to turn GPS on and off.

But a question to those who DO use it - does it drain as fast in the field as it does sitting on my couch?

[heyjp]

Michele,

If you are in the field, actively shooting, it will drain faster than if GPS is off, but it will just knock 100 or so shots off your capacity. So you get 500 shots instead of 600 per battery. And I always have a spare battery in the field. In my book, it's not a field issue, but a storage issue. I don't mind changing batteries once during a shoot. I just don't like to change batteries BEFORE I shoot. 🙂

Jim

[hsbn]

It depends on your setting too. If you set it update more often then it drains more battery. I turned off logging to save some juice.

[Paw]

Hi All,

New to the forum and my 6D

The GPS implementation is a bit weak.

I agree it should turn off with the power switch or have a custom option to determine if you want it to. It would be better if we could choose which method works best for our workflow.

It would make sense to have it on the LCD like the wireless to switch on and off as well.

I am not too keen on the flashing GPS logo either. I keep thinking there is some other type of warning. Please make it a box outline if its trying to aquire a position and solid if it has but the flashing is a distraction.

I would sooner get the shot without a GPS location rather than miss it because i was distracted thinking I had a more important setting wrong such as exposure.

Great piece of kit but the GPS implementation looks like it needs more work.

Paw

[DaveLinger]

Just wanted to bump this thread up... I just got my 6D and think it's pretty ridiculous that even with logging turned OFF, it continues to poll for GPS location every X minutes. The default behavior should be that the power switch controls the GPS power as well UNLESS logging is enabled, in which case you would EXPECT a battery hit.

This thread was started almost a year ago and there hasn't been a firmware update to address this. I'm pretty disappointed. Maybe I can talk to the Magic Lantern team and see if this is something they can fix...

[hsbn]

I've used GPS more and more lately, and it has become extremely annoying. Please give firmware update with OPTION to turn off GPS when camera is off without having to disable/enable it every time.