Canon 5D Mk4 power problem

[Goguag]

Hi, bought a new 5d 4 2 weeks ago in Berlin, Germany (i am based in Tbilisi, Georgia). After bringing it to Tbilisi and testing it properly forst time, i found out, it drains a battery incredey quickly. The bigger problem is that the battery dies even if the camera is Off. Tried changing rhe battery, turning off GPS, wi-fi and Touchscreen but still, the Turned-off camera totally kills a fully charged battery in approximately 2 hours.

I’ve been a professional canon user for 6 years alrady and never had/heard an issue like this neither with MK2 nor MK3.

Did anyone of you had a same issue or do you know how to deal with it? I also contacted the shop which told to use my warranty with any international cannon support center worldwide, which i tried in Tbilisi, Georgia and got an answer, that they only support caneras bought locally (bull**bleep**, is not it?). So before i decide to take or send it to nearby country for support, maybe someone here knows about the problem.

And yes, i emaled Cannon international support a week ago and i have not got an answer yet, despite te fact that they should answer within 4/5 working days.

Thanks in advance.

[TCampbell]

GPS Mode 1 will kill the battery -- that's the mode that keeps the GPS on even if you switch the camera off.  The idea is that it takes a couple of minutes to acquire a GPS position fix.  If you temporarily power off your camera (suppose you just power it off, swap a lens, and power it back on) then you might not GPS positions available for a couple of minutes.  GPS mode 1 keeps the GPS on at all times so that you never have to worry about not having a GPS position fix -- it will already have a fix as soon as you power on the camera (because the GPS was never off).

GPS Mode 2 (which is what I use) will turn off the GPS if you use the power switch to turn off the camera.  If, however, the camera goes to sleep (auto power-off) it actually keeps the GPS running (although I think it reduces how often it updates it's position).

The other radios (WiFi & NFC) are off when the camera is off -- they wouldn't explain the battery drain when the camera is off. WiFi will use a bit more power when the camera is on.

Have you tested the battery outside the camera (e.g. is there a problem with the battery where it would self-drain even if not inserted in the camera?)  E.g. charge it up, leave it out of the camera for a day, insert it into the camera and verify the battery level just to make sure this isn't just a bad battery.

As for warranty, I don't know how that works over there.

This is a community forum run by Canon USA.  Most everyone here are customers just like you (not employees of Canon). 

[Goguag]

Thanks for your comment. 

Re. if i tried to test the battery outside the camera. Yes, i tested it with my old mk3 and it worked well. I also tried to put another batteri in mk4 and it still drained it.

But something interesting happened recently. I supposed there could be something about GPS (although i had it off). I just turned the camera back on, turned on the gps, than turned it off and left the camera OFF over night with no lens attached and no card in it. The battery was fully charged in the morning. now going out to test it again and hopefully it will work (no idea).

[TCampbell]

I have heard of 3rd party lenses and battery grips causing a drain.  I’ve never heard of this with a Canon lens.  

I’d probably test it overnight with lens attached just to make sure it isn’t a problem with the lens.  If it isn’t the lens, then it likely points to a glitch in the GPS menu .... showing that it was ‘off’ when it was really ‘on’ and your toggling the setting corrected it.

Hopefully it stays fixed for you.  I’ve had my 5D IV for quite a while and have never had an issue with battery drain.

[Goguag]

So, i teated it again. It worked well on the field. 3 hours of work, no drain. But the battery came to half as soon as i turned it off. And drain stopped as i removed the Card from the camera. So now i am assuming it’s the card issue. Tested several cards, both SD and CF. But i still don’t understand how card can drain a battery or what can be a sollution in this case.

[DJ_Photo]

I observed that the battery drains about 13% within 30min when just the display is on at medium brightness. Compared with smart phone it is in my perspective too high. Considering that a smart phone battery has only half of the capacity, but two times higher display area, the smart phone battery would be empty in less than two hours with that display power consumption I observed on my copy of 5D MkIV. GPS and WiFi were both off and I removed all memory cards and the lens. SD and CF power consumption should be negligible in my opinion.

[jeger]

Check the GPS. Setting 1 allows the GPS to continue to work while it is turned off