EOS 50D Dummy battery does not provide enough power to take pictures with the mirror up?

[Rosssiiii]

Hi everyone,

Yesterday I discovered that when I use the dummy battery with the Canon 50d and I try to take a photo the camera turns off at the exact moment it raises the mirror and remains with the it stuck in a raised position, then I reconnect the battery and the mirror lowers again.

There are no problems capturing photos when the camera is in live view mode because in this case it only has to activate the shutter.

I tried connecting the dummy battery to various 5v power banks and the transformed voltage is 8.42v, the one the camera receives, so there shouldn't be any problems but still this happens.

Perhaps more than not providing enough current something strange happens and I don't understand if it's the software side, however it's just a curiosity to understand since fortunately I was able to take photos anyway keeping the mirror always raised with the live view.

[Waddizzle]

“ 

I tried connecting the dummy battery to various 5v power banks and the transformed voltage is 8.42v, the one the camera receives, so there shouldn't be any problems but still this happens. “

Welcome!  

There is an obvious problem with your setup.  What make and model of “dummy battery” are you using.  It doesn’t sound like Canon branded gear.  None of it does.  

Canon Battery Eliminators use AC adapters, not 5 volt power banks. 

[Rosssiiii]

it's a product took on amazon, is not original from Canon and use USB. but probably my power bank don't give enought power to to raise the mirror and then shot, lower the mirror again

[normadel]

What is the "dummy battery" that you have?

[Rosssiiii]

it's a product took on amazon, is not original from Canon and use USB. but probably my power bank don't give enought power to to raise the mirror and then shot, lower the mirror again

[wq9nsc]

The peak current draw of the camera is exceeding the peak current capability of the DC to DC converter use to increase the voltage from the power bank.  When this happens, the inverter repeatedly shuts down and recycles until the load current is within its capabilities which is what is causing your camera to lock up.

Rodger

[Waddizzle]

In other words….

” [Your] EOS 50D Dummy battery does not provide enough power to take pictures with the mirror up. “

[Rosssiiii]

ok, when this happens can damage the camera ?

ok after that i have continued to take pictures with the live view mode, the kind of pictures i have took are for astrophotography ....so by staying in live view mode I don't think I have stressed the camera any more than I would have if I had been in normal mode, since by doing long exposures of 50 seconds for each photo and 3 seconds of pause the camera kept shooting, at least it saved itself from having to raise the mirror every time right ?

[wq9nsc]

Leaving it in Live View mode would be safer given what is happening because every time the inverter shuts down under excessive load, it can easily generate high voltage spikes.  Having it shut down over and over in the middle of an action is definitely pushing your luck so I would avoid having it raise the mirror for every action.  I figured you were likely doing astrophotography.

A better solution would be using Canon's AC adapter/dummy battery and powering that via one of the "Jackery" brand (what I use) or similar all in one battery to AC inverter setups.  These are very handy devices withr a lot of uses and I went with a Jackery pure sine wave model because they will work safely with anything within their rated power; a lot of units produce "modified sine wave" output and the spiky waveform from those can create issues with some electronic items which were designed for a normal clean sine wave like that delivered from commercial AC power and better quality generators.

Rodger