EOS rebel T2i battery is dying really quick. Is there a setting that uses the battery?

[martyg]

I replaced my battery in my 2  year old rebel T2i because the battery started dying a lot sooner.  The new battery didn't last much longer. I have the "Auto Power Off" setting to 30 seconds.  Is there another setting that will keep the battery / camera on or is there some other problem?  OR, is there a way to reboot the system to factory defaults?  Thanks.

[TCampbell]

Two quick questions:

#1 - Do you primarily use the camera's viewfinder to compose & shoot, or do you primarily use the "live view" function on the rear LCD screen to frame & shoot?

#2 - Is this is Canon battery or a 3rd party battery?

[martyg]

#1:  I only use the viewfinder to shoot; and #2 the battery is a Canon.  The battery was fine until a few months ago when I was adjusting some of the settings and I feel after that, the camera has never been the same.  Do you know if there is a 
"restore" function for the software?  Thanks for the help. 

[TCampbell]

Yes, see page 144 of your manual "Reverting the Camera to the Default Settings"

You'll activate the menu.  Navigate to the 3rd yellow wrench tab (icons along the top of the menu).  You'll find the menu for "Clear Settings", highlight that choice and press the "Set" button.   This opens a sub-menu where you can choose "Clear all camera settings".  There is also a "Clear all Custom Func. (C.Fn) option as well.

It's possible you changed the default sleep time to something much longer and it's draining power a bit more rapidly than you'd expect.

I asked about "Live view" shooting because that will definitely drain the battery faster than the viewfinder.

Also, I have _yet_ to have good luck with 3rd party batteries and I've had many different 3rd party batteries.  So far, _every_ 3rd battery I've ever owned (at least a half-dozen of them) don't last as long, self-discharge faster when sitting unused, and don't take as many charge cycles before they start to show their age.  I find it's best to just avoid them completely.

[martyg]

Thanks Tim, but I only have two yellow wrenches.  ???

[TCampbell]

I did a search at images.google.com for "canon t2i menu" and noticed that I can find versions with 2 yellow wrenches as well as 3 yellow wrenches.

Here's a link to your camera's manual at the Canon site.  

http://gdlp01.c-wss.com/gds/9/0300004289/02/eosrt2i-eos550d-im3-c-en.pdf

The instructions are on page 144 -- but it definitely shows that it's the 3rd wrench tab based on that manual.

This many be related to firmware version.

The last firmware for that camera is version 1.0.9.  You can find it here:  http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/support/consumer/eos_slr_camera_systems/eos_digital_slr_cameras/eos_re...

Updating firmware is fairly easy but they DO want you to have a freshly charged battery (and you said your battery is dying "really quick" -- not sure how long that actually is.  It takes just a few minutes to apply new firmware but it would be bad if the camera died before the update completed.