08-27-2020 05:00 PM
I am using a PowerShot G7 X Mark III hooked up to a MacBook Pro 13" directly with an genuine Apple USB-C cable. I am finding that the camera runs out of battery after 2-1/2 hours and shuts off. I thought the USB-C would be enough to operate the camera indefinitely; apparently not? Any advice?
08-27-2020 05:13 PM
Many Canon cameras do not charge via the usb ports - the battery voltage is too high. You must charge the batteries in an external charger.
08-27-2020 05:49 PM
@kvbarkley wrote:Many Canon cameras do not charge via the usb ports - the battery voltage is too high. You must charge the batteries in an external charger.
Confirm that. And, I would advise buying a spare battery. Make sure it is a genuine Canon battery. Buy it from them.
08-28-2020 03:42 PM - edited 08-28-2020 03:44 PM
@kvbarkley wrote:Many Canon cameras do not charge via the usb ports - the battery voltage is too high. You must charge the batteries in an external charger.
This Canon does, and per the user manual it appears that the PD-E1 can power the camera while streaming. Unfortunately it seems that this is not the case with a USB-C connection to a computer (despite the fact that this should be able to provide ample power) and/or not when using the Webcam beta. I do get more than 90 minutes out of it so it seems SOME power is supplied, and if I take a break for an hour or two the battery is charged again, but this doesn't support my use case unfortunately. 😞
Swapping batteries isn't a solution when it dies after 2 hours and I've got 8 hours of meetings. Either I need to find a way to power this continuously (dummy battery?) or I've got to switch to a camera that doesn't have this limitation. 😞 That could be my EOS R with a dummy battery, but that feels like overkill especially with the glass I'd be using...
08-31-2020 10:50 AM
I think you are reading too much into the manual
You can only use the adapter to charge the battery, and not only that, there is the curious "except when shooting.." clause which says to me that you can't shoot or stream with the adapter, either.
08-31-2020 03:06 PM
@kvbarkley wrote:I think you are reading too much into the manual
You can only use the adapter to charge the battery, and not only that, there is the curious "except when shooting.." clause which says to me that you can't shoot or stream with the adapter, either.
As I read it, "you can use the camera while charging the battery without removing it" seems pretty explicit. 😉
Obviously this doesn't work for my use case, though. Does anyone know if dummy batterys work well with this camera? Otherwise I have to return it as it is rather expensive for a webcam that only works 120 minutes on, 60 minutes off...
08-31-2020 03:41 PM
The key is what is "use", all cameras have some subset of functions available when plugged into USB, at the very least you can download images, but not much beyond that.
08-31-2020 03:50 PM
08-31-2020 04:12 PM
It is probably because some folks will use older usb -> usb-c adapters which cannot supply the power.
01-05-2021 02:23 PM
Hi Chris,
I hear you! Got the camera today, set everything up and then realised that it is not charing while used as a webcam.
It receives power if I switch to an USB C - USB C cable but in that case Windows 10 does not recognise the camera at all.
The video quality is great. But there's no audio therefore I keep using my old webcam's microphones and activate its video too whenever the battery of my G7X runs empty.
Not what I was hoping for, but to shoot semi-professional videos it's worth the trade-off.
Best,
Phil
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