PowerShot SX60 HS: Loses time and date problem

[fortunafoto]

Hi, when I change the battery in my SX60HS, it loses the time and date information.  What's happening here?

Thanks,

Bob

[Tronhard]

To clarify, is your situation that the camera being powered up, then turned off and a new battery installed causes it to lose the date and time, or has it been some time since you have used the camera with a battery before using the new battery?   
If the battery has been removed or discharged for about 3 weeks, the data and time will be lost.  Even if you put a new battery in, it will take about 4 hours to power up the EPROM to keep the date/time again.

[fortunafoto]

Hi, this is an immediate thing.  I take the one battery out and immediately replace it with a fully charged one.  The one that is removed is not fully discharged.  I always make sure that the camera is turned off before pulling the battery.  While I've had extensive experience with digital cameras, I've never had one do this.  In this instance, I started with a full battery, and was shooting heavily, 180 shots in about an hour (wildlife shooting), and the battery was down to the last bar when I finished. 

[Tronhard]

Thanks for your clarification.  I had an SX60HS some time ago, so this is somewhat from memory - I would suspect that the EPROM that keeps the date and time may be faulty and not holding the data.  Assuming there is a consistent energy supply, it should hold its settings.  The SX60 is an old camera and it may simply be a function of its age.  I would very much doubt that it would be serviced now, and if it is was, that it would be economically viable to do so.
So, I suspect that if is not critical and, if there are no other symptoms, then keep on taking shots but perhaps see this as a straw in the wind and start considering your options in case it fails completely.

[normadel · Accepted solution]

Ummmm, the simple explanation is that the internal date/time battery is depleted, so it does not charge from the main battery. So you lose date/time instantly if the main battery is removed.

The FIX would be to have Canon replace the internal date/time battery, but like Tronhard said, that's not likely on this 10-year-old camera. You have to ask Canon.

[fortunafoto]

Thank you, this is logical, and it's probably not worth the cost or effort to have the battery replaced.  My time goes back to when cameras didn't have batteries, built-in meters and all this other stuff.  A simpler time for sure, but not one I would readily want to return to...

[Sue77]

What is a "date time battery"?

[normadel]

Digital cameras, like computers, have a battery that maintains the camera's date/time setting when you remove the main battery. This date/time battery is user-replaceable when it runs down, or it's a built-in battery that is kept charged by the main battery. The built-in rechargeable battery does not last forever. When it no longer takes/holds a charge, the camera loses the date/time instantly when the main battery is removed. Same as if the user-replaceable battery is dead.

[Sue77]

Thanks. I think my gifted one might be too old to replace that.

[BurnUnit]

A couple of my older Canons had a small user-serviceable memory battery to retain the time and date settings. It should show in your user manual if that's the case for your SX60HS. Most newer models it seems use a more "built-in" battery or possibly even a capacitor that charges from the main battery to maintain memory. If it's a capacitor that's completely lost its charge, it may take a fair bit of time for it to "form" to where it will hold a charge again. Or the capacitor itself may have just failed.