sx510 battery question

[Frankz]

How long will the sx510 maintain menu settings I've made, when I take the battery out to charge it?

[Skirball]

I have no experience with the specific model you're referring to, but most cameras have a second small battery on the circuitboard that will maintain settings and whatnot even when the main battery is dead/removed.  The battery is usually lithium and has a long lifespan - on the order of years.  But I believe it uses the main battery to recharge it periodically.  I'm unsure on that point...  but to your main question, a dead battery shouldn't delete your settings.

[John_]

If you leave the battery out for about 3 weeks the rechargable built in date time battery will go dead and you will loose the date/time setting. It will recharge completely in about 4 hours with a charged battery pack installed.

There is no metnion of loosing the settings that you selected with the battery out fo more than 3 weeks and a dead date/time battery. Either they are written to non-volatile ram and will never be lost or Canon failed to mention that.