Camera saying "change batteries" even though newly charged?

drc

I have had this problem with all my digital cameras and I have never found out what I am doing wrong.

I now have a Canon Powershot A720 IS. Every time I put newly charged (rechargeable) batteries in it, they will either die within a few minutes of using the camera (and the prompt to change the batteries will appear) or the camera will immediately switch off with the prompt. I am using various brands of rechargeable batteries, all good makes.

Does anyone know why this happens and what I am doing wrong? Do I need to change the lithium battery too?

Stompa

Do your batteries work OK in other things? If not, it could be that your battery charger is not working properly.

victor2

Maybe your charger is not fully charging the batteries. Remember also that rechargeable batteries don't store well and lose their charge over time even if not used. Does the camera work fine with standard AA batteries in it?
Rechargeables tend to give a slightly lower voltage than standard batteries, but the camera should be designed to work off them anyway.

Edit:
Also rechargeables only work well for a limited number of charge/discharge cycles. You may just need some new rechargeables.

RussJK

Buy a cheap battery tester (such as this), and use a single channel charger (i.e. charge each battery individually). That way you'll quickly know which batteries are faulty.

If your battery charger needs to charge in pairs, then one faulty battery makes two not charge properly. If a device needs 4 batteries, then it's (at best) only working from two good batteries and will seem like none of them are working well. You'd need to approach it logically with a process of elimination to determine which of the batteries are good and which aren't.

You can see why it's much more convenient to just be able to test them, and to charge each battery individually rather than in pairs. Also those newer low self-discharge batteries are very handy (e.g. Enaloops, Recyko, etc)

drc

My battery charger is brand new. I bought it especially because I thought my old charger might be the problem. There doesn't seem to be any difference though.

RussJK

drc wrote: »

My battery charger is brand new. I bought it especially because I thought my old charger might be the problem. There doesn't seem to be any difference though.

As above, does it charge in pairs? Do you have a battery tester? All it takes is one or two faulty batteries to mess things up for the rest.

rockin_plumber

Some rechargeable batteries are 1.2v and Non-rechargeables are 1.5v

This could be the problem.

Dave_C_2

My Nikon camera has an option of selecting the battery type (Alkaline, rechargeable, battery pack) in the set-up screens - this may help.

What happens using regular Alkaline batteries in your camera?

It does sound as if you have duff batteries:
Have you tried the rechargeable batteries in a regular torch? The bulb takes about 300mA rechargeable batteries are rated 1000 mAH minimum so they should last an hour or two after a full charge.

Dave

thor

I have a canon A590IS and it is doing the exact same thing. I normally use NimH AA batteries and they worked fine for about a couple of years but now rechargeable batteries, even new ones are not lasting more than a single photo.
From googling it appears that opinion is divided about what the problem is with reports that the camera is faulty as well as some saying thaty you need to use non rechargeable batteries.
It does appear to work better with standard batteries but I don't really use the camera much so have not tested how many photos those batteries can take.
I think it is the camera's fault and for some unknown reason it needs more juice to operate the older it gets which is why new rechargeables worked initially but no longer do so.