Canon 1D II Batteries

boulderNardo · February 3, 2009

Well, here comes another newbie thread

Like mentioned in my previous thread, I recently purchased a 1D Mk II.
It came with original battery plus a spare OEM battery.

They SUCK.

Didn't realize that the 1DII still used NiMH batteries.
They are relatively low-energy, and are TERRIBLE in cold weather shooting (which is my bread and butter).

So. Question. Does anyone know of an alternative? Did anyone out there 'hack' the camera & batteries to use LiIon or LiPoly batteries? Is it even possible?

Thanks,
_Bernardo

patch29 · February 3, 2009

I have some original batteries that don't work well any more. I ordered two of these last week.

Camera Devices NP-E3 (2200mAh, 12V) for Canon
Part#: CD-NPE3
Price: $29.99

I have only shot with them once, but far better than the old ones. I hope to test them out some more in the next week or so. I had a friend recommend these to me and he seemed happy with his. He recommended swapping out the end with the connector with the old Canon batteries to get a better fit, but so far the new ones have fit well for me.

ziggy53 · February 3, 2009

The Canon 1D, 1D MKII/MKIIN, 1Ds, 1Ds MKII all share the same battery and the same problem with the battery in very cold weather. The "normal" solution is to carry a number of spare batteries and to use a method of some sort to keep the spares warm and then swap batteries frequently.

Modern disposable hand warmers are often used for the heating mechanism.

Another more ambitious method is to use an external battery of "any" suitable composition and capacity and plug that into the camera via the DC Coupler and suitable cords. (The DC coupler is part of the DCK-E1 kit and was part of the original contents of the camera box.)

I could swear I saw an article which detailed one such application but I cannot find it just now.

Canon Professional Services may be able to provide some support and assistance.

ziggy53 · February 3, 2009

I found a reference to Canon cameras and cold weather at the link below. The information is from Chuck Westfall, the Director of Technical Information at Canon USA.

Basically he says, "1-Battery performance drops off as the temperature falls below freezing. Nickel metal hydride and lithium-ion battery packs are better than alkaline batteries in this situation, but even the lithium-ions will eventually stop working once they've chilled long enough. By this point, at least one 3rd-party developer (Digital Camera Battery) has produced an external battery that can connect to the EOS-1D through the supplied DC Coupler, but I don't expect Canon Inc. to either condone this or to make one of their own.*

In the meantime, the best strategy is to carry a few fully charged spare NP-E3 packs inside your coat, where they can be kept warm and exchanged for the cold batteries from time to time as necessary."

http://www.birdsasart.com/bn126.htm

*(Arthur Morris notes, "Important Note: A participant on last week's San Diego IPT fried his 1Ds while using an external power source, and I did the same to a 550 flash a while back. In the latter case tiny flames and lots of smoke came pouring out of the battery compartment accompanied by plumes of smoke! My understanding is that the voltage is too high! AM")

ziggy53 · February 6, 2009

The appropriate "Digital Camera Battery" product for the Canon 1D series cameras appears to be the DCB6075 cable plus the appropriate model of the "Digital Camera Battery" which ranges from 40 watts to 160 watts.

Using the appropriate cable is important to proper voltage selection.

http://www.digitalcamerabattery.com/
http://www.digitalcamerabattery.com/PDF_Documents/DCB6075.pdf

ziggy53 · February 6, 2009

It also looks like Quantum makes compatible batteries and cables to work with the Canon 1D series cameras. For the 1D MKI it looks like the:

Turbo C and YDC6
Turbo 2x2 and SD6

... will both work.

http://www.qtm.com

ian408 · February 6, 2009

I've had my mkII out in the snow in the past. I use the hand-warmer method to keep the batteries warm.
Put the batteries in a towel to keep them warm. Layer them in the towel using something like this a layer or two above the batteries. The trick is to keep them warm, not hot. Wrapping them is often good enough if you'll be outside for a short time. It's also a good idea to keep the camera warm while you're outside as well by wrapping it in something--careful how you do this as there's a danger that temp extremes will cause condensate to form.

boulderNardo · February 6, 2009

Thanks for all the suggestions people!

I have been shooting in cold weather conditions for a few years now, with my 20D and 40D and their lithium batteries. Shooting in freezing Colorado winters (reaching -25F at times) I've learned a lot of the tricks you guys mention - hand warmers, towels, etc. I keep my spare batteries in a pocket in my innermost layer, near my stomach, and they're usually warm when I pull them out. Worked perfectly for the 40D's lithium batteries.

However, this simply doesn't work with the 1D's NiMH packs. Even though I keep the spare pack warm, within 2 minutes of putting it in the camera it goes to sub-zero temps and I barely get 150 shots per pack ...

Thanks for the links, ziggy! Those are absolutely extremely helpful, might have to get something like that!

ian408 · February 6, 2009

How old are the batteries?

If they're older, you might consider www.batteries.com. For $25, you can get a new one.

Canon 1D II Batteries

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