Canon Powershot alternate power

Do you not use the power switch? Enable auto power off?

The cam can turn itself off, I don't see your problem.

Ah, no. You don't have this camera, otherwise you'd be using the standard 3V DC input jack, no? Much easier than drilling the battery compartment.

You cannot power the cam from USB connector, the 5V from USB is just a signal to the cam, not a power supply.

No, the powershot is 3V cam, 4V is too much for it. Standard power adapter is rated 3.15V at 2A, I have one ;)

If I wanted to bolt anything to a tripod for the cam I use a couple D cells in a holder, or run it from 3V down converter from a 12V SLA battery.

Grant.

pter

y.

thx, yes there is a DC in , sorry should have paid more attn before posting that.

as for battery life ...yes of course ii turn it off. as i stated before the FIRMWARE is eating the battery life. perhaps this post reguarding the A590 battery life will make things clearer.

....and it seems i have solved my own problem. the last post on the link above the person state he solved the issue of weak battery spring contact , so i just put a meter on the batteries i just removed and they both have 1.51v so obviously this is the problem.

what sort of shelf life do you enjoy from your powershot when not in use? its Ok to let sit for a couple months batteries in?

i do believe have suffered this problem since the camera was new and apparently thrown away a couple dozen good batteries.

i must remember to always check myself before making conlusions.

Are you sure you are using high power batteries? If you use normal alkalines the short, but high, current will wreck them pretty rapidly.

--
Dirk

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I dont have this model, but my partner does. No problem with leaving it for a month or so with batteries in. We almost always use NiMH batteries which have their own fairly fast self-disharge, but they certainly last a month or more when not in use. I would say yours has a fault. Have you tried measuring the power consumption when in the 'off' state ? Should only be a few micro-amps, just to keep the clock running.

--
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Adrian Jansen           adrianjansen at internode dot on dot net
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Don't store the batteries in the camera. The Cannons have very high power drain in the "off" mode. In my experience they will fully drain a set in about 2 weeks

3-4 shots sounds like the batteries are fully discharged before you started shooting. A set of alkaline's shout do 70 - 90 shots and good capacity NiMH about 270 shots.

If the problem is the batteries being drained during storage a lithium battery will not solve the problem. Instead it will be worse as over discharge is a killer of lithiums

Yeah, right, try:

By yours truly, I did do some work on A590 power consumption last year.

If you check the cam manual, it stresses the importance of clean battery contacts. Firmware doesn't eat the battery life. Quite a bit of power saving is possible.

Grant.

That's more likely to be the high capacity NiMH batteries don't hold their charge very well on light use. Try the Eneloop or equivalent NiMH technology batteries, they hold their charge for months of light cam use.

The huge capacity cells are good only if you take hundreds of shots per day. I gave away my high cap cells in favour of alkalines and Eneloop style cells when I switched to lower cam usage. Also done extensive work with time lapse and external power for the A590.

The poor little A590 cam expired after taking some 140k shots.

Grant.

If you don't mind the lower resolution, get an old Powershot Sn IS series. I have the S1 but it has a CF card, so you'd want the S2 with SD, or the S3 has more pixels. At any rate, I haven't charged the batteries in over a month despite moderate use (maybe 100 photos and two hours of video). Regular Duracell NiMH rechargables.

In case you don't already know, alkalines suck for digicams. Way too much internal resistance, especially with use.

Tim

--
Deep Friar: a very philosophical monk.
Website: http://webpages.charter.net/dawill/tmoranwms

NO! it was a couple of sets of alkalines.

If you're sure the cam is faulty and drains fresh batteries when off, send it in for warranty service. I sent an A470 in for a faulty SD memory latch and Canon sent me a brand new A480! Sadly, my A590 expired six weeks out of warranty :(

A friend bumped his A460 and it has the battery drain while off symptom, the cure is to stick a piece of the right sized (2.4mm OD) wire insulation plastic (the bit you strip off end of wire, need that hole in the middle for the pin) into the external power connector to open the power circuit.

Works for otherwise okay A460.

Grant.

I would second the suggestion to really clean the battery contacts thoroughly. When I got my A590, I had this same problem, but after carefully scraping off all the battery contacts, including the ones at the bottom of the battery slots, it worked fine, and has ever since. It's as though there was paint or something on the contacts, so while they looked clean, they weren't providing good contact.

I know of several other people who found this same solution, so give it a try.

I'll give it a try. Thanks!

I was thinking stepping up in resolution / quality. Video is not an interest to me. Thanks for the advice (also re alkalines)

get an old Powershot Sn IS series.