Unusual rapid battery drain with 5D III

[AlanF]

Last night during FoCal calibrations, the LP-E6 ran down very quickly. I ignored the problem, and put in a freshly charged battery, whihch also ran down in 30 minutes or so. Today, I put in a charged battery, which dropped to 92% after 78 shots at lunchtime. This evening, I noticed that despite not being used, but the camera being left turned on, it had dropped to 46%. Previously, the various batteries have been fine. Has FoCal set something in the camera or what? Any advice please.

ps Last night I was using a 300mm f/2.8 II with a 2xTC III, today with the 1,4XTC III

[neuroanatomist]

Hmmm...not sure what it could set to cause that?  What lens was mounted?  (I ask, becasuse I just read another post about a user needing to send a Tamron lens back to the the manufacturer for a firmware update, as it was draining the battery even with the camera turned off...

Else, perhaps try resetting the camera to the default settings (Setup menu 4 -> clear all camera settings) and see if that eliminates the drain.

[rs]

You don't happen to have magic lantern installed on there?

[AlanF]

No magic lantern. But, it was plugged into the computer during the FoCal tests and come to think of it I probably left it plugged in after downloading and rushing out.

[prjkt]

Hmmm...not sure what it could set to cause that?  What lens was mounted?  (I ask, becasuse I just read another post about a user needing to send a Tamron lens back to the the manufacturer for a firmware update, as it was draining the battery even with the camera turned off...

Else, perhaps try resetting the camera to the default settings (Setup menu 4 -> clear all camera settings) and see if that eliminates the drain.

Had this same issue personally with a 6D/tamron 24-70 - new lens, no problems

[kubelik]

No magic lantern. But, it was plugged into the computer during the FoCal tests and come to think of it I probably left it plugged in after downloading and rushing out.

that's probably what did it. when I forget to unplug my 5DII after downloading images to the computer the battery drains fairly quickly.

[Harv]

Card readers are cheap and it's a lot easier on the camera.   

[Benhider]

I just got my mark iii back from Canon as it was showing Error 80. They said they fixed the problem, but then the battery was draining really fast too. Turned out the technician had switched the auto power off setting to never. Changed it to 4 minutes and I'm fine again. Don't know if that helps? Platinum CPS to the rescue

[Chris Geiger]

When you plug it into the computer the camera can't sleep so it uses a lot of battery. I see the same thing with my  5DIII's. When I unplug them, I can shot all day with them. At weddings I don't every turn them off, I leave them on all day and get well over 1000 photos per battery.

[AlanF]

Thanks for all your comments. There was zero battery drain overnight when turned on but not connected to the computer. The puzzle is why the battery drain is so great when plugged into the laptop - I drained two batteries during an hour of FoCal.