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Unless otherwise noted all contents and images on this site are copyright © 2001-2008 Roger Cavanagh
and may not be used without permission.
Labelled with ICRA
|
Unless otherwise noted all contents and images on this site are copyright © 2001-2008 Roger Cavanagh
and may not be used without permission.
Labelled with ICRA
The advantages of digital photography are many, but one of the disadvantages is that you can't do very much without power. 
The 10D, like to the D60 and D30 uses BP-511 batteries. One in the camera, or two, if you have the battery grip, BG-ED3 - affectionately known as "Big Ed". The information that Chuck Westfall (Canon US) provides in his forum posts has been a source of material before. Here's an amalgamation of bits from different posts on the Rob Galbraith Forums.
BP-511's are lithium-ion batteries, and as such can be recharged safely at any charge state without significantly reducing the effective life.
Some batteries (like those in the 1D) must be periodically discharged completely to maintain battery life. This is not necessary for the BP-511.
The storage capacity of lithium-ion battery packs decreases gradually with use. Typically, the BP-511 can handle about 300-400 full discharge/recharge cycles without a noticeable loss of capacity. After that, performance, as measured in the number of shots per charge, decreases quickly and the battery pack becomes unusable.
The battery level displays in EOS DSLRs that use BP-511's change their readouts in 4 steps (full, half empty, blinking, nothing) based on specific voltage levels, which explains why limited shooting can produce a dramatic change in read-out.