I have a 50D along with a 6D and 80D. I decided to give the 50D to my grand daughter. I had not used it in 18 months and when I took it out to charge up the batteries to give to her is when an odd thing started. All 3 batteries, 2 canon bp-511 and a sterling trek charge complete but when put in the camera it’s reads full and after 60-90 seconds it shows I bar and busy when I try to take a photo. Taking it slow it will shoot 10-15 shots and then pretty much grinds to a stop. All batteries were checked an an ohm meter as fully charged after taking them out of the camera when it says 1 bar. All 3 batteries do the same thing even though they were purchased years apart.meter shows the canon charger is working. Is this a camera issue, less then 5000 actuations on it was the 6D is used most of the time. Switched the cf card and put a new battery in for the clock which was the original, but no difference. Don’t think it’s worth sending back to Canon as any service would be $400+ and I could buy her a good used one for a couple of hundred. Any ever see this situation before an any EOS camera? Charlie
i don't think i can help much here but i have read that checking batteries etc is best done while under load, now that is from a car battery point of view so might be worthless info for the above. i have also had power tool batteries go ape shit when left un touched for a year or so, the cells inside them die.
You have had all batteries for some time right? If they went dead it can be quite hard to get the working properly again if they are older. Batteries like these should be kept topped off every few months in storage. The charger is probably thinking it is topped off but the battery is only thinking full is 5% of its capacity. I would get a new battery and see if that works fine. You may resurrect the battery after a few more cycles of charge and discharge, but do not count on it. Otherwise I completely understand the concern about the cost of repair.
Solved! Ordered 2 new Sterling Tek bp-511 batteries, charged both of them for 2 hours and put the new batteries in the 50D. Everything worked perfectly. Took about 50 shots and then put the camera down and left on for 2 hours. Went back later and battery still showed fully charged. Took about 40 more photos and then turned off. 3 hours later turned back on and the battery still showed fully charged. Looks like my 3 older batteries are heading to the hazardous recycling facility. But I don’t need to send the camera to be repaired. GREAT Charlie