brought an "old" camera back to life

[Pete M]

last of the late great AA battery cameras!    got a free Powershot camera the other day (16mp and 16 optical zoom) stricken with the ol' Canon "battery dead" syndrome.  pop in brand new batteries and it'll tell you they are dead.  every time.  so I grabbed a 3.7v AA size battery and a dummy battery and behold!  it's alive!    (the 3.7v+dummy comes from my experience with Nerf blasters of all things.  more voltage = faster darts).  so now I'm not dependent on my old phone for snapping pics on my various adventures. 

 

 

[fiatslug87]

Nice workaround 

[Pete M]

thanks    it's nice to have a legit macro capable camera again. 

[Eagle]

That's a great camera. You got a helluva deal on that.

 

What's this about Canons and dead batteries? I've been a Canon guy since I bought a Canon FT-QL (35mm) at the PX in Vietnam back in 1968. I haven't head about this dead battery issue.

 

[Pete M]

it had to do with the powershot series.  from my tiny bit of research it appears that the threshold for "enough voltage to allow the camera to continue functioning" changes over time somehow.    maybe it's barely adequate from the start and then a tiny bit of resistance drops it under the software's line of no return?  I dunno, but I found the solution... MORE POWER!!! 

[MiNi Beast]

[strictlyxjs]

wow i didnt know that i have an old cannon powershot its a great camera but has the same symptoms brand new energizer or duracel batteries and it still says they are dead. ill have to try this. 

[Eagle]

So where you you find a dummy AA battery?

 

{Edit} Never mind ... https://www.amazon.com/Battery-Placeholder-Cylinder-Dummy-Setup/dp/B07QL5JFP7