Canon Battery Charger LC E6

Battery charger LC-E6, for the Canon 5D Mark 11 and 7D cameras

Canon (and other camera manufacturers), have an annoying habit of building equipment with a unique fitting so that if you need accessories you can’t employ parts made by rival manufacturers. This includes the very expensive lenses (for DSLRs), the flash units, the wireless remotes and even the rechargeable batteries. Worse still, quite often these new bits of kit are incompatible with some of the parts previously sold by that same manufacturer.

Generally speaking, canon lenses and flash units sold in the last 15 years fit most Canon cameras, though there might be a slight loss of performance with older parts on the newer equipment. However, the rechargeable batteries are quite frequently suitable for a limited number of cameras; and you have little choice but to fit the manufacturers own brand as the connectors and housing for the battery are formed to prevent other very similar looking batteries being used. No DSLRs and very few compact cameras will accept ‘standard’ batteries, so if you upgrade your camera and want a spare battery you are forced to buy a specific model (though you may already have apparently similar batteries, previously purchased but now incompatible, in other cameras).

Sometimes these changes in battery design provide real improvements in performance and sometimes they seem simply intended to extract extra cash from hapless punters who are upgrading their kit. And, as each rechargeable battery has a specific shape and connector arrangement, they all need purpose built chargers. This is the case with the LC-E6. It only recharges LP-E6 batteries for 2 Canon cameras (EOS 5D Mark 11 and 7D) and it comes in two versions, the LC-E6 (American model) and LC-E6e (European model with detachable mains cable). Speaking of shape and connector fit, the LP-E6 battery doesn’t fit the recharging unit in the way you intuitively expect. It doesn’t slide in from one end but has to be positioned very close to its connectors and then pushed down into the recharge unit before being slid the last 2 or 3 millimetres into place. This is fiddly and can be frustrating on first use. While it could be argued that the design of the housing and connectors might well have been made compatible with the batteries from earlier Canon cameras (and easier to fit to the charger), this LP-E6 battery is capable of a longer life and permits very rapid firing of the camera. Previous batteries might provide a less satisfactory experience.

I have the LC-E6 version and despite being designed for the American market I prefer it to the European version for its ease of packing. As photo 1 shows 2 silver prongs extend from the back of the recharger unit and these are spaced to connect straight into an American domestic power socket. These prongs are hinged and swivel to lie flat inside the body of the charger making it smooth sided for easy transport (photo 2). With a small and inexpensive adaptor attached (as in photo 3) it can be used in England, Europe etc. When travelling abroad I always have to carry adaptors anyway (for other electrical devices) so this is not ‘extra’ weight to carry.

The European version (LC-E6e) is also a smooth rectangle but requires a connecting lead to a plug and an adaptor if travelling abroad unless you also get the lead with the European 2 pin plug at one end. This is a minor difference, but one that could add a few extra grams to your packing. Of course if you own more than one camera and have to take separate chargers for each the extra weight is even worse.

The LC-E6 unit charges faultlessly and the state of the batteries charge is shown by a winking LED on the charger unit. From a slow (nearly flat) single flash, through a double flash (50% charged) to a faster rate of triple flashes (75% charged), until a continuously lit LED, shows full charge. Charging is reasonably fast with a flat battery recharging in approx 100 minutes, however, if you need to use it sooner that is no problem. The LP-E6 battery is capable of being recharged and used from any state of charge, without impairment to its future recharging abilities. In the parlance of those who talk about rechargeable batteries it has no ‘memory’. This ‘charge memory’ prevents lesser batteries being recharged beyond the point at which they were previously charged, until eventually they become useless. As soon as you think that there is enough charge in the battery for any particular task you can remove it and use it without damaging either the battery or recharge unit.

Even so, according to the manufacturer, the LP-E6 battery does eventually lose some of its power to hold a full charge (not that I have experienced this drop off in performance myself). So, another feature designed into the new LP-E6 battery is its ability to tell the camera how it is getting along with recharging. As it loses ability to gain a full recharge and deliver max performance it informs the camera, in terms of percentage capability. This is a different reading from that given from the LC-E6 charger which informs as to the % charge applied up to the battery’s maximum potential to hold charge. So a battery that has only got the ability to hold 75% of its original full charge will show a continuously lit LED on the LC-E6 recharging unit once that point (75%) is reached.

RRP is £80 .68 http://www.microglobe.co.uk are selling it for £38.80 Several other online shops are selling it for a similar price.