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Re: Camera battery life during long trips

Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 2:02 pm
by RoguePhotonic
I have been trying to solve this issue also this year as I have a long trip planned. I decided on going with a Brunton Restore since it has an internal battery. Besides solar charging you have the advantage of on resupplies at resorts you can plug it in and bring the charge back to full so you have that spare from the start to charge gear. The trouble is that most people mentioned camera batteries and this is still a problem for me because I plan to bring a Canon G12 which takes NB-7T batteries and none of the chargers accept USB charging which is what most of these small solar chargers use. I cannot seem to find any adapters that will allow me to charge an NB-7T using USB so essentially I am back to square one. My only other tactic will be to bring an extra battery and charge them when I resupply at the resorts. Most people myself including don't go more then 10 days without resupply so an extra battery or two should get you to power. I still plan to use the charger for recharging AA batteries for my GPS so I will let you know the results at the end of the season.

Re: Camera battery life during long trips

Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 10:18 pm
by East Side Hiker
It amazes me how ignorent I am of all this stuff... But my different cameras do take different better pictures. The Panasonic can't be beat for distance shots.

Re: Camera battery life during long trips

Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 8:40 pm
by East Side Hiker
I still want to know if someone knows of a solar system that will charge batteries.

Re: Camera battery life during long trips

Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 9:10 pm
by RoguePhotonic
East Side Hiker wrote:I still want to know if someone knows of a solar system that will charge batteries.
What type of batteries?

Re: Camera battery life during long trips

Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 7:15 pm
by rlown
the Brunton 12v system comes with a 12v female plugin for a charger of your choice, which is usually AA or AAA (purchased separately, and adds to the weight). you might be SOL for specialty batts. If your camera has a USB plug-in, for recharge which mine do, you can carry that cable. I chose not to go Solar. 4 batteries: 1 camera.

I prefer to just standardize as best I can, carry extra batts as necessary, and deal.

Re: Camera battery life during long trips

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2011 4:16 pm
by Mike M.
If you are lucky enough to have a camera that uses AA batteries, there is a great solution: use Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries. They seem to last forever and they have the added advantages of being lighter than NiMh or alkaline batteries, they do not leach power over time, and they perform well in extreme cold. I use them with my Canon A620 and get average over 2,000 shots per set of four batteries. Pentax makes two DSLR models that can use AA batteries, the K-x and the K-r. With my K-x, I am also averaging 2,000+ shots per set of four batteries. This year I think I will take the K-x backpacking.

Re: Camera battery life during long trips

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2011 4:38 pm
by RoguePhotonic
I agree with Mike. In past trips I used nothing but the Energizer Lithium AA's. They are a superior battery in every way. Even with a heavy DSLR like my 5D2 one set of 6 in it lasted for a month on the trail. They can be costly but sometimes you can find deals such as I got them on Amazon for 6 dollars for a pack of 4.

If at any point you do consider rechargeable AA's I have heard good things about Sanyo Eneloop batteries. You can buy them with a USB charger that will work with a solar charger.

Re: Camera battery life during long trips

Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2011 1:46 pm
by fishmonger
RoguePhotonic wrote:I agree with Mike. In past trips I used nothing but the Energizer Lithium AA's. They are a superior battery in every way. Even with a heavy DSLR like my 5D2 one set of 6 in it lasted for a month on the trail. They can be costly but sometimes you can find deals such as I got them on Amazon for 6 dollars for a pack of 4.
I get them on ebay in 20 packs or larger, usually under $1 per battery. They last forever in storage

for my D90, I bought this thing to be able to replace batteries away from power outlets - it replaces the original nikon battery and allows me to use AAs:

http://www.amazon.com/Zeikos-Profession ... B001F8HRY8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Re: Camera battery life during long trips

Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2011 7:24 pm
by East Side Hiker
My cameras (elphs and elph-oids) don't use those sort of batteries. My cameras use little, narrow, squarish or rectangular re-chargable batteries (not a bunch of AAs that you throw away then they die).

Someone of all you photograghers out there must know what I'm talking about. Are there solar chargers for the type of batteries I have in my tiny cameras on the market?

Re: Camera battery life during long trips

Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2011 7:39 pm
by East Side Hiker
The battery on my Canon SD960 IS is labled "Battery pack NB-4l, 3.7V 760mAh(Li-ion)." The batteries on my other two elphs, and on my Panasonic, are similar, but of course all different sizes (thus each has its own sized charger unit). I can charge 3 of them at a time in my Toyota on the road, but once in the backcountry, I can't; and they die after 2 or 3 hundred pictures, despite my carefullest care to conserve energy. I could just buy extra batteries, but they are expensive, not like buying AAs at Costco.

That's why I'm inquiring if anyone knows about solar units that will re-charge them in the field.