solar-powered battery recharger? (Canon 20D /Epson P-2000)
troutstreaming
Registered Users Posts: 116 Major grins
Hi all,
Anyone aware of a portable solar panel battery charger that I can take on a 8 day rafting trip on the Salmon River for charging a Canon 20D and Epson P-2000 battery. I have two batteries for both, but figure that limits me to ~2000 images for the Canon 20D and 20 MB of downloads to the Epson (but that leaves me ~23 MB of hard drive and CF card space that would potentially go unused) That only works out to 250 images a day (Raw+JPG ~100 images/1 GB) and I usually do not exercise such restraint - especially as we are only going to be covering 10 miles a day on the river and will be doing lots of play boating, day hikes and fishing during the remaining hours. Rather than buying two more batteries for each device, I was wondering if there was a portable solar panel recharger set-up that would provide enough juice to charge the two devices batteries - and that had the ability to take a standard style AC plug. That way I could recharge batteries and have the juice to chimp/delete images in route.
Thanks in advance,
Andy
Anyone aware of a portable solar panel battery charger that I can take on a 8 day rafting trip on the Salmon River for charging a Canon 20D and Epson P-2000 battery. I have two batteries for both, but figure that limits me to ~2000 images for the Canon 20D and 20 MB of downloads to the Epson (but that leaves me ~23 MB of hard drive and CF card space that would potentially go unused) That only works out to 250 images a day (Raw+JPG ~100 images/1 GB) and I usually do not exercise such restraint - especially as we are only going to be covering 10 miles a day on the river and will be doing lots of play boating, day hikes and fishing during the remaining hours. Rather than buying two more batteries for each device, I was wondering if there was a portable solar panel recharger set-up that would provide enough juice to charge the two devices batteries - and that had the ability to take a standard style AC plug. That way I could recharge batteries and have the juice to chimp/delete images in route.
Thanks in advance,
Andy
www.troutstreaming.com
Outdoor and Sports Media
Outdoor and Sports Media
0
Comments
You are in luck!
In the '70s NASA paid millions for these output ratings, but you can have 50 Watts of Sun Powered portable power for only $575 USD, and that includes an inverter for AC output (which may or may not actually work with your chargers.) Of course, you might need 2 or 3 solar panels to get all the power you need, and they only produce full power in direct sunlight at noonish summertime sun angles. Other problems are, they are easily broken, kinda big and kinda heavy.
http://store.hutshop.com/77554020504.html
Other options, for the camera anyway, are to use the Canon vertical grip with the AA battery sled and non-rechareable Lithium cells (lightweight and they put out a lot of power for their weight and size.)
The best option is still just purchasing extra rechargeable proprietary batteries for each device.
Another option is to use an older film camera with plenty of film.
Good luck with any of your choices and bring back plenty of images to share here.
ziggy53
Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
My wife just bought me a backpack with solar panels that charge a battery which ouputs to a car charger adapter and other devices including cell phones, GPS units, etc. The equipment runs off the battery as the panels charge the battery. The battery also has LED flashlite with 55 hour capacity when fully charged. It is not designed to charge laptop batteries.
I just got the rig and will be taking it out on a trip to Arches National Park in Utah next week. I will be using it to charge D70 and AA batteries and run my GPS and Flashtrax hard drive. This will be a full field test for longer trips in the future.
The only test I have done is charge a D70 battery while the pack sat in the back yard in full sun (Phoenix sun that is) not on my back while walking. Was able to recharge D70 battery before spare ran low.
The manufacturer says it takes 10 hours of direct sunlight to fully charge the backpack battery. It comes with AC adapter to charge before trip. Battery outputs at 3.5, 5.0 and 7.2 volts to run devices directly off it and the solar panels put out up to 4 watts of power at 10 volts. If you need more power, ziggy is right on... price goes way up.
Manufacturer's Info at www.voltaicsystems.com
The rig cost about $275 including the battery pack, AC/DC charge adapters and assorted device adapters. It may work if your batteries charge with a car adapter. I imagine they do.
I also picked up a small solar charger by Brunton for AA batteries two years back. It holds 4 AA's and trickle charges them in direct sunlight. Used it camping a few times. Let it sit on dash board while driving and in camp while shooting with other set of AA's. Took 10 hours to charge 4 AA's. Kinda slow but great for backup set of strobe batteries.
Hope this helps
peace
spudjer
Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!
At this time it is looking like I will need to go the route of additional batteries, as picking up DC chargers for three different battery types (forgot to mention the Pentax W10) and the solar backpack stuff will be way to steep right now - although I like the solar backpack concept in theory.
To save $ I will try and find generic or OEM batteries and use them after I have bled the name brand ones dry and will try and exercise some shooting restraint.
Thanks again for the suggestions!
Andy
Outdoor and Sports Media
OK - the orders have been placed for the non-elegant solution.
I will be rafting for 8 days down the Salmon River Canyon in Idaho with:
20D - 5 batteries (2 canon - 3 generic) 7 1GB CF cards
Pentax W10 - 3 batteries (1 pentax 2 generic) 4 1GB SD cards
Epson p-2000 - 4 batteries (2 Epson 2 generic)
1 brick AA alkalines for flashes
This shold give me enough battery power to fill the hard drive on the Epson + 7 gigs of CF cards (RAW+sJPG's) with a little bit of chimping/editing on the camera and on the Epson - and i just need to hope that the Epson does not fail during the trip...
Am I missing anything here?
Andy
Outdoor and Sports Media
Zip lock bags
Stan
Andy
Outdoor and Sports Media
Andy,
The only thing you're missing is one of us to go with you.
Pay my way, and I'll help carry stuff. (I keep offering to different folks on different exciting trips. No takers so far.)
It sounds like a fascinating journey and I wish you lots of photographic opportunities along the way. I believe your decision to buy extra batteries is the most prudent one, and you'll appreciate them for some time to come.
Good luck,
ziggy53
Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
Oh, any water protection for cameras???
Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!
Spudjer,
This is seriously cool stuff and I hope it works well for you. Please keep us informed about your trip and the experience.
Best,
ziggy53
Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
I will zig.... hitting the slot canyon in Page AZ and the Arches Park next week. I'll post my results on the solar rig week of 6/26
spudjer
Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!
The Pentax W10 will be in my life-preserver vest pocket at all times and it is waterproof. I have a submersible flexible shoot through plastic bag (forget brand) that the 20d will fit in, but as I am rowing one of the cats I do not expect that it will get used a lot. I also have a rain cover for the 20d for when I am getting splashed or rained on - but with the cat firmly on shore. Hopefully that gets me through.!
Thanks for the raising the issue of water protection while shooting.
Andy
PS I could save some space by dumping the JPG's - its not like I am going to need to go home upload to a gallery instantly. Thanks for pointing that out as well.
Outdoor and Sports Media
I haven't quite figured out how I am paying for it yet either - maybe I can sell my pictures to our group at the end of the trip rather than giving them away. If I wait until we are done with the float first I might even be able to make a quick enough getaway to live through making the announcement...
Unfortunately my trip is not until mid-August, but I am starting the planning process early so that if we run out of funds stocking up for the trip, the camera stuff will already be fait accompli - maybe I should get that second body now too, something weatherproof that can use both CF and SD cards...
I too am looking forward to hearing about how the solar pack works out, as well as to seeing the images from the southwest.
Andy
Outdoor and Sports Media
Coincidently, I ran across this family of solarcharger products in the costco 'news' e-mail this morning.
Clear Blue Hawai
http://www.clearbluehawaii.com.au
http://www.clearbluehawaii.com.au/page10/page10.html
They have a couple of solarpanel recharger products, including a dry bag with built in solarpanels and internal charging cords which looks like it would be an interesting fit with a rafting trip...
Too late for this year though, as I am already committed ot the battery solution and picking up the solar dry bag and DC chargers would be too expensive for now (not sure if there is even a DC charger for the P-2000...) Nice to see that there is a variety of this sort of technology out there though.
Andy
Outdoor and Sports Media