Power options for long trekking trip

[pisces]

I am a Canon DSLR user. Going on a trekking trip in the mountains for 20 days soon. Likely to be taking lots of photos- probably 10-15 Gb in total.
Thinking about problems with power supply for both the camera and storage device.
For camera, the obvious solution is to buy and carry lots of batteris- both expensive and heavy.
For storage, possible solution is to buy high-capacity Cf cards rather than using the storage device- again expensive.

In both cases power is the issue. Any bro has any experience to share or suggestions? Thanks

 

[Tay]

I am a Canon DSLR user. Going on a trekking trip in the mountains for 20 days soon. Likely to be taking lots of photos- probably 10-15 Gb in total.
Thinking about problems with power supply for both the camera and storage device.
For camera, the obvious solution is to buy and carry lots of batteris- both expensive and heavy.
For storage, possible solution is to buy high-capacity Cf cards rather than using the storage device- again expensive.

In both cases power is the issue. Any bro has any experience to share or suggestions? Thanks

Hi,
Which mountain u be going?

 

[pisces]

Concordia and Gondogoro and then may cycle the KKH.

 

[frenchbean]

Got access to a car or vehicle? Get a car charger or an inverter so that you can charge while on the move. Otherwise I think bring lotsa batts is the best option.

For storage I think portable storage is actually cheaper than getting more high capacity CF cards. Should be able to get one for $200+ for 40GB.

 

[pisces]

Prob is that there will be NO power supply for the whole trail. Yes- portable storage is better but power, power,power....

 

[Tay]

Concordia and Gondogoro and then may cycle the KKH.

Lots of Battery for your cam & portable storage device.
Bring spare camera if u have.

 

[frenchbean]

Prob is that there will be NO power supply for the whole trail. Yes- portable storage is better but power, power,power....

For portable storage 10-15GB on one charge should be no prob lar. At most bring one more set of spare batts. Can really think of anything else for the cam other than lotsa batteries. No portable generators? hmmm.... :think:

 

[Tay]

Suggest buy a few third party battery for your cam.
When you come back can sell it if you dun need that much.

 

[pisces]

Think camera prob is lesser -can bring rechargeable AA batteries in battery grip. Storage is the major headache.

 

[frenchbean]

Why is storage a major headache? portable storage of more CF cards works mah. Can borrow if you do not wanna buy.

 

[pisces]

True- can borrow. Or rent-yep! Need to borrow quite a few though.

 

[weeguy]

Since you're in the mountains, there should be plenty of sunlight right? Why not try getting something like this?
http://store.qkits.com/moreinfo.cfm/4031

 

[pisces]

Since you're in the mountains, there should be plenty of sunlight right? Why not try getting something like this?
http://store.qkits.com/moreinfo.cfm/4031

Interesting- there are others as well http://store.sundancesolar.com/solbatchar.html
However I think most of them do not work well- some friends had experience with a couple of such products. And they actually do need direct sunlight for extended period which is challenging in the mountains (high up often cloudy) and while walking.

 

[megaweb]

A few options:
1. Use SLR and shoot film.
2. Use Solar Charger
3. Buy many batteries. Sell them away after you come back. (Recommended)

 

[poh6702]

Battery grip with lots of AA Li-Ion batteries, borrow lots of CF cards, CF cards are lighter and smaller to carry. Is it going to be very cold? Please take note that battery life is much shorter in cold weather.

I was on China tour last 2 weeks, with Nikon D70. I carried 3 batteries(2 original and 1 third party), took about 600 shots and used up less than 2 batteries. Each DSLR batterie should be able to last more than 300-400 shorts. If you estimate to take about 1000 shorts without flash, you probably need 4 batteries to be save.

 

[All Blue]

are you sure there're no stop overs? to sleep or eat? no taverns whatsoever? what i'd do is to find a power source where ever i stop over, restaurants, toilet anywhere.

 

[zac08]

Anyone considered using the Quantum power packs??

And a portable HDD transfer device would be more practical too.

 

[pisces]

are you sure there're no stop overs? to sleep or eat? no taverns whatsoever? what i'd do is to find a power source where ever i stop over, restaurants, toilet anywhere.

This is unlike Nepal. There will not be any tea houses etc along the way. All food must be carried for the whole duration incl 3 days trekking on glacier.

Zac08: What's Quantum power pack?

 

[hondasleeper]

A few options:
1. Use SLR and shoot film.
2. Use Solar Charger
3. Buy many batteries. Sell them away after you come back. (Recommended)

I was going to actually suggest using a film camera that takes penlight batteries so you don't have to worry about lugging loads of batteries, i.e FE2, FE, FM..etc.

20 days is a long time, not too sure how long the batteries will last, particularly the rechargables, if they'll last that long.

Then again if you decide to shoot film, you're gonna need a least 70+ rolls of film, based on your "guestimation". No matter which way you go you'll need to carry quite a bit of film or batteries.

 

[zac08]

This is unlike Nepal. There will not be any tea houses etc along the way. All food must be carried for the whole duration incl 3 days trekking on glacier.

Zac08: What's Quantum power pack?

It's an external power pack, meant more for wedding shooters who want to power up both camera as well as flash.

Quantum power packs

Since you're gonna be using the camera only, then it may be able to power your camera for a much much longer time than using just the batteries.