tips on charging battery for remote shoot?

S

seanf

Member
We will be travelling to rural Mongolia for a 3 week shoot in September and may not have access to any power other than the car/truck batteries. Anyone have any experience/tips for charging their DVX batteries in the field? Should we bring a small generator, or are there any clever ways of charging off a car battery without completely draining it?

Thanks for your input...
 
well, with the car running you can always get a power inverter and charge off of the cigarrette lighter. However, this will take a while. You may want to get a generator.....
 
hmmm, that second one looks like a great deal. you could bring along a deep cycle marine battery and use a power inverter that can connect directly to the battery. don't know how well this would work or how long the battery would last, but it's worth looking into.
 
I haven't gone for 3 weeks without power, the longerst I went for was 3 days. On that shoot I just pluged into the cigarette lighter via an inverter, and it worked great. So if you have access to a car with a lighter go that way. Otherwise a marine battery would give you a lot of power and are designed to last. They are however VERY heavy, and I don't know if you want to be lugging that around. The only other oprion I can think of is to buy 10 or more of the DVXuser batteries, charge them before you go, and then just swap them out.
 
I shoot next door in Central Asia.

Voltage is 220, so bring a transformer (not a "travel" transformer!) if your charger isn't 220. You'll find the place better wired than, let's say, Northern Canada. Even Yurts will have power!

An inverter is all you need. Bring battery clips as well, because a UA3 (Russian "Jeep") doesn't have a cigarette lighter! You won't drain a truck battery charging a puny camera battery, but keep an eye on the battery level. Run the engine for 10-15 minutes at a time to keep it topped-up.

Bring a bunch of batteries, and use the viewfinder instead of the LCD. I can go for a day on one 2800 battery (filling one tape).

I have an inverter, but have never needed to use it -- there's always been power nearby.

Good luck and have fun! It's a great place to shoot.
 
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