Re: Recharging digital camera batteries (slow charge and travel)

[Trevor Cunningham <trevor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Slow charge: I've heard that a car battery is best charged slow...does 
the same hold true for lithiums?

As for the backpacker option, depending on how much you're really 
roughing it, solar might be your only option. Depending on the type of 
travel you're doing, weight and space could be a serious consideration. 
For a while now, the wife and I have been dreaming up this cycling 
scheme in Iceland, and a solar charger is a must for the trip due to the 
weight factor. My glass is heavy enough, I don't need to add lead to the 
mixture. As for storage, there's an attachment for iPods that would let 
you dump your load there. If you have one of the big ones, you could 
even get pretty snap happy on a long holiday if you choose. Usually, the 
batteries on those last a good while.

Emily L. Ferguson wrote:
> Rolled plastic solar chargers have been used on boats now for about 10 
> years.  They're all over the web, just hunt them down.
>
> Backpackers use them also, but under no circumstances would I consider 
> going backpacking for even a weekend without carrying at least 3 well 
> charged batteries.  I routinely carry 7 charged batteries in a leather 
> zippered bag in my pack.  Cold is especially hard on them, and really 
> the only way to get them suitably warm is to put them under your 
> armpits or between your thighs to warm them up.
>
> The real problem comes with powering computers on the trail, 
> especially if one goes out for a week or so.  Even the Epson 4000 
> consumes power quickly whether you simply use it to dump your shoot or 
> get tempted to use its little LCD screen and look at what you got.
>
> And, of course, looking at what you got is the quickest way to tell 
> whether you got what you wanted or want to shoot again.
>
> Of course you can simply carry a gob of Memory Cards and not worry 
> about dumping your shoot to some devise, but one way or another you 
> camera has to be powered.
>
> So solar collectors that your battery recharger can be plugged in to 
> are widely used.
>
> But they're still very slow, and slower even when it's overcast, or 
> outright raining.