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DSLR Portable Battery Pack


Al.Grant

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A couple of days ago I posted in the Latest Purchases thread about a portable battery pack I had ordered .... well it's here and at first glance it's looking pretty good.

This is the sellers website  http://www.exprodirect.com/product.php?productid=47470&cat=14986&page=1

 

A single (official) Canon LP-E17 battery on Amazon is currently £36.99, this pack came to £36.95 inc postage.
Ordered Friday and arrived this morning. It arrived well packaged and already fully charged.
I ordered this as I couldn't find a suitable 12DC cable with cigar lighter socket for to power the camera at the scope/mount (Astronomiser don't do one).

 

Only had it for a couple of hours so can't comment on how long it will last. 
The website claims this pack has "7600mAh - the equivalent power to over 6 original LP-E17 Canon Batteries!"
Only time will tell how this turns out, but so far it's looking like a decent purchase.

 

The unit looks well made & comes with a rugged looking, well padded protective pouch with velcro & heavy stud fastening loop on the back.
3 cables included:  1x USB <-> micro usb charging cable.   1x usb <-> micro usb cable to power accessories from the battery pack.   1x EOS power cable.

 

One of the benefits of it is that it's light and portable enough to be included on a 'grab & go' set up and will also be usable on the HEQ5, the Astrotrac and also hand held.

So this is how it looks:

 

Clips securely to the tripod handle. Can't see a problem attaching to the HEQ5 or Astrotrac.

Not much chance of cables catching. It's coiled so doesn't get in the way but will stretch out to around 1m in lenght.

121108x.jpg

 

5v out usb (accessories),  8.4v out (to DSLR),  5v in (Charging), Charge LED's & power switch

122558x.jpg

 

The website shows a pic of it attached to a belt.  I tried it and it 'pulls' on the right hand side of the camera, especially if pointing upwards.

Works much better attached to the camera strap and the cable doesn't get in the way anywhere near as much.

121940x.jpg

 

Camera battery compartment connection.  

On the 750D there is a rubber plug that allows a mains cable to exit the battery compartment.  

There is also one on my old EOS 350D so I'm guessing this is a standard thing

122216x.jpg

 

Once plugged in and the camera switched on the 750 displays a message about a 'non-canon' battery as asks if you want to continue and the battery level is not displayed on the LCD screen, but as far as I'm aware that applies to all 3rd party batteries available for the the 750D & 760D.

 

Will be interesting to see how long the camera runs on this pack, not sure I believe the '6 standard batteries' statement but even 3 or 4 would be good.

There are battery grips available that take 2 batteries, this should work out cheaper and also won't add the extra weight to the back of the scope.

 

The website does sell the battery units individually, so if it works out OK it's easy enough to have a second one available (good for star parties I guess!), they also sell the battery-to-camera cables separately, so if you have a couple of different makes/models of camera it's easy to swap them around.

 

Although I've not tried it, in theory the 5v output should also be able to power my Quark Ha filter, doubt it would run both together (at least not for long), but has to be worth a try. 

 

So far, it's working, not expensive, very portable and looks well made. 

Been playing around with it today so will fully charge before a first attempt outside and will update once I get a feel for how long the pack lasts.

 

 

Al 

Edited by Al.Grant
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My friend brought a similar battery pack. Same size as yours and it can and has jump started his car. Didn't believe him until he had to do it!!

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I'm thinking that the easiest way to get an idea on battery life will be to do some star trails.

I can just set it up with a full battery pack and leave it taking a couple of hours worth of 1 min subs and see what impact that has on the charge.

 

Getting some clear skies would mean I might even get something useful out of it ....... but more interested in the battery life.

 

Al

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