[slackline]

Heading to Peru for five weeks in August to do trek the Huayhuash Trail and some peaks in the Cordillera Blanca.

Taking my D90 and two batteries but considering getting a solar charger to top things up.

Anyone with experience of how effective these are at charging, recommendations (even if its get a third spare battery), or insights into how readily available charing from mains is* would be appreciated.

I used some cheap crap thing my mother bought me last year whilst in the Dolomites, but it appeared to do the exact opposite and drain the battery in my phone.

Cheers.


* Not expecting to have many opportunities with trekking being away from civilization and then camping in the Llanganuco Valley.

[Oldmanmatt]

then camping in the Llanganuco Valley.

Are you sure that's not in Wales?

[dave]

Heading to Peru for five weeks in August

You're shit out of luck then cos there's only 4 weeks in august.

If you're going to be away from power for a prolonged period and presumably if backpacking then size/weight/fragility is an issue, it might be worth considering getting a cheap film body (manual focus) to take instead. Then you've got no worries about power bar a couple of those watch batteries, and just take a couple dozen rolls of 35mm.

How long would you normally get out of one battery with the D90? I don't know what the voltage is there but if you're in peru charging the batteries prior to backpacking might be worth making sure they charge properly. I remember charging batteries in canada on 120V with a UK charger using a normal plug adaptor and they would show as charged but only last 5 minutes, as the reduced voltage wasn't compatible with the UK charger.

[slackline]

Got a few days tagged either side to bulk out August.

I do have an older Nikon body I could take, will give that some thought, sadly haven't used a film SLR before. 

Good point on the charging at mains aspect too.

Can get a fair bit of usage out of one battery on the D90, particularly by not spending ages reviewing pictures on the power hungry LCD.

Are you sure that's not in Wales?

I thought the valley sounded distinctly Welsh in name too.

[tomtom]

1. welsh names. Are you sure thats no-where near the outpost of welsh speaking S.America in that part of the world? I shit you not - theres a whole village/area where they all speak Welsh due to some missionary influence (or something similar). S4C used to have loads of programs about it etc..
2. charging..... I'd consider one of those charger things that runs from regular dry cells... which will hold their charge and you can pick up the batteries from anywhere... Or 12v charger? there will probably be some sort of vehicle passing by from time to time up there?
3. Take a sketchbook

[Oldmanmatt]

Hmmm...
Slackers.
+
five weeks.
+
No PC, lap top, tablet or twitter.


Are you sure you thought this through?

[Johnny Brown]

theres a whole village/area where they all speak Welsh due to some missionary influence

That's in Argentine Patagonia iirc - long way away. Doesn't mean there wasn't an influence here though.

Taking my D90 and two batteries

What's the longest you'll be away from a socket? I bet it will be no where near five weeks - more like two. Battery life on my D300 is very good, I'm guessing the D90 is even better. I would buy another battery, and I reckon you'll be good for a couple of weeks at least with minimal chimping. Even another two spare batteries will be cheaper (and lighter?) than the basic solar panels. Worth keeping the one that's in use warm if you can.

There are a few threads on solar on UKC - my general impression is that charging ipods and older phones is okay but SLRs and laptops will require a more serious unit - both cost and size. As tomtom said, I think the usual involves a big 12v battery, ie forget it. But I'm no expert - google it.

[Paul B]

Another option might be to buy a battery grip and then use Eneloops (or similar) that you've pre-charged. These hold their charge much better than past batteries (80% over 12 months), although thinking about it aftermarket batteries would probably be cheaper overall (possibly lighter), and less bulky?

[SamT]

bit of discussion here....

http://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=10595.0

I doubt things have changed that much over the last 18 months.

Though Outside have a big fancy display in the front of the hathersage shop with one of these....

http://www.outside.co.uk/shop/Guide+10+Adventure+Kit

You could by a shit load of eneloops for that price. 

[tomtom]

The battery on my D5000 (same?) lasts months with infrequent (c.50 images over that time) use... but obviously gets caned if I use live view or video. But for regular use (switch the LCD off? & brightness down) I recon you'll last with a spare...

On a related topic - hats off to Nikon for having a sensible small sized chargers for these batteries that weigh next to nothing.. but on the other hand Nikon, you're a bunch of money grabbing tossers for subtly changing the battery/charger from the 3000/5000 to the 3100/5100 series.. pointless.

[slackline]

@JB : Spot on two, perhaps two and a half weeks max away from civilisation is expected.  Read a few threads on UKC already, hard to separate the wheat from the chaf though not being as familiar with the posters as here.

@PaulB : Hadn't heard of Eneloops before sounds interesting, unfortunately the battery grip for the D90 is as much as the solar panel SamT links to, so not much then left for the eneloops (could probably find it a bit cheaper shopping around).

@SamT : Cheers for the link, quite a few useful opinions/experience there.

@tomtom : The barstewards also tweaked battery size ever so slightly between the D50 and D90 I discovered the other day whilst trying to put the older D50's battery into my D90 and finding it didn't come out that easily.  Will probably pack a cigarette charger just in case, as I can't draw for shit.

@Matt : I hope I'll survive!

Sounds like buying a couple more batteries will be the best option, have had a generic unbranded one rather than branded but thats recently gone tits up, appearing to charge but not holding anything.  Looks like branded ones can be had for around £30 which is a bit less than they retailed at last time I got the generic unbranded (when they were ~£50).  I'm not a great photographer though so am snap happy and then ditch the crap ones.

Thanks to the collective hive for some insight.

On the Welsh tip, Howard Marks traced his family to South America in his book Senor Nice, which I've had sat around for ages but not read.

[Johnny Brown]

I've got a Hahnel one as my second battery - much cheaper and no performance difference.

[slackline]

Theres so many alternatives out there, but their performance is a complete unknown quantity, good knowledge, thanks.

[Paul B]

Theres so many alternatives out there, but their performance is a complete unknown quantity, good knowledge, thanks.

The aftermarket grips are £30... there's absolutely no need to buy a Nikon version. The same is true of batteries (even Hahnel will cost you more than a no-namer). Look at the mAh rating and buy what you need.

The newest changes to batteries for the higher spec models are due to an advancement in battery technology. The shape changes are so you can't mis-charge them and burn your house down in the process.

[slackline]

The aftermarket grips are £30...

   Hadn't even occurred to me, got a growing list of shit I need to get, will look again, thanks.

The same is true of batteries (even Hahnel will cost you more than a no-namer). Look at the mAh rating and buy what you need.

Well having got a completely unbranded one and used it occassionally its recently just died.  Can't have use it more than about 12-20 times.  It sits in the charger ok, appears to charge fine according to the lights on the charger.  Drop it into the camera, nada.  So I'm now wary of splashing out on something that won't get a decent amount of usage out of it when for a bit more I can get something that will last/I've more confidence in.  Guess its a bit of 

[dave]

For my d70 i had a £5 ebay battery, it did eventually hold less charge than the genuine battery but that was after using it for 5 years. I suppose it's luck of the draw.