12 volt / USB Nikon Chargers, and tabletop tripods

Halfcharged

Halfcharged

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So I'm going on my next big motorbike tour soon. We always camp, and usually in fairly basic sites - no mains electric. What I need therefore is a 12 volt or a USB charger for my D7000 batteries to run off the Hella socket on my bike via a car cigarette lighter socket adaptor. Luggage space is obviously limited, so buying an inverter to use with a mains charger is not really an option.

Nikon don't seem to do a genuine one. There are about a million generic ones on ebay, but they seem to range from about 3 to 10 pounds. Now I love a bargain as much as the next man, but I'm not sure I want to put my 50 pound battery for my 700 pound camera in a 3 pound charger.

Has anyone ever used one of these generic chargers. Any bad experiences?

2nd item on my shopping list is a tabletop tripod that can acheive around 60cms or more when extended. I hauled a standard one to Switzerland and back last year, but despite being a relatively compact model it was still big enough to be a ballache. Any reccomendations? It doesn't have to be all-singing all-dancing, but I would like it to be reasonably capable of smoothish panning and tilting as I will probably shoot some video too.

Thanks in advance!
 
almost all of the camp sites in france that I have stayed at either:
1. had power (if I asked) on the pitch.
2. you could charge behind the reception desk.
 
Peter69 said:
not even one of those mini-inverters that look like a mains socket?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/STERLING-...889?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item4191b8dd81


http://www.halfords.com/motoring/garage-equipment/portable-power-packs/ring-powersource-inverter-75w

(sorry my charger isn't near by to check power requirements)
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The first one is too big, but the second one might be a possibility if the cheap 12 volt chargers really are a bad idea, and the electrical system on my bike is up to it. It seems quite a wasteful way of charging a battery though, to upconvert the voltage, only to downconvert it again. I'm surprised Nikon don't do anything - I found a reference to a car charger they used to do for the D2 or something. I'm sure there'd be a fair amount of demand for it.

I could indeed ask on campsite receptions. My french isn't up to much though! Or I could just steal electricity in restaurants or garages I suppose... If I get told off, "Je desole, je ne comprend pas" will probably make them leave me alone and get on with it!
 
There are smaller ones on Ebay from China but I never trust Chinese electrics.
Inverters are very efficient now. I have a 1000w in my camper which has less then 2w overhead.
 
tijuana taxi said:
Would solar power be of any interest. http://www.solartechnology.co.uk/freeloader-pro-charger
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I have a freeloader. It's not that great in this age of power hungry smartphones, but it was alright on the old ones. The problem in this case is not so much the power source - as I say my bike has a hella socket which I can get 12 volts out of, but it's actually finding a 12 volt charger for Nikon camera batteries. Unbelievably Nikon don't sell one as an accessory - missing an opportunity there really I'd say.
 
I have a couple of Expro 12v/240v chargers(based in U.K.); one for a nikon en-el14 which I used on a motorbike tour and worked fine with the original nikon battery. The other is for Sony and also works fine.
 
An update for anyone that's interested...

So I ended up buying a £3.99 Nikon battery USB charger off ebay. I was concerned about damaging my batteries, but I've been using it since June and it actually seems to work quite well. So well in fact, I hardly ever use the Nikon mains charger anymore.

It takes much longer (about 7 hours to charge a completely dead battery), but it DOES stop charging when the battery is full which was my main concern (the light goes from Red to blue). How long it'll last who can say, but at £3.99 I'd be happy with a year.

As for tripods, never did buy a tabletop one. Carted my full size one round Europe... again. And didn't use it... Again. Really must learn from this!!
 
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