Recommend me a car charger

SFTPhotography

SFTPhotography

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So here's the deal.

I am going to Spain for a month and taking my 645z's and 5ds over. Rather than stay in hotels and risk getting a covid ping and losing valuable time abroad I propose to car camp. Particularly as I'll want the hotel money for the inevitable 2 week red lisitng that'll happen when I am over there.

I'll need to be able to charger batteries in my car - off the standard cigarette lighter.

Does anyone know of a good, but modestly priced car charger for Pentax and Canon camera's - or am I better with an inverter running off the cigarette socket in the car - and what is recommended in this bracket - oddly I have EU chargers for both so an inverter with an EU socket would be idea.
 
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Wouldn‘t the USB adapter that goes in the cigar* socket do? Maybe you have a USP socket in the car anyway?

* I’ve only had cigar sockets in my car, what are these cigarette things? :).
 
sphexx said:
Wouldn‘t the USB adapter that goes in the cigar* socket do? Maybe you have a USP socket in the car anyway?

* I’ve only had cigar sockets in my car, what are these cigarette things? :).
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Aye that's the one - but I need an adapter to plug the Pentax and Canon battery holders into. Canon charge a laughable £180 for a car charger...there has to be a less extravagant option
 
SFTPhotography said:
I am going to Spain for a month and taking my 645z's and 5ds over. Rather than stay in hotels and risk getting a covid ping and losing valuable time abroad I propose to car camp. Particularly as I'll want the hotel money for the inevitable 2 week red lisitng that'll happen when I am over there.
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That's brave. I don't foresee any international travel this year.
 
LongLensPhotography said:
That's brave. I don't foresee any international travel this year.
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If it stays Amber list F*** it, just get the Corona test before you go and hop on the boat from UK to Spain, they don't require you to be vaccinated to enter Spain, just no have Corona at the time. I'll car camp rather than stay in Hotels and put the money towards forced UK concentration camp hotel when I get back, and if I don't I am in the money.

The prospect of having an another Autumn in this godforsaken country terrifies me.
 
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Might be worth getting one of those solar chargers as a backup as well, the kind you can spread over the dash or rear parcel shelf, just in case the inverter goes pop. And also check what fuse the inverter uses and take a few spare, along with a few spare car blade fuses as well.

Can the 645z charge the battery via USB whilst in the camera?
 
Inverters are pretty inefficient so they generate quite a lot of heat which is proportional to the current draw so for charging batteries they are probably OK, running a laptop might warm it up a bit.
 
gman said:
Might be worth getting one of those solar chargers as a backup as well, the kind you can spread over the dash or rear parcel shelf, just in case the inverter goes pop. And also check what fuse the inverter uses and take a few spare, along with a few spare car blade fuses as well.

Can the 645z charge the battery via USB whilst in the camera?
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No - probably better with the USB chargers tbh for this one.
 
Be aware of the different outputs (amps) of USB chargers, you might be best taking your normal one and using it with a small inverter e.g. 150w but don't get a cheap nasty one.
Some older 12v chargers can barely keep an in use phone topped up
This looks Ok and has 3.1 amp total USB out

FOVAL 150W Power Inverter DC 12V to 110V AC Converter with 3.1A Dual USB Car Charger : Amazon.co.uk: Automotive

FOVAL 150W Power Inverter DC 12V to 110V AC Converter with 3.1A Dual USB Car Charger : Amazon.co.uk: Automotive
www.amazon.co.uk
 
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SFTPhotography said:
Recommend any that aren't cheap set your car on fire tat. A mate of mine had one, it got alarmingly hot and kinda put me off.
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People don't understand the limits and will do daft things like try to plug a kettle in - well overload them anyway.
To run say a laptop and charge a couple of phones is not going to stress a half decent inverter.
The typical cigarette lighter output is rated at 150w maximum draw.You can go larger with a proper connection to battery.
 
4wd said:
People don't understand the limits and will do daft things like try to plug a kettle in - well overload them anyway.
To run say a laptop and charge a couple of phones is not going to stress a half decent inverter.
The typical cigarette lighter output is rated at 150w maximum draw.You can go larger with a proper connection to battery.
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I am literally going to charge two batteries when driving my car - and maybe a smart phone. That's it. Don't even own a laptop - well I do but not one with the grunt to process the files I work with. I'll figure it out :D
 
I don’t know if one of these quite meets your criteria but I’ve had one of these Link hardwired to the battery of my truck for the last 4 years. It’s been great for powering my laptop, charging phones and cameras and even running a baby bench grinder :)
 
@Steve .. I decided to put a ""Hard wired"" USB port into my Vauxhall Vivaro van .. something like this >>USB charger << .. while this is not the exact one that I got it is very similar..

I had a spare place on the dash so I bought one of these for £20 which hooks up directly to the battery, its a Do It Yourself job that apparently is very very easy to install however given that I did not want to take any chances I took the van to an Auto Spark who installed it for £20 which I didn`t mind doing as it gave me peace of mind should anything possibly go wrong..... it is by far the best £40 I`ve ever spent and its used on a regular basis even for my iPhone 11

That now gives me the option to charge 2 Camera batteries at any given time directly from the car battery Plus I have added protection as the Auto spark put a Fuse in between for extra safety .. I can also set my Laptop on the front seat and charge that along with the Camera batteries as I travel, its a great we set up,, this leaves me the original Cigarette Lighter port that I use to charge the Sat Nav as I travel ..

I can now charge 2 camera batteries, Laptop, iPhone, and Sat Nav all while I travel without any strain on the Van battery , its definitely something I think you should look into if you`re planning to travel in general anywhere in the UK ,, it will be invaluable to you in Spain ...

hope this is of some help


Coho-Blue
 
I agree with Harry as above - by far the best option. I would never trust the '12v accessory socket' - I've seen far too many melted wire tangles with these and even a couple of fires.
 
This is an absolutely amazing charger. I bought one. It comes complete with some different accessories. You can charge two at once and it you can use either the mains lead or the supplied 12v car charger lead. I have linked the Canon version, mine is Nikon. It tells you the charge level and the amount of power it is giving each battery. Really can't say how impressive it it. You can also charge other sorts of batteries with the supplied accessories.

Hahnel ProCube 2 Compatible with Canon DSLR - Dual Twin Battery Charger for LP-E6, LP-E8, LP-E17 – Built-in USB Charging Ports & AA Slots – Smart LCD Display with Top Up Charge - 12V Car Lead Included: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

Free delivery and returns on eligible orders. Buy Hahnel ProCube 2 Compatible with Canon DSLR - Dual Twin Battery Charger for LP-E6, LP-E8, LP-E17 – Built-in USB Charging Ports & AA Slots – Smart LCD Display with Top Up Charge - 12V Car Lead Included at Amazon UK.
amzn.to
 
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