Best way to carry multiple Canon dSLR batteries in camera bag?
May 9, 2005 7:39 AM Subscribe
I've moved from a low end digital camera recently to the 1st generation Canon Rebel dSLR. The old camera took AA battery's so there was tons of advice out there on how best to store them so you don't short anything out, and sort them so you know which have been used at a glance. personally i liked using little plastic carriers that held two each - when i used the batteries (but before i re-charged them) i would flip one so the pos/neg ends were opposite (did that make sense?)
Anyone have any suggestions of a way to achieve the same with propritary batteries like canon's? To sum up: a) how to carry them w/o worrying about shorting out or knocking around in the camera bag, and b) quick way to know which ones are dead and which are good. Thanks!
Two separate parts of the camera bag? Dead ones in your shirt to recharge later? What is the use life of the battery anyway? My D20 batteries last a good long while so I never worry about having dead batteries, you use till dead switch out and charge the dead ones... repeat as needed.
Most proprietary batteries I've seen have a cover for the contacts
posted by edgeways at 8:16 AM on May 9, 2005
Most proprietary batteries I've seen have a cover for the contacts
posted by edgeways at 8:16 AM on May 9, 2005
I use rechargable lithium AAs, mainly. The charged ones are held together in a group of four with an elastic band. When they get used, the discharged ones get put back in the bag without the elastic band. When I get home I'll dig them out for recharging and band them again.
When using a camera with a proprietary battery, I find myself using the same system. I wrap a redundant elastic band around the charged one, just to show it's charged. There are various small padded pouches and suchlike that one can buy from just about any photo store for items like batteries. Personally, I find them fussy and have never had a problem just leaving the spares in a smaller pocket of the bag. If I'm going somewhere wet and feeling careful, I might put them in a small ziplock baggie.
posted by normy at 9:01 AM on May 9, 2005
When using a camera with a proprietary battery, I find myself using the same system. I wrap a redundant elastic band around the charged one, just to show it's charged. There are various small padded pouches and suchlike that one can buy from just about any photo store for items like batteries. Personally, I find them fussy and have never had a problem just leaving the spares in a smaller pocket of the bag. If I'm going somewhere wet and feeling careful, I might put them in a small ziplock baggie.
posted by normy at 9:01 AM on May 9, 2005
Canon usually ships its batteries with a plastic snap-on cover (looks like a miniature tray) that protects the contacts; you should have gotten one with your Rebel's battery. In my opinion, this is nice but hardly necessary; in 4 years with my Powershot G2's BP-511 batteries knocking around on many trips, I never had to worry about shorting the contacts.
A Li-ion battery itself only lasts so long before it needs to be replaced (I'd say 12-18mos with regular use), and that's going to be more of an issue than shorting, although good aftermarket replacements are readily available.
As far as marking which ones have been spent and which is powered up, I'm sure you can come up with fancy solutions... but I've always just used a permanent marker (I'm partial to Sakura silver-paint ones) to mark each battery "A", "B", etc. I've only ever carried two at once, so it's been easy to remember which one has been used up.
posted by skyboy at 9:12 AM on May 9, 2005
A Li-ion battery itself only lasts so long before it needs to be replaced (I'd say 12-18mos with regular use), and that's going to be more of an issue than shorting, although good aftermarket replacements are readily available.
As far as marking which ones have been spent and which is powered up, I'm sure you can come up with fancy solutions... but I've always just used a permanent marker (I'm partial to Sakura silver-paint ones) to mark each battery "A", "B", etc. I've only ever carried two at once, so it's been easy to remember which one has been used up.
posted by skyboy at 9:12 AM on May 9, 2005
As skyboy said, Canon batteries ship with a little plastic "cover" piece to protect against shorting. The newer versions have a little "indicator window" built-in that lines up with a color strip on the canon battery. The strip and window are offset, which means that when the battery is placed in the holder one way, the indicator shows nothing. But if you flip it and put it in the other way, the strip appears in the indicator window. It's not magic, but it's a little clever.
Mind you, the indicator strip doesn't appear on my original battery, but the newer batteries I've purchased all have them.
posted by Hankins at 9:23 AM on May 9, 2005
Mind you, the indicator strip doesn't appear on my original battery, but the newer batteries I've purchased all have them.
posted by Hankins at 9:23 AM on May 9, 2005
These proprietary batteries usually last a *long* time, like 300--500 exposures depending on flash use. So unless you're taking an absolute shitload of pictures in a single day, you ought to be able to make do just fine with two rechargeable batteries which makes figuring out which are charged a non-issue.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 10:21 AM on May 9, 2005
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 10:21 AM on May 9, 2005
You can also get a battery grip (BG-E1) that uses 2 batteries at a time. From my understanding, they drain synchronously, so you only need to switch batteries when both are drained. That would essentially let you work with 4 batteries without having to maintain a charge-tracking system.
The battery grip also has a second shutter button on the side, which permits you to take portrait shots naturally (without having to reach across the camera with a monkey grip to try and snap the photo). And if you're into appearances, the additional size makes it look more like a high-end DSLR.
Expanding on ROU_Xenophobe above, the batteries do last a long time. In 2 years of use, I can honestly say that I've never run out of juice. And after picking up my battery grip, I don't remember ever seeing the battery light. I had a photo shoot last week, in which I snapped 4GB of photos. I spent the following morning taking flower pix without recharging.
posted by Hankins at 10:55 AM on May 9, 2005
The battery grip also has a second shutter button on the side, which permits you to take portrait shots naturally (without having to reach across the camera with a monkey grip to try and snap the photo). And if you're into appearances, the additional size makes it look more like a high-end DSLR.
Expanding on ROU_Xenophobe above, the batteries do last a long time. In 2 years of use, I can honestly say that I've never run out of juice. And after picking up my battery grip, I don't remember ever seeing the battery light. I had a photo shoot last week, in which I snapped 4GB of photos. I spent the following morning taking flower pix without recharging.
posted by Hankins at 10:55 AM on May 9, 2005
Chances are very good that you won't need more than two batteries (one in-camera and one either in the bag or on charger). If you're coming from a different type of camera to a Canon DSLR, you may be surprised -- the CMOS sensors that almost all the Canon DSLR's use are very battery-friendly. With my old first-gen Digital Rebel, I've snapped 600+ shots over the course of 10+ hours on just two batteries. Make sure to bring your character with you on longer trips though.
Marking the plastic covers on the batteries is a good way of differentiating between them, but I honestly think you may have more batteries than you may need if you're asking this question. The batteries are pretty tough -- I slap the plastic cover over the end and toss them in to bang around with the filter cases and whatnot in a pocket somewhere. They'll be fine unless you encounter significant amounts of moisture.
posted by DaShiv at 11:09 AM on May 9, 2005
Marking the plastic covers on the batteries is a good way of differentiating between them, but I honestly think you may have more batteries than you may need if you're asking this question. The batteries are pretty tough -- I slap the plastic cover over the end and toss them in to bang around with the filter cases and whatnot in a pocket somewhere. They'll be fine unless you encounter significant amounts of moisture.
posted by DaShiv at 11:09 AM on May 9, 2005
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by smcniven at 8:05 AM on May 9, 2005