Using adaptor same time as charging battery?
 

Quick question: Can I use the AC adaptor at the same time as the battery is being charged?

I'm a dumbass
 

Never mind. I'm a dumb ass. The battery will not be charged as long as I have the adaptor plugged into the charger part.

And that stinks, doesn't it. Wouldn't it be great if the AC adapter charged a battery and powered the camera at the same time?

<<<-- Originally posted by Chris Hurd : And that stinks, doesn't it. Wouldn't it be great if the AC adapter charged a battery and powered the camera at the same time? -->>>

Indeed. I can understand this *slowing* the charging of the battery but ...

I guess if I do this often enough I will either need more batteries or another AC adaptor. That's pretty far down on my list.

Hi,

I WOULD NOT TRY it but I would bet that it would work....for a short while.

What disables the charging circuit is the plug on the charger when you plug in the camcorders adaptor. It appears to merely switch the available power from the battery to the camcorder. To disable this switch (like when you plug in earphones and the speaker switches off) I bet would leave both circuits running simultaneously. The problem would be that I would not think that the circuit was designed to deliver the amount of current required for both operations. It would have been so easy to have it do so at the design stage. If the use of the camcorder is intermittent and the load on the unit is minimal it may well work????

Don't try, these things get pricey.

Cheers
Andrew

I was searching for an extra battery charger about 6 months ago and came across the Lenmar Mach1 http://www.lenmar.com/Video/Chargers/msc1.asp The $99 in the ad is list if you buy it direct. I paid around $40.00 (on-line) and another $10 for the adapter to do the XL1 batteries. It also comes with a car adapter and adapters to do many different batteries. It works great. Charging times seem quicker than the standard Canon charger and after 6 months use my batteries seem fine.

Jeff

There's a lot more to charging Lith batteries these days. Part of the reason for this is so that the charging circuit can monitor the recharge process.

Both Lemar and Maha make universal chargers. The Maha, comes as 12 volt charger and then uses adapters for wall power. This allows you to go put your battery in the car or wall power...your choice.

I haven't looked for this model specifically, but they have advertised them as universal, so I am assuming that includes the XL-1 packs.

Nathan Gifford

Battery Packs
 

I have a Starvision 7 inch LCD monitor for my XL1s but have no portable powerpack for it. I am trying to find 12V battery packs but am having little luck.
Anyone have a link to what I need?
I've tried all over town.

I know of two good quality belts, NRG Research http://www.nrgresearch.com/cat.html and Bescor http://www.bescor.com/menu_battery.htm Zotz Digital probably carries one or the other http://www.zotzdigital.com/ Give them a try they help sponsor the site.

Jeff

It might help to know where your located!

Bruce

Oklahoma.
Thanks fo rthe links! Will investigate!

Greetings

I have an adapter that allows you to use the regular XL1 batteries to power your monitor. It works great and keeps me from having one other wire hanging from my XL1. You can find more info on the Watchdog.

Here is the link to the site.
http://www.nebtek.com/5inch/NEB50Xl%20page.html

I used velcro to attach the unit to the monitor. It works perfect. It is kind of nice only having to have one type of battery, and chargers.

About that TFT
 

What are the specs on it? I've found some good prices on car TFTs, it's probably a more cost-effective solution to the more expensive camera-mounted TFTs available, the only draw back would be the lack of a shoe-mount, and the power source (spliced wires).

The cheapest I've seen specifically for cameras is from Varizoom, but I'm not too keen on lead acid batteries.

Has anyone gone this (car TV) route?

Although several battery packs will work (ie Nebtek and others) they tend to be expensive. For a cheap solution try the Varizoom battery pack for their monitors (around $65 with charger). It looks and feels like an old Sony NP1 or a regular laptop battery and works well with starvision 5.6 and 7 inch TFT LCD screens. Almost any rechargable battery with 12volts and between 750 and 1200 milliamps will also work fine.
Ron
TravelReview@Hotmail.com

Battery life?
 

Having listened to the advice posted to others on here (the search facility is really useful) I bought the Sennheiser ew100 wireless system and changed the 'on board' XL1 microphone with a Sennheiser MKE 300. I have just reviewed the footage of my first shoot and the improvement is significant - so thanks to everyone who has in the past recommended these mics.

I was shooting a long operation and the battery in the ew100 receiver went down after about five hours and needed to be changed. Interestingly the transmitter was OK, although the low battery light was flashing, which was fortunate as it was under the sterile gown of a surgeon :-) So I learned the lesson to replace the batteries for each shoot!

Anyway, my question is has anyone any idea how many hours the button battery on the MKE300 will last - or should I replace this after every days shooting?

Regards to all

Ross