Like Boy Scouts, photographers must prepare for the unexpected. During a recent shoot, I discovered that I was rapidly running out of fresh batteries.

I am never without sufficient NP-FW50 batteries because I always carry plenty of them. However, a perfect storm of events interrupted my usual routine of rejuvenating my batteries after I returned from a shoot.

It wasn’t a complete disaster; I had sufficient photos from early in the day so I was covered. Still, I wanted extra photos to enhance my report of the event.

No access to AC power

The event was outdoors, and I had no access to AC power for my charger. My truck was on hand, but I had no adapter that would allow me to charge NP-FW50 batteries with my vehicle.

I started to conserve my shots, trying to eke out the power in my last remaining cell. That really isn’t my style, however. Long ago, I learned to shoot anything that seemed remotely interesting and then discard any unwanted images afterward. Sometimes these random shots turn out to be my best images from an event.

That’s when inspiration struck. I had a portable power bank jump starter in my truck. It was designed to jump-start vehicles, but it featured a pair of USB ports.

Using an A6000 as a boondock Sony NP-FW50 charger

I have never used a USB cord to charge a battery in the camera. Instead, I have always used a stand-alone charger so I could continue shooting while I was charging my spare batteries.

Without a charger that could be used with a USB cord, I had no way to charge my depleted batteries. Yet I did have my Sony A6000, which I carried as a backup to my Sony A7s. Both cameras use the same NP-FW50 battery cell. Would it be possible to use the A6000 as an improvised battery charger?

Digging through the selection of cords I always carry, it didn’t take long to find a 12-inch long USB-A to USB Micro cable.

Can you charge a Sony NP-FW50 battery cell with a power bank?

I plugged the USB-A end into the Power Bank, then the Micro USB connector into the A6000. My hope of resurrecting my Sony NP-FW50 batteries shifted to disappointment when nothing happened. Frustrated, I was about to abandon this idea, but then I noticed the two USB outlets on the power bank were marked with different colors. I shifted the USB-A power cord to the second outlet marked in black. Immediately the A6000 charge lamp lit up. Apparently, the black outlet provided sufficient power to recharge an NP-FW50 battery, while the other outlet did not.

Of course, you shouldn’t go around plugging strange cables into expensive cameras. But I had no choice. Sony intended users to charge the battery in-camera with a power cord. While I cannot say for sure, I assume Sony builds their cameras with circuitry which would limit incoming voltage and amperage to a safe level.

I also felt confident that the outlets on the power bank were designed to be safe for equipment like cell phones, iPads, and video lights. It seemed tame enough to rely on the power bank to charge a battery in-camera.

Yes, a Sony A6000 can act as a battery charger

With the battery charging in the A6000, I roamed around using up the last of the juice in the battery in the A7s. When it expired, I returned to my impromptu charging station and discovered the battery in the A6000 had charged to 78 percent. I transferred the battery to my A7s and had sufficient power to cover the rest of the event.

Neither my A6000 nor my NP-FW50 batteries suffered any harm in this stunt. Still, you need to use caution if you attempt to duplicate this idea. The original charging block supplied with the Sony A6000 outputs 5v at 0.5 amps. Again, I assume the Sony engineers designed the camera not to exceed a safe voltage/amperage limit.

While I managed to get through this event, I wanted to prevent a reoccurrence in the future. I needed a charging solution that could be powered by my truck’s cigarette lighter. While looking for a car charger on Amazon, I realized there were a host of chargers that connected to AC power with a USB cable.

Planning for future Sony NP-FW50 battery emergencies

Most newer vehicles have built-in USB outlets. Nearly every older vehicle features a 12-volt cigarette outlet. Adapters which allow you to convert a cigarette lighter port to a USB outlet are readily available.

I already owned a small charger that could be powered by a micro-USB or USB-C cable. As a test, I plugged it into a USB adapter on my truck and found it charged perfectly. I intend to purchase an inexpensive charger powered by a USB cord. This charger will live in my truck, so if I experience a dying battery situation in the future, I will have the means to charge my cells while in the field.

Of course, my makeshift solution used a big 2000 amp car battery jump starter. What about the more common cell phone power banks? Could one of these have enough energy to cope with a camera or battery charger?

My Anker 1300 milliamp external battery lives in my camera bag so I can keep my cell phone topped off in the field. I plugged my USB battery charger into it and it began charging the batteries. It probably won’t be as fast and won’t have the capacity of the big 2000 Amp automotive jump starter, but now I know it can juice up my batteries.

One tried one additional test. I plugged a USB cord into my MacBook Air and attached the battery charger to it. Once again the batteries began to charge. I didn’t test this procedure long enough to determine how quickly the laptop’s internal battery would be discharged, but at least I know that my laptop can charge my camera batteries if needed.

Be prepared with a plan to keep your Sony NP-FW50 Batteries topped off

I am sure many of you already knew you could charge your camera with a power bank and that you can power a USB charger through your vehicle’s USB port. But some might have been unaware or never thought about how to go about topping off your cells without access to AC power.

If this describes you, I suggest you experiment with different charging methods to find one that works for you. That way, if you ever need to charge your batteries without an AC outlet, you’ll be ready.

Even the finest digital camera is useless without battery power. By being prepared for a sudden battery emergency, you can save yourself from missing irreplaceable shots.

Find NP-FW50 batteries on eBay!

https://ebay.us/tcXTbx

The post Sony NP-FW50 Batteries: Charge ’em without AC Power appeared first on Alphatracks.

The original design spec for the Sony Mirrorless cameras called for them to be small and exceptionally light. The heaviest part of any digital camera is the battery pack, so the Sony engineers complied by equipping the new breed of cameras with the featherweight NP-FW50 battery. Although less robust than larger camera batteries, NP-FW50 is still powerful for its size and weight.

Photographers loved the scaled-down camera bodies and their near weightlessness. They were less enthusiastic about the NP-FW50’s lack of stamina. Probably the biggest complaint against the new EVIL cameras was how quickly the battery died.

This isn’t an issue for me. Yes, the batteries go flat more rapidly than the larger, beefier cells of other digital cameras. But it takes almost no time to switch out an NP-FW50 for a fully-charged one, so this has never impacted my photography. I carry several NP-FW50s in my camera bag, and I have never found myself in a situation where lack of a fresh battery was an issue.

Where is that Battery Hiding?

That is unless I can’t find a fresh battery. Did I mention the NP-FW50 is very small? Like all minuscule things, the NP-FW50 has the ability to burrow deep into the bottom of a camera bag, hiding amidst the filters, sync-cords, lens caps, and other paraphernalia I carry in my bag. Hey, they don’t call ’em gadget bags for nothing.

I carry five or six NP-FW50s in my bag, but I quickly discovered it was a chore to find a fresh battery when I needed one. When I dug a cell from the nether regions of my bag, I couldn’t tell whether it was charged or expired. As I said, it takes mere seconds to switch batteries on a Sony Mirrorless camera. If you have to perform this maneuver several times to find a working battery, however, it is no longer quick and easy.

Amazon Strikes out

Obviously, I needed a way to find my charged batteries instantaneously. I started checking Amazon for battery cases. I found some hard cases that were designed to hold a few batteries as well as memory cards. I rejected these for two reasons. First, they only held only two, or at the most three power cells. Secondly, I already have an excellent Pelican memory card case integrated into my workflow. 

Amazon had some soft pouches designed to hold batteries but didn’t care for them. There were enough compartments for all my batteries but the NP-FW50s would swim inside the large pockets. They simply weren’t an elegant solution.

So I went searching beyond Amazon. I found exactly what I was looking for on Etsy. Yes, Etsy. 

I always thought of Etsy as a craft site, a place to find soap dishes made out of pine cones or stylish leather vests that look like they were worn by a timber baron from the 1800s. It certainly wouldn’t be a place to look for digital camera accessories.

SplashNcolor on Etsy had just what I wanted

How wrong I was. I discovered you can find nearly anything on Etsy, including used cameras and lenses. Regarding the matter at hand, I discovered a seller called SplashNcolor. 

SplashNcolor uses a 3D printer to produce elegant, perfectly designed battery magazines for the NP-FW50. This was just the item I was searching for. The compact no-nonsense clip holds four NP-FW50 cells. The cells fit tightly in their individual chambers. Each chamber has a tab that prevents the battery from sliding out into the bag or your pocket.  

When you want to extract the battery just push down on the tab and the battery pops out into your hand.

To identify whether a cell is fresh or discharged, I place freshly charged batteries in the magazine with the contacts facing away. When I take a flat battery from my camera, I insert it into the clip so the contacts are visible. This way, I can grab the clip from my bag and tell at a glance how many charged batteries are available. 

When I return home from a shoot, I can immediately tell which cells I need to recharge.

This Battery Magazine is with me on Every Shoot

The clip usually lives in a specific pocket of my backpack. Sometimes, I don’t need to carry all my gear, so I switch to my smaller messenger bag. It takes no time to transfer my battery clip and my memory card case to the messenger bag, so I don’t arrive at a shoot without the necessary accessories.

When I am in the field, I sometimes leave the camera bag in a safe location and range around with just a camera and a lens or two. While it is a little bulky, the battery magazine fits easily into the pocket of my jeans, so I know I won’t find myself a half-mile away from my gear staring at a message on my LCD informing me “battery exhausted.”

Of course, if you lose the magazine, you lose four batteries at once. With that in mind, I coughed up a couple of extra bucks to have SplashNcolor print my magazine in bright red. The default ones are printed in black, but for a slight upcharge, you can have your magazine printed in various bright colors. I figure red makes it easier to find in the gadget bag, and if it should fall out of my pocket in the woods, the shiny red color will be easy to spot.

The red-orange color also matches the Storacell AA battery holder I use.

I was a little concerned with how well the magazine would hold up. Would the 3D-printed plastic become brittle and crack? What if I dropped it on a hard surface with a full complement of batteries? Would the plastic lock tabs break over time?

My Battery Magazine has held up well

I needn’t have worried. I have toted the battery magazine around for several months in all kinds of weather conditions. I’ve dropped it and tossed heavy camera gear on top of it. It still looks brand new and there is no suggestion that the magazine will fail to provide service for many years to come.

It took me about a week to get my battery magazine because the special color had to be printed on demand. Apparently, the black ones are printed in advance and can be shipped immediately.

If you shoot with a camera that relies on the NP-FW50 battery, I cannot recommend this magazine enough. I would never want to be on a shoot without it.

Click here to buy the Sony NP-FW50 battery holder at SplashNcolor’s Etsy shop.

The post Never worry about your Sony Batteries Again with this Battery Magazine appeared first on Alphatracks.