On 2007-05-07 16:30:17 -0700, "the_niner_nation"
said:

I am visiting Kenya, Africa in October for a 2 week safari vacation, and
very much looking forward to taking my Canon 400D along for the ride :-)

However, i have a challenge...my accomodation in Kenya will be a tent camp
(at varying locations) and as such, there isn't any access to electrical
power points etc ( or showers and toilets for that matter!)

So, I now need a solution as I realise my 2 batteries for the 400d are NOT
going to be enough..I am hoping to take around 200-ish jpg photos a day for
9 days, and even storage is a problem, as I have an acrchos 500 media player
I was going to use to back up my photos onto, but using it would be a HUGE
drain on power for both the camera and the media player.

I have friends kindly willing to loan me CF cards, so storage isn't a HUGE
problem, but what should i do about the battery problem?

I am willing to buy a further 2 MAYBE 3 more canon batteries, but these
things are not cheap at around £45 each.

All help appreciated

Will you have access to a vehicle? You can get an adapter that has an
ordinary electrical outlet that you can plug into the cigarette lighter
while the vehicle is under way (which should be a fair amount of the
time). Canon also makes a battery charger that fits in a car accessory
outlet. If a car is not available then you could possibly use one of
those portable batteries used for jump starting cars. Some of those
have cigarette lighter outlets or even electrical outlets on them. I
don't know how long they last, but they could renew your batteries for
at least a couple days. Very heavy, though.

Military units use things like this to recharge batteries:

http://www.baproducts.com/asccustomp...p?ProductID=72

One would think that safari guides would have solved this problem long ago...

Otherwise you are really stuck with taking a bunch of batteries with you.

Or you could just use that old Boy Scout stand-by, the current bush. :-)

--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor