[Steve]

We are planning a two week camping holiday/photography trip around France for the near future and will need some way to re-charge the batteries for the Canon 10D/20D...is there something either by Canon or some third party manufacturer then anyone has experience with or can recommend?

[Chris_Mitton]

I have the same dilemma as you.

Canon do a charger that plugs into a car cigar lighter socket - however when I looked into it, the unit was about £85 or so.

If you want to try flea bay...

eBay UK Shop - YEKoYEK: CANON, Battery Charger Kits, SONY

There are loads of other people selling similar. I have purchased one from the guy above for £15 seems to work fine.

[Steve]

Cheers Chris, since posting above I also located the Canon charger and also felt quite ill at the price. I did check a few places for third party stuff and found some in the states that was very reasonibly priced before P&P but afterwards...

So it looks like the Ebay route for me as well...i'll let you know how I go on

[silkstone]

It may be just fine, but I'm always a little concerned about how good these third-party chargers are at sensing the state of charge, and whether they could fry the battery.

An alternative could be to buy a 12V inverter like this one which allows mains equipment to run from a car socket.

[Chris_Mitton]

By the same token, makes you wonder how much profit Canon are making out of selling you one. Just paying for the Canon lable maybe??

[Dabhand16]

I bought batteries and a double charger for my video camera

Here

I'm very pleased with the price, and quality. It worked out less than half of the price of Canon branded batteries and double charger.

[neos]

I'd go for the inverter mtself. In fact I have one for my laptop, but have never used it for a charge. Can't see any problems though, and it won't cost you anywhere near £85. Halfords so one for £30, and maplin regularly do specials for £20-30.

[Steve]

Interesting approach gents, I had not thought of the invertor route. Do these invertors run hot while in use?

[Chris_Mitton]

I did look at this some time back, but I was a bit put off for several reasons.

A lot of the cheaper inverters don’t generate a true sign wave output, this could cause damage to your appliance.

Space was another issue where do you put it. OK if you have an accessory socket in your boot.

Over loading the unit, by the time I had taken into account all the things to plug in to the unit I was looking a very expensive inverter.

So my preference is to go down the 12V route.

[neos]

Originally Posted by Steve

Interesting approach gents, I had not thought of the invertor route. Do these invertors run hot while in use?

Yes, mine runs very hot, and it buzzes too.

[lon10c]

The accessory battery grip will accept "AA" batteries as well as the standard Canon batteries.

Car chargers are readly available for rechargeable "AA" size and other "household" batteries.

[neos]

Originally Posted by lon10c

The accessory battery grip will accept "AA" batteries as well as the standard Canon batteries.

Car chargers are readly available for rechargeable "AA" size and other "household" batteries.

Not the 10D, and i don't thin the 20D does either

[lon10c]

Originally Posted by neos

Not the 10D, and i don't thin the 20D does either

The 20D Battery grip definitely will. The BG-ED2 has an adapter that comes with it. Did you throw yours out?

I looked up the BG-ED3 on the B&H Photo web site and it states that it will accept 6-AA batteries as well as the two standard Cannon batteries.

Look for yourself.

[Steve]

Yup the 20D battery grip definately will run off AA batteries although there has been some very critical reports of the logivity and amount of shots attainable using that methord. Better than nothing in a crunch situation though.