Battery charger and lens

[batteryproblems]

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/55683471

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/55683324

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1357184/1#12975872

 

I've posted these and so far have received silly replies.

 

For the sake of discussion, please assume I am correct in that a 21mm loxia lens is coming.

 

 

I am searching for a lightweight, full fame camera system for a long hiking adventure. Weight is an important factor to my decision, and I am going to be taking a lot of landscape photographs. Assume I am correct that a 21mm loxia lens will be available in the near future. What lenses would you pick out of these options?

 

21mm loxia, 35mm loxia

 

21mm loxia, 50mm loxia

 

21mm loxia, 35mm fe, 90mm leica macro

 

21mm loxia, 55mm 1.8 fe

 

21mm loxia, 35mm fe

 

Things to photograph -- mountains, trees, outdoors scenery - snakes - bears.

 

In my opinion, the 35mm loxia is better than the 50mm loxia, as I think the bokeh is nicer. I don't know about the purple fringing and I doubt it's a concern on either. A 21mm and a 35mm is great for landscape photography, but not good for snakes at all. Adding a 90mm might make sense but it's an expensive lens and more likely to get ruined.

 

I'm undecided between an a7r and an a7rII. The a7ii feels slightly less comfortable to me. The extra size and weight isn't favourable. The a7r has an incredible amount of shutter lag, and the shutter volume could potentially get me killed

 

I realise I am not offering proof about the 21mm lens. Obviously a 200mm lens is a ridiculous suggestion (weight). I am likely going to go with a 21mm loxia and a 50mm loxia.

 

My next question about batteries

 

 

Assuming the new a7rII uses the same battery as the a7r, are there any external battery chargers that can charge via a USB cable? The official sony one has a USB output but not an input.

 

I need an external charger for a long hike and I want to be able to use my camera while one battery is charging I need a charger that can accept a USB cable (solar panel). The reply I got was "use a cheap charger". I don't care about the price, I care about being able to plug a USB cable into it.

 

Suggestions?

 

I've not found anything so far

[Jan Anne]

Zeiss told me the Loxia version of the 21mm ZM didn't perform to their standards, that might of course change.

 

As for solar charging, bring a solar powerbank, for a couple of reasons:

- The a7 series can be charged by USB so why bother dragging around a charger

- Solar isn't very consistent in its output, most chargers can't deal with this as they need a constant input

- A powerbank can also charge your phone, GPS, lights, radio, etc when the sun doesn't shine (happens more often than not)

- With a charging only cable the a7 series can be charged at 1.45A, thats 3 times faster than any external charger I know of (30 minutes of charging should last for hundreds of images)

 

If you insist on an external charger have a look at the Pixo C-USB, also charges AA and AAA's:

http://pixo.de/p/pixo_cusb.html

 

I used this when shooting with Nikon but gave it away as my a7S can be charged by USB (as mentioned above).

 

As for lenses, only you can decide what you need to capture the images you want to capture and how much (weight) compromise you want to deal with. Me personally I don't leave home without an UWA (14 or 15mm) and a fast 35mm, with these two lenses I can cover 90% of my shots.

[batteryproblem]

I would like to take a 21mm and 50mm, but I'm unsure about the 50mm loxia. I need to hunt down some raw files. A leica wate is another option for a wide angle. I cannot really take something much heavier than that.

 

 

 

The a7 series can be charged by USB so why bother dragging around a charger

 

As already stated,  I want to be able to charge a battery while still using the camera, and potentially having two charging options while the camera is switched off.

 

 

bring a solar powerbank

 

I likely will plug one into the solar panel. The solar panel is definitely staying. A powerbank doesn't solve the solution as it's still a USB output. I am going to need solar power regardless. It is true what you said about the older generation solar panels and chargers, but not the newer.

 

 

 

With a charging only cable the a7 series can be charged at 1.45A, thats 3 times faster than any external charger I know of (30 minutes of charging should last for hundreds of images)

 

1.45 x 5 = 7.25w.

 

 

 

If you insist on an external charger have a look at the Pixo C-USB, also charges AA and AAA's:

http://pixo.de/p/pixo_cusb.html

 

This looks amazing, thank you! If there's any other chargers like this, I'd love to know

[Jan Anne]

I likely will plug one into the solar panel. The solar panel is definitely staying. A powerbank doesn't solve the solution as it's still a USB output. I am going to need solar power regardless. It is true what you said about the older generation solar panels and chargers, but not the newer.

Sorry for not being clear, I meant bring a solar powerbank together with a solar panel (not as a replacement), regardless of the panel generation it's output will be less when a cloud floats in front of the sun, you walk around with a panel on your backpack, etc, etc and most chargers need a stable input (the iPhone will stop charging when the load goes below 0.2A a couple of time a minute).

 

The powerbank will stabilise the output of the solar panel, when the panel delivers less than the charger would like the powerbank adds the difference, when the panel generates more power than the charger needs the excess power is stored in the powerbank, when the sun doesn't shine you have backup power, etc, etc.

 

As for power sources, solar might not always be the best option in for instance autumn when up North in Scandinavia, a PowerPot is a much better option as it can generate 5 or 10W of power on a campfire which we're usually able to make every night where the sun didn't shine everyday during a two week canoeing trip.

 

Some power source ideas, see what works best for your kind of needs:

http://powerpractical.com/collections/portable-power-products/products/powerpot10-thermoelectric-generator

http://powerpractical.com/collections/portable-power-products/products/powerpot5-thermoelectric-generator

http://www.biolitestove.com/products/biolite-kettlecharge

http://www.biolitestove.com/products/biolite-campstove

[Karlitos]

21mm loxia, 55mm 1.8 fe

You want to have one quick shoot option with AF, and it's a phantastic lens.

 

Snakes and bears, I would not describe 200mm as ridiculous.

[LeButler]

You want one of these USB powered camera battery chargers or this dual battery version , combined with a USB battery pack. One of these small ones for example charges the camera battery 5-6 times in reality.

 

Unless you go more than a few days without access to AC power, I expect an additional USB battery pack would provide more power than solar would add (per m3 space used and possibly per gram of weight too).

 

I'd go for the FE 55 and wait to find out how the new 25mm f2.0 Zeiss Batis turns out assuming that's wide enough for you (I certainly struggle to compose 21mm shots well). The new lens is the same weight as the Loxia 35 although quite a bit larger:  335g, 92 x 81mm  Vs  340g, 62 x 59mm.

 

The A7 ii's benefits don't outweigh it's extra cost and weight over the original A7 for this application. An A7R ii however probably would...hopefully it'll come out before you depart, you can then judge if it's extra weight is worth it.