I like making astrophotos, and as you know, in that cases you must leave the shutter open for a long time (several minutes). The problem is the limited life of batteries when holding the shutter open, so i am thinking in making some kind of "home-made" power source, for standard AA batteries, or even plug it to my car lighter. My camera is an EOS 300/REBEL 2000. Yes, i know there is a Battery Pack from CANON, but i like to use a solder and perhaps save some money ...

Thanks in advance.

-- David Fernandez (basilio@ozu.es), January 10, 2002

Answers

"but i like to use a solder and perhaps save some money ..."

If your Rebel goes up in smoke, don't expect Canon the honor your warranty. Also, I would not try to take that home made contraption through airport security.

-- Kenneth Katz (socks@bestweb.net), January 10, 2002.

I think that some kind of "dummy" battery can be constructed to connect an external, self-made battery pack to the unit. This is/was available for the EOS-5. I don't think you have to solder anything in/on the camera body itself, just construct some kind of adapter.

Standard AA batteries won't hurt the camera since Canon uses these also. In the EOS-30/BP300 manual Canon advises against using FR6 lithium batteries since these can damage the electronics of the camera due to their high initial voltage. This may be a restriction for the EOS-300 as well.

Just my 2c,

-- Jos van Eekelen (jos@compuserve.com), January 10, 2002.

I've done this with other cameras. I used two pieces of wooden dowling that was a little shorter and a bit thinner than the regular batteries and then thickened them up by wrapping duct tape around them until they were the propper diameter. Then I drilled a hole from one end to the other, stuck a wire through the hole and put a screw into the end to use as a contact. Two of those, one for positive and another for negative, with the other end of the wires run to an external 6 volt battery pack should do it. Let the wires run through a slightly open battery door that is held in place with more duct tape.

-- Jim Strutz (j.strutz@gci.net), January 11, 2002.