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Electrical Power solution for remote outdoor shoots?
To all,
I am looking for some feedback on what some of you are using to power any electrical equipment when doing outdoor shoots. In areas that offer no source of electricity. Thank you in advance.
Bill
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3 Replies
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What do you need to power? Modern cameras and reasonable LED lighting is typically fine on batteries, even for extended night time shooting.
If you need significant punch, like lighting up a broad area – all the “Home Depot” type stores sell simple gas-powered generators for a few hundred bucks. You have to accept some noise, so if you’re doing narrative and need to record dialog, that can be a hassle. But for B-Roll shoots, they are fine.
(Be careful with doing the grounding system as instructed, but other than that, they’re quite safe.)
My 2 cents.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
If you need it quiet and a Honda with a sound-suppressor isn’t available or in the budget, then I’d suggest some deep-cycle marine batteries and an inverter if you need it to be AC, but modern cameras, laptops, and LED-based lights will run a long time on them on straight DC, long as they have a voltage regulator or you can run the devices independently on dedicated lithium battery packs.
The current Anton Baur’s we run our cameras with give about 6-7 hours of P2 run time.
I think I also just discovered a new niche market to tell Elon Musk about. 🙂
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[Mark Suszko] “I think I also just discovered a new niche market to tell Elon Musk about. :-)”
Remote power is a really interesting space these days.
I was looking at quiet generators the other day and saw a ton of units like this available on-line…
Pretty robust on-board battery array – inverter to feed AC, and rechargability via Edison, Automotive power, or solar array. I think the camping market makes economies of scale possible.
Combined with modern LED lighting and power sipping cameras – the traditional need for a gas powered generator might be fading a bit.
I bet two or three of these type things could light a decent remote location shoot pretty well for a few hours.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.
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