Rodney Campbell's Blog

The Divide

NIKON Z 7 + 14.0 mm f/2.4 @ 14 mm, 15 sec at f/2.4, ISO 6400

I’d setup here to take a sequence of images to stack for star trails

I’d been a little concerned with the potential battery life when using my new Nikon Z7 mirrorless camera. There was some divide on this on the Internet with some complaining of poor battery life but most indicating a substantial battery life

Shooting exposure for star trails however tends to burn battery. Essentially because the sensor is basically constantly powered. Taking continuous long exposures one after the other

Anyway to avoid any issues I invested in a potentially game changing gadget to alleviate any concerns

I’d purchased a Tether Tools Case Relay along with a Nikon EP-5B Power Supply Connector (a dummy battery for my camera’s). This along with a standard portable USB battery pack (e.g. the type of thing you’d charge your phone with) would allow me to power the camera for far longer (probably all night) than a single internal camera battery

Or so the theory went. However this my first attempt was a Case Relay fail. It “looked” like it was working. However I actually returned to pick up my camera after 2 and a half hours… and my camera was lifeless…

I didn’t actually know how long it lasted or how many shots I got…

What I suspect happened is that the camera drained the internal built in rechargeable battery of the case relay but it in turn did not draw any power from the external USB battery pack. When the Case Relay battery ran out, it just cut off and my camera stopped at that point 🙁

I’ll have to see if there’s anything I can do to keep my USB battery pack active if and when I try again…

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