" In this short span between my fingertips and the smooth edge and these tense feet cramped to a crystal ledge, I hold the life of a man." -Geoffrey Winthrop Young.
Hi all, how feasible it is to use solar panels while trekking? Have seen pictures of trekkers carrying them on their back packs. Has anyone on this forum used them? Is it possible to recommend a specific model? I am looking for a solar panel for charging my for DSLR camera, phone while on treks.
I am not very sure how well these solar panels work, having had a forgettable experience with at least 3 models which did not prove to be useful. I suggest you carry extra batteries and a powermonkey charger. It gives a full recharge to a phone and an ipad. Therefore I think it will work for a DSLR. Also, I use a storage charger and not a solar one. You can immediately find out how much back up is left..
There are different types. Some are reasonable large panels that fold into a book. You unfold them when at camp and attach them to a large and rather heavy battery. Goal Zero has several such models. I have seen people use them and they are pretty good.
I found it pretty useless too. There is a lot of sun in Ladakh, and yet it barely managed to build a charge. I could recharge my MP3 player, but it would not recharge my Android phone.
It helps charging my phone and camera Nikon P100 batteries. On a full charge it can charge 1 Nikon battery fully and phone battery approx thrice.
I have achieved a full charge using solar over 4 days of exposure while trekking.
Am attaching an image of the same.
This is good info buddy . Does it work well ? Would you recommend it to others , basically for a cell phone and a basic point in shoot camera . Also how much does it cost .
Don't really have any personal experience as far as Solar Panels are concerned, but recently on one of our Everest Base Camp treks, a friend of mine from States brought down " Goal Zero Nomad 27 Solar Panel " which he clipped on to the back of his ruck sack. It worked out brilliantly for him as he was able to charge is Ipad , Ipod, iphone ( as I mentioned, he;s from the states and i-anything is what works for them) .
Below is the review available on Youtube for the " Goal Zero Nomad 27 Solar Panel "
Having seen first hand how, cool it worked for him, I went online to look at some reviews and came across the following link which was pretty thorough on the comparisons of Solar Panels.
Interesting Video and product, but I don't think its feasible to purchase this here . Any idea, "IN INDIA", what are the best options ?
Its interesting that the subject for this discussion specifically quantifies the requirement of solar panels for "Treks". I guess if someone wants to trek heavy then its alright.
Most hikers and alpinists I know of would travel/hike/climb as light as possible. Something as cumbersome as the Goal Zero Nomad would defeat the purpose in such cases. Most Chinese panels are terrible and the good ones are too cumbersome and expensive to justify the way they work.
Almost all smartphones, and digicams give out the capacity of their batteries in mah. Just add up the figures and pick a compact powerbank which has a capacity equal to or more than the figure you arrived at. I personally use a Nokia DC16 (1700 mah), but there are powerbanks out there with capacity as much as 10000 mah and are only slightly bigger than the DC16.