Canon R5 Canon R5: Mains Power for Continuous Shooting

[Deepgreen]

Hello -

I am a newcomer to the forum. With astrophotography, I am finding that my battery is not lasting the night when undertaking long exposure shoots. I am looking at (UK) mains power supplies and wondered if there is an economical way to do this. Canon's AC socket on the side of the R5 appears to be specifically designed such that ordinary AC adaptors won't fit, but do I really need both the DR-E6 coupler and the AC-E6N adaptor to do this?

 

[Jake Shoots Birds]

There's a note on Canon's website along with the R5 C that states the following:

Continuous recording of video is dependent upon media capacity and continuous power to the camera. Continuous power options include Canon's PD-E1 USB power adapter (sold separately), or the DR-E6C DC coupler (sold separately) combined with the CA-946 compact power adapter (sold separately) or compatible third party solutions.

It looks like the PD-E1 USB adapter is the easiest solution. Depending on how quickly you're running out of power you might want to look at a grip so you can load up two batteries.

 

[Deepgreen]

There's a note on Canon's website along with the R5 C that states the following:

Continuous recording of video is dependent upon media capacity and continuous power to the camera. Continuous power options include Canon's PD-E1 USB power adapter (sold separately), or the DR-E6C DC coupler (sold separately) combined with the CA-946 compact power adapter (sold separately) or compatible third party solutions.

It looks like the PD-E1 USB adapter is the easiest solution. Depending on how quickly you're running out of power you might want to look at a grip so you can load up two batteries.

Thanks for your reply. I believe this only allows for charging the battery in situ and doesn't allow shooting while doing so. It also appears to require the additional grip to operate, which I don't have. I was really wondering if I would need both pieces of kit to provide a mains power supply or could I get away with another DC supply (of which I have loads already) with just the bespoke Canon jack plug unit? I looked at a two-battery grip but it's a more expensive option than even buying the two power supply units.

 

[Jake Shoots Birds]

Yes, it's for charging the battery in situ, but I don't think Canon would refer to it as a "continuous power option" on a camera designed for astrophotography if it didn't allow for operation while charging. In this case it's effectively maintaining the charge on the battery during use.

 

[Deepgreen]

Yes, it's for charging the battery in situ, but I don't think Canon would refer to it as a "continuous power option" on a camera designed for astrophotography if it didn't allow for operation while charging. In this case it's effectively maintaining the charge on the battery during use.

Yes, I did hope this would be the case but the wording on the web site implied that the battery life would be finite with this, rather than effectively infinite. It certainly makes sense for it to be used as a power supply but I wonder if the battery drain from long exposure use is at a greater rate than the charging, thus limiting life. To be fair, though, even so it probably would provide enough life for the stuff I do. Thanks for the response.

 

[Jake Shoots Birds]

Yes, I did hope this would be the case but the wording on the web site implied that the battery life would be finite with this, rather than effectively infinite. It certainly makes sense for it to be used as a power supply but I wonder if the battery drain from long exposure use is at a greater rate than the charging, thus limiting life. To be fair, though, even so it probably would provide enough life for the stuff I do. Thanks for the response.

I have to believe that if you're connected to an outlet then there's no possibility that you'd run out of

 

[Jake Shoots Birds]

So I checked with my Canon Pro Rep and he told me that any USB power supply connected to the camera (including a USB battery pack/charger) should power the camera continuously without draining the battery. Full stop.

 

[Deepgreen]

So I checked with my Canon Pro Rep and he told me that any USB power supply connected to the camera (including a USB battery pack/charger) should power the camera continuously without draining the battery. Full stop.

Very helpful - many thanks. I have a large bag full of DC adaptors but none of the jack plugs fit the camera, so I was trying to see if there was a way to use generic kit for the job. It looks like 'no' is the answer!

 

[DaveTX]

Very helpful - many thanks. I have a large bag full of DC adaptors but none of the jack plugs fit the camera, so I was trying to see if there was a way to use generic kit for the job. It looks like 'no' is the answer!

Just a general comment around the periphery of your current search: I am also a collector of DC power supplies, a.k.a. wall warts. You need to check the output voltage and current of the power supply for compatibility with your application in addition to the size of the output plug when digging through your collection to find a power supply for some random piece of equipment. In rare cases, you may encounter plugs where the ground or negative connection is in the center while the hot or positive connection is on the external barrel, i.e. a negative polarity plug. The attached image shows the typical polarity symbols.

 

[DaveTX]

Thanks for your reply. I believe this only allows for charging the battery in situ and doesn't allow shooting while doing so. It also appears to require the additional grip to operate, which I don't have. I was really wondering if I would need both pieces of kit to provide a mains power supply or could I get away with another DC supply (of which I have loads already) with just the bespoke Canon jack plug unit? I looked at a two-battery grip but it's a more expensive option than even buying the two power supply units.

So I checked with my Canon Pro Rep and he told me that any USB power supply connected to the camera (including a USB battery pack/charger) should power the camera continuously without draining the battery. Full stop.

This is what the current R5 manual has to say on page 857.
Using a USB Power Adapter to Charge/Power the Camera
Using USB Power Adapter PD-E1 (sold separately), you can charge Battery Pack LP-E6NH or LP-E6N without removing it from the camera. The camera can also be powered. Note that Battery Pack LP-E6 cannot be charged this way.

Continue reading the section for the next few pages for more information. There is a text box full of "cautions" on page 859. Most of the cautions are really just helpful details about using an external USB-C power supply.

This is me speaking: the port is a USB-C port so the voltage and contact assignments are specified by the USB-C standard which implies that any DC power supply or extender battery pack with a USB-C output should work as well as the PD-E1 as long as it provides enough current to keep up with the R5's current requirement.