AC power adaptor rant
Apr 12 2004
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I started thinking about what gadgets I’ll be bringing along to our New Zealand trip. I’ll definitely want to be taking hundreds of pictures, so will Iva. Then I love taking video.
I will probably buy a hard-drive-based databank for the photos or some totally light sub-notebook to replace my aging titanium powerbook. But the thing that sucks most for a trip where you have to carry everything along on the tracks - power adaptors.
The insanity is the Sony AC-L10A vs AC-L20A. So sony sells this ubercool camcorder, the IP-5. And you say to yourself, whoa. A miracle of miniaturization. And then look at the power adaptor. It’s about twice as big as the camera although pretty light. But the worse thing is that it uses a different fixed-mounted connector than the AC-L10A which came with the F717. Same adaptor, different connector. I’m seriously thinking of going for some czechnology to split the output to use both connectors.
Another achievemnt of the sony engineers is the “docking station” for the clie ux-50 palm. The only purpose of that huge thing is to provide power for it. It mimicks the shape of the extended battery.
Of course Iva’s cam AC/DC adapter uses different volatge and connector. So it looks like bringing an extra backpack just for those. At least it doesn’t need the docking station.
I’m glad I don’t have a DSLR and don’t have to think about choosing the right lens and hating myself no matter what the choice was.