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As a photographer, having a reliable power source is essential for your gear and workflow. Whether you're shooting on location or working in the studio, a portable power station can be an invaluable tool to keep your equipment powered up and avoid disruptions. In this blog post, we'll take a look at why every photographer should consider adding a portable power station to their kit.
Powering Your Camera Gear
The most obvious use case for a portable power station is directly powering your cameras, flashes, and other accessories. Most modern mirrorless and DSLR cameras use lithium-ion batteries, which have a limited runtime before needing to be recharged. Having a portable power station gives you the flexibility to top up your camera batteries multiple times during a long shoot day.
Portable power stations like VTOMAN FlashSpeed 1500 Power Station, provide AC outlets, USB-A ports, and USB-C Power Delivery ports, allowing you to directly power or charge camera bodies, flashes, monitors, laptops, and other photography gear. The higher capacity power stations can charge a DSLR battery multiple times over before needing to be recharged.
Powering Lights and Accessories
In addition to cameras, a portable power station has plenty of uses for lighting and other photography accessories. For studio portrait shoots, you can avoid the hassle of plugging in strobe lights and use a portable power station placed right next to your setup. This removes tripping hazards and allows you to position lighting exactly where you need it.
For outdoor and on-location shoots, a portable power station can power LED light panels and battery-powered strobes. This gives you the flexibility to shoot at night or shape directional lighting during daylight hours. Power stations even offer an advantage for pure ambient or natural light photography, allowing you to power accessories like monitors, laptops, and chargers without any generators or external power sources.
Laptop Charging & Backup Power
Having enough power for your camera is only half the battle. Today's digital photography workflows rely heavily on laptops for tethering, file backup, and editing photos in the field. A portable power station can charge your laptop or desktop workstation, allowing you to work longer without being chained to an outlet.
Most portable power stations can charge an average laptop 3-10 times from zero to full on a single charge. This gives you tremendous peace of mind when working in remote locations or shooting time-sensitive events without access to wall outlets. Some power stations even have outlets specifically designed for laptop charging that provide the exact voltage required by your computer.
As a backup power source, a portable power station can literally save your shoot if you unexpectedly lose power. Events don't always have reliable power sources in place. If an outage occurs, you can continue working off the reserve power from your portable power station. This fail-safe can end up saving photo shoots that would otherwise be canceled or disrupted.
Powering Drone Batteries & Recharging Stations
Aerial photography using camera drones has become ubiquitous for real estate, events, sports, and commercial photo shoots. However, drones rely heavily on onboard batteries that run out quickly - usually lasting 15-30 minutes per charge. A portable power station can rapidly charge your spare drone batteries, so you spend more time shooting and less time waiting for batteries to charge.
Portable power stations designed for drone use often include multiple USB charging ports to charge drone and controller batteries simultaneously. As a bonus, you can use the AC outlets on the power station to run your laptop and tablet for managing drone footage on site. The high-power output of portable power stations means you can be ready for the next drone flight in as little as 10-30 minutes.
For longer drone photo assignments, a portable power station serves as an all-day recharging station. Most drones come with at least 2-3 batteries. By cycling through charging batteries on your power station, you can continuously fly drones for several hours without interruption. Just make sure to monitor battery temperatures and allow sufficient cooling between flights.
Operating Battery Grips & Camera Sliders
High-end DSLR and cinema cameras utilize battery grips for extended shooting times. These attach seamlessly to the camera body, providing duplicates of the battery compartment and controls for vertical shooting. However, powering these battery grips requires external power since you cannot charge them internally in the camera.
A portable power station is an easy solution for powering battery grips and keeping them charged between takes. For video production, having extra runtime on your camera rig can mean getting those perfect tracking shots and transition footage without constantly stopping to change conventional camera batteries.
Similarly, motorized camera sliders and other motion equipment often rely on onboard batteries or plug-in power. A portable power station gives you ample capacity to run these motors for hours without worrying about external power sources.
Backup Protection for Memory Cards
After a long shoot, nothing is worse than corrupted images or video due to faulty memory cards. Portable power stations provide lifesaving backup protection with built-in SD and microSD card readers. You can back up your SD cards by plugging them directly into the power station as a power source and data transfer hub.
This allows you to redundancy when shooting once-in-a-lifetime footage or capturing shots that can't be recreated. The peace of mind alone makes keeping a portable power station on hand worthwhile to avoid potential disasters. Just remember to back up your files to a laptop or external drive when you finish a shoot for complete protection.
Keep Gear Charged in Your Vehicle
For photographers constantly on the move, a portable power station is right at home in your vehicle. Whether pursuing storm-chasing photo opportunities or covering events as a photojournalist, your car becomes your mobile office and power source.
Having a portable power station stored in your trunk or backseat gives you backup power on the go when driving between locations. You can keep cameras, laptops, and other gear charged up to prepare for the next shoot. Just plug devices into the power station whenever you're en route or have downtime. This takes stress off your vehicle's battery and saves your gear's batteries for actual shooting times.
Overlanding Photography Adventures
For photographers who enjoy camping, hiking, and overland adventures, a portable power station is mandatory equipment. Being off-grid means no power outlets and reliance on your gear's internal batteries. External battery packs help but are limited in capacity.
A portable power station with solar recharging capabilities is perfect for extended overlanding trips while still allowing you to run cameras, laptops, lighting, drones, etc. The solar connectivity lets you harness the sun's energy to top up your station every day for unlimited power. Just a few hours of solar exposure can fully recharge a compact, high-capacity power station. This keeps your tech powered for capturing stunning landscape and night sky photography well off the beaten path.
In Closing
For today's tech-laden photographers, a portable power station has become mandatory equipment, whether shooting in the field or in the comfort of your studio. Portable power stations allow endless recharging and powering options for your most important photography gear. Just be sure to select a station offering pure sine wave AC outlets, sufficient watt hours for your needs, and solar connectivity if desired. By incorporating a portable power station into your workflow, you'll gain independence from finicky wall outlets and get creative capturing images anywhere inspiration strikes!
