I was in London on vacation (or on holiday as the Brits say it) and my battery charger died. Yes, the smoke genie was released and I couldn't charge my camera. This isn't some $20 easy to find charger, this is a battery charger for a Canon 1D and the camera shops near by wanted to sell me one for 200 pounds. Luckily, they sent me to Phase Two and here, I met two gents who pointed me to the 12 volt adapters that I could use to charge my battery. The conversation went something like this:
Me: "I need a 12 volt power supply"
Them: "What kind of current?"
Me: "It doesn't matter, something smaller and inexpensive."
Them: "Look on the wall there and see if any of those will work."
Me: "This one looks good."
Them: "what's it for?"
Me: "I need to charge this battery."
Them: "You need a battery charger for that."
Me: "I know, but the camera shops don't have one to sell me."
Them: "You can't do that, you should take it to the camera shop."
Me: "I'm pretty sure it will work."
Them: "This isn't a good idea."
Me: "It'll be fine."
Them: "You're going to get hurt."
Me: "I've done it before."
So they don't understand the finer points of batteries and charging, but they did have exactly what I needed and that's all that really counts. They even let me use some of their tools to kluge together my charger and their power supply for a semi-permanent way to charge my battery for the remaining 14 days of my trip.
Thanks Phase 2! read more