Most of the time when camping, we’ll be taking the trusty Rav4. Now, not being a full blown 4wd like my Good Old Days in the Prado or Patrol, I don’t want to rig up a permanent dual Battery system in the Rav4. There isn’t enough room under the bonnet and its a little un necessary. Although, I do need to power the fridge.

When driving, this isn’t a big issue. The Engel will happily run fine via the 12 volt lead and the cigerette lighter socket in the back of the Rav4. When camping though, its a different story as with the ignition off, the socket loses power. Powering it permanently is an option, but the Rav4 being an auto and the dread of a flat battery has me nervous for this solution.

Next I looked at some commercial options. Engel and Waeco both make a battery pack capable of powering the Fridge Essentially a battery in a box with some trickery. The trickery joins the battery once the voltage of the power source is high enough. these are bulky and expensive. I wanted to utilise the space under the floor of the rav.

I decided to possibly make my own Battery case. Using a Pelican case I had a sturdy solid case i could easily carry. These are quite expensive however. I found a cheap second hand case on Ebay, $30 for a Pelican 1400 case.

It was obviously used for some form of testing equipment, I ditched the foam.

I found Jaycar had a source of Sealed Gel Batteries that fit the case. I decided on 6 12 Volt, 7.2Ah batteries that I could wire together to get around 43Ah. The six batteries fit in the case with about an inch spare on 2 sides and a snug fit width wise. Height wise I was again, about an inch clear.

Once the batteries were in, I wired them up with some decent cable I had connecting all the positive and negative terminals. To power the box, I mounted an Anderson 50Amp plug on the bottom of the case, out of the way and protected by the moulding.

On the top, I mounted a surface mounted LED Light. It was something I had laying around so would be a good little added feature when camping. This is turned on by a switch on the top of the box.

In the top , side of the box I mounted a Surface mount Engel Power Lead. This lets me connect the Engel Power Lead and screw it in the case, ensuring a tight power feed thats secure.

The wiring on the inside. It isn’t pretty, but works!

To charge it whilst camping, I am about to buy a Protecta or Ctek Maintenance charger and Pure Sine Wave Invertor to power the battery either off a generator / 12 volt source or from the car whilst running.

It ran the Engel @ 0.3 Degrees Celsius from Friday afternoon to Sunday Lunchtime. The fridge was ‘used’ during this time. It should run the fridge over a standard weekend.
Its easily carried and fits under the floor of the Rav4. Long term, I may build a second pack to mirror this, and thus doubling my capacity. I have a few spare 1400 Pelican Cases, which i’ll mount the Battery Charger and Inverter.

It took about 20mins to setup. You plug the card in the computer (mac in my case) load the software, connect the card to my home Wireless Network and tell it things, like i wanted it to transfer photos via Direct Mode etc.

I then plugged the card in my 1D and set it to shoot to both cards (Raw to compact Flash,and Large JPG to the SD. I installed the Eye-fi App on my iPad and fired it up. I took a test shot. Nothing.. few mre goes.. nothing. I then went to the wireless settings and realised I had to point the Wireless of the iPad to the Wireless of the Eyefi card had created. Once that was done I went back into the Eyefi app and bingo… the dialogue box was happily downloading EVERY photo i had taken from the Camera’s SD. Neat.

it takes about 2-3 seconds from the shutter click to seeing the photo on the iPad, so nothing breathtaking about the speed.

During a Wedding last Saturday, a few people thought it was cool that as I was taking photos, they were downloading to my iPhone. From there I could email them to people or upload to Flickr / Facebook etc.. Kind of neat.

They are $135, so not a cheap card. Only place i have seen them here in AU is d-d-Photographics.com.au

I must say the 580EX III is a lot more handy than the cheap Chinese YongNuo Flashes I bought 2 years ago (I got 3 x 460 Manual Flashes and wireless trigger set)

I am loving the 1DMKIII. Its a BIG step up form the 20D… coupled with the 24-105 as an everyday lens, Its ripper. I am still blown away by the shots from the 135L lens.

Anyways.. Eye-fi – kind of cool to wireless send photos from the camera to an iPad / iPhone / Computer without paying $1000 for t he Canon Wireless Transmitter or shooting Tethered via USB to a laptop (which i use my Dell Mini hackintoshed to run OSX to do)

There is a ‘app’ recommended on the iPad called ‘ShutterSnitch’ to receive the Eye-fi photos, although, for the price of $54.99… Its Damn Expensive Vs the FREE eye-fi software which seems to work ok.

Now to start saving for some light stands, soft boxes etc to strobe some Car photos for my next ‘project’. I still have my eye on a 17 TSE lens too I need to work harder.

oh.. This was the most expensive model, there is a cheaper version only 4GB and one that doesn’t send videos / raw files, only jpg. I bought the Pro because, well.. i wanted the Best as I had worked hard

Using the various coloured gels on the 580EXII off camera, fired via CTR301 Wireless Triggers and the tripod mounted 1D MKIII I managed to get the subtle colour effect on the engine of my FT500.

Overall, after layering the 3 shots, some dodgy photoshop masking, the shot was entered. I wasn’t entirely happy with the results. but it was a great first effort.

The 3 Pics:

Final shot:

The setup:

C.Fn II-1 Long exposure noise reduction = 1 Auto – may be useful and there are no penalties for having this set.
C.Fn II-2 High ISO speed noise reduction = 0 Penalties too great if set to on
C.Fn II-3 Highlight tone priority = 1 Enable – greater dynamic range possible
C.Fn II-4 E-TTL II flash metering = 0 Evaluative flash metering
C.Fn II-5 Shutter curtain synch = 0
C.Fn II-6 Flash firing = 0
C.Fn II-7 Viewfinder info. during exposure = 0
C.Fn II-8 LCD panel illumination during bulb = 0
C.Fn II-9 INFO button when shooting = 1 Displays shooting data

C.Fn III-1 USM lens electronic MF = 0
C.Fn III-2 AI Servo tracking sensitivity = 0 Default setting (for the moment)
C.Fn III-3 AI Servo 1st/2nd image priority = 0 AF priority/Tracking priority
C.Fn III-4 AI Servo AF tracking method = 1 Continuous AF tracking priority – note that this function only works if you are using Automatic Point Selection (’ring of fire’) or if you have set AF point expansion (C Fn III-8) around a manually selected focus point.
C.Fn III-5 Lens drive when AF impossible = 0 Focus search on
C.Fn III-6 Lens AF stop button function = 4 One shot/AI Servo switch
C.Fn III-7 AF Microadjustment = 0
C.Fn III-8 AF expansion with selected point = 2 Enable surrounding Assist AF points
C.Fn III-9 Selectable AF point = 0 19 points – I want to be able to use any AF pt
C.Fn III-10 Switch to registered AF point = 1 Enable – I want to be able to switch backwards and forwards instantly between the centre AF point and Automatic point selection
C.Fn III-11 AF point auto selection = 2 Enable AF selection with both command dials for (slightly) better AF point navigation.
C.Fn III-12 AF point display during focus = 0 On
C.Fn III-13 AF point brightness = 0 Not much difference between settings
C.Fn III-14 AF-assist beam firing = 0 Enable
C.Fn III-15 Mirror lockup = 0 Disable
C.Fn III-16 Continuous shooting speed = Disable
C.Fn III-17 Limit continuous shot count = Disable

C.Fn IV-1 Shutter button/AF-ON button = 3 Exposure locked at first press of shutter button; AF on rear AF-On button – but note that I have moved this function to the <*> button using CFn IV-2.1 below.
C.Fn IV-2 AF-On/AE Lock button switch = 1 Use <*> button for AF instead of AF-On button
C.Fn IV-3 Quick Control Dial in metering = 0 Exposure compensation/Aperture
C.Fn IV-4 SET button when shooting = 0 Normal (disabled)
C.Fn IV-5 Tv/Av setting for Manual exposure = 0
C.Fn IV-6 Dial direction during Tv/Av = 0
C.Fn IV-7 Av setting without lens = 1 Enable – useful for synchorizing setting in manual mode if you are using two bodies for example
C.Fn IV-8 WB + media/image size setting = 0
C.Fn IV-9 Recording button function = 0
C.Fn IV-10 Btton function when QC dial = 0
C.Fn IV-11 Focusing Screens = 1 I like to use the Ec-D Grid focusing screen
C.Fn IV-12 Timer length for timer = Disable (Default)
C.Fn IV-13 Shortened release time lag = 0
C.Fn IV-14 Add aspect ratio information = 0
C.Fn IV-15 Add original decision data = 0
C.Fn IV-16 Live view exposure simulation = 1 Enabled

• Radio
• Axe
• Shovel
• Broom

It also contains a small pumper trailer and a Ladder. I modded mine slightly by changing the windscreen to the Light Blue Tinted version of the vertical screen. The Electrics all work, powered by a single 9Volt Battery. The lights either Flash alternatively or stay on constant (depending on the way you fit the light bar) and there is a few options by twisting the black dial from lights only, lights and siren, and lights and alternative siren. The kit comes with optional covers for the lights being 2 x blue, 2 x red, 2 x yellow, plus a spare 4×2 and 8×2 white electrical plate as a spare for your own creations.

I shot a series of photos of the kit being built, whilst not perfect, It’ll do for now.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO2ktG4JFw4

Its not often I spruik of the joys of a company or service, but…

I was recently looking on the web and stumbled on crackawines.com.au. I watched the deals roll by day after day and decided to take the plunge and test the service on what has to be a safe bet, New Zealand Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc wine!

The wine in question was a Honeymoon Bay and the auction was starting around $7.85 a bottle which was reasonable. Well I won my case and with the $25 discount for signing up, for around $80 I had a dozen bottles delivered 2 days later.

With any cheap wine, the value for money doesn’t come when you have tasted the wares. I am no wine buff but agree it’s a reasonable drop and cheap at $7.85. Its as good as any mainstream Sav Blanc from the region.

Apps to trashing AppZapper:

DVD player
Frontrow
PhotoBooth
Chess
Stickies
Dictionary
System, Library, Speech, Speech Voices, and remove all of the folders there except Fred
Utilities: Midi stuff, Bootcamp, obdc, raid, color management

Oh…  and languages…. and Printer Drivers

http://www,mydellmini/forum/ is a great resource though.

World of Bricks produces a lot of Instructions, particularly sorted by year.

Having many ways to get photos on to the iPad when on holiday / in the field, namely Shuttersnitch + eyefi card, On One Softwares DSLR Remote or simply directly copying them using the Apples Camera Connection Kit. Most of the simple photo editing features are available.