The rise in popularity of digital SLR HD shooting has meant that power systems designed for being on for a few seconds several hundred times are now being asked to record for 13 minutes at a time up to dozens of times a day. That’s a lot of juice, and at retail battery prices, that can get really expensive.
The ACK-E6 is Canons official EOS power adapter for the 5D Mark II and 7D sized bodies. It consists of a battery plate that is inserted into the camera, a transformer brick and a wall power cord, all in high quality black plastic. It’s fairly light, but does take up some space. The transformer brick is slightly taller and skinnier than the 7D’s battery charger. It’s a world product and will run on 100-240V 50/60Hz AC power, assuming you have the right plug adapter.
The battery plate slides into the 5D or 7D’s battery slot. You have to hook the power cord under some plastic so it sticks out of the rubber door on the side of the handgrip since the battery compartment door must be shut for the camera to turn on.
As far as functionality goes, it acts just like a battery that never runs out. The cords are fairly long (6 foot for the power cord and about 7.5 feet for the battery adapter cord), so you won’t have any issues there. You can then run your camera off of anything that provides steady AC power including a car DC voltage converter, DC battery packs, house power, etc.
The ACK-E6AC is also great for shooting time-lapse, when you’ll have AC power and don’t want to touch the camera to swap batteries.
List price is $180 but you can find it for less than $130, and for that price it’s a no brainer.
You can pick up the Canon ACK-E6 AC at Amazon.com or one of our great dealers listed at the bottom of the page.
