Hi,
I have a question concerning battery chargers, that is maybe not so easy to answer.

For a few years I used to supply the battery chargers of my camcorders through a DC-AC converter on board a motor caravan (in order to get 220V AC from a 12V DC supply) and they always worked perfectly. Now, the manual of my new Canon HV10 states the following:

“To prevent equipment breakdowns and excessive heating, do not connect the supplied compact power adapter to voltage converters for overseas travels or special power sources such as those on aircraft and ships, DC-AC inverters, etc.”

I wonder if this is just a caution (I’m warned that by doing so I void the guarantee) or maybe, since nothing was written in the manuals of my older camcorders, I suspect that this new charger is actually more sensitive to this kind of supply, where the AC wave is probably not so clean or even is squared instead of sinusoidal. On the other hand I see no solution to this problem, because there is no specific 12V DC power adapter for this camcorder and its batteries, as far as I know.

I write this post in case anyone has any experience about this, although I suppose it’s not a common practice.

Thank you in advance for any advice.
Marco Durando

All of Canon's camcorders use the EXACT same "CA-570" power adaptor which can input up to 240V. The output will always be a DC 8.4V current.

The only time my camera (an optura 20) burns out is when it's hot and humid and I leave the DC connected even after the charge is complete. Very unreliable power supplies here.

Hi Marco,
I can't vouch for your specific case, but I can say that I have also charged camcorder batteries, digital camera batteries, Mobile phones and laptops from a cheap and nasty 12Vdc->230Vac inverter. Mine is called a "modified sine wave" inverter (read "nasty looking squareish wave output"). I've never had any problems. Yet.

I wouldn't think that the HV10 charger would be anymore sensitive than other switch mode supplies, but I'd say that by doing this (after being warned) and admitting it you are in dodgy warranty territory if something goes wrong.

Cheers,
Kyle

Thank you for your answers.
As I said, I also had no problem with my old camcorders (both Canon and Panasonic), but they were different models of power adapters. My concerns are about the possibility that with a more squared than sinusoidal waveform some transistor could go to a working point where the average dissipated power is higher than it was designed for, thus leading to a overheating.

Anyhow I’m more comfortable since I didn’t get replies of anyone who ran into troubles for this reason; I’ll cross my fingers and try.

Marco