using phone as camera for long hiking trip with no access to electricity

ccrs8

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I will be going to Peru for two weeks soon, with the primary goal of hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Pichu. I'll have electricity much of the time, but the hike itself is four nights culminating at Machu Pichu. My only camera is my Nexus 5x. I have a 21,000 mAh battery pack for recharging overnight, although my wife may need to use it as well. There won't be any cell service or data where we're hiking, so I plan on turning off all data services, GPS, and putting it in airplane mode, so the radio(s) won't be taking up a lot of juice. But even being a casual photo taker (ie I don't need to document every single step I take - much rather take it all in with my eyeballs), I know that I'll have a decent amount of screen-on time while taking the pictures that will use up the battery. Nightmare scenario I'm trying to avoid is getting to Machu Pichu without any juice left.

So, any suggestions on additional battery saving strategy?
 

LeoRex

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Airplane mode will be the biggest thing... that not only turns all the radios, that also pretty much pumps the brakes on any apps looking to do background syncing. In APM, phones can idle for weeks.

After that, any strategies give you limited results. Keep your screen at its lowest brightness. You can also toggle the battery saver mode as well, but that might have some unintended consequences.... especially if you are hitting the HDR+ modes on the camera (the saver puts the processor in a bit of a stingy power state, so the phone doesn't have access to the full processing power).

APM combined with that battery pack will account for 95% of the leg work here....

Have you thought about something like this?

https://www.amazon.com/Anker-2-Port...ag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUacUvbUpU5703967

According to the specs, that sucker pumps out a lot of juice...
 

vVick3d

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In airplane mode you will easily last 4 days with lots of picture taking! You probably won't even need that battery pack!

Don't use battery saver mode, and make sure HDR+ is enabled and you'll get some great photos!
 

ccrs8

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Thanks for the feedback - I'm happy to hear that there is some confidence that, especially with the battery pack, Airplane Mode alone should be sufficient. I was a bit hesitant to try any "advanced" strategies for fear of impacting camera performance, so glad to have the confirmation.

Have you thought about something like this?

https://www.amazon.com/Anker-2-Port...ag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUacUvbUpU5704180

According to the specs, that sucker pumps out a lot of juice...

Wow - I've never heard of something like that - seems pretty awesome. I may pick that up anyway - because even if I don't need it for this trip, whenever we're at the beach we like to be on the beach from essentially sun up to sun down, and do a lot of e-book reading on our phones. This would be perfect to keep us juiced up sufficiently.

And not sure if it's a coincidence or not, but now a review of solar powered chargers is on the front page.
 

smvim

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As you mentioned the screen will be a big draw so you might want to at least temporarily disable any widgets, or at least the ones with animations and such. Also, using a dark, neutral wallpaper will also help at least a little, you want to minimize anything to make your phone's GPU work less.
You might also want to pick up a couple of those cheap, small (about the size of a lighter), under-10.000mAh portable batteries to keep in a pocket while you and your wife are out in the field, at least to supplement that 21.000mAh battery back in your hotel. Your 5X has a 2,700mAh battery so even a 10,000mAh external battery will give you several extra hours of continuous usage (or if you get distracted and the battery gets run down to single digits you'll have at least three recharges).
 

ccrs8

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I don't have any widgets or animations, and my wallpaper is already a neutral solid color. For clarification, this is a continuous four day hike from point A to point B (where point B is Machu Picchu, one of the most beautiful places in the world which I will want to photograph) with no access to hotel or electricity in the evenings. The rest of the two-week trip is not of a concern as we'll have evening hotels.
 

LeoRex

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And not sure if it's a coincidence or not, but now a review of solar powered chargers is on the front page.

Total coincidence... funny though.

I knew they existed, but I didn't know one existed that could generate that much power though.
 

ptkelly

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My battery pack, smaller than yours, will charge my Nexus 5x more than three times. It also take an hour or so. It's not an overnight thing. Perhaps you can get a second power pack so your wife can have her own. Another suggestion I'd make is no chimping till you get to a power source.

You did remind me of when I started taking photos in 1966. I was doing my time in the military at $79 a month. My twin-lens reflex, YashicaMat, took 12 exposure rolls. Before I'd click the shutter I'd stand there and think, is this picture worth $.15? Perhaps you'll be thinking, "Is this picture worth 15Mah.
 

LeoRex

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well.. .if he has a 21K, that solar panel and puts the phone in APM... I think he'll be good.

I mean, he could use that solar array to just recharge the 21K. Get fancy... have it draped over the top of his backpack while he hikes and let it charge while he stomps about.
 

ccrs8

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I'm back from my trip, and just wanted to say that my worries were unfounded. As most who replied assured me, switching to airplane mode was all that I needed. I wasn't even that conservative with chimping and had to have the screen brightness set relatively high to combat some bad glare, and I was usually in the low 80% remaining at the end of the day. I topped off at night with the battery pack, but even when doing the same for my wife's phone and dedicated point-and-click, I finished the trip with around 75% left on the battery pack. Here is a picture I took of Machu Picchu as seen from the Sun Gate. Even my terrible photography skills can't ruin that view.
 

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