Charging batteries is a pain in the backside. I remember when I used to shoot events with four Nikon SB-900 speedlights with SD-9 packs attached to each of them. That was 96 AA batteries I had to charge up the night before every event. Boy am I glad that more and more lights are switching to Lithium Ion now. Fewer batteries, and more pops per charge. But even today, I still have a lot of batteries and devices to charge. There’s a dozen Nikon EN-EL15, another dozen Nikon EN-EL14, three tablets, three phones, Godox PB960 packs, the Godox A1, several USB power banks, gimbal batteries, drone batteries and a bunch of other stuff I haven’t listed. The trick is to get organised, and in this video from the folks over at FStoppers, we see how they organise their charging.
While a converted shelving unit is kind of a DIY project, it’s not really one that’s easily translatable to others. You can’t just give out a set of instructions for people to follow. Everybody has access to cabinets of different shapes and sizes. Everybody has different charging requirements, and their needs will be different. So, you have to look at this more as inspiration to build your own. My own charging station is somewhat similar, except it’s the top of a set of drawers. A couple of power strips are attached to the back of it, with cables coming out the back to plug into chargers or straight into the devices themselves. If you have access to a 3D printer, then something like this can be very handy to make sure your cables don’t fall down the back of such a unit. I’m so glad I took the time to get my own charging needs organised. No longer do I have to hunt for obscure cables and wall warts for devices I only use occasionally. All of my chargers, batteries, devices and associated cables live in the same place and are easy to access. How do you organise your charging?
