Canon External Battery Pack A

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Camera batteries can be adversely affected by low temperatures, especially below freezing. Manufacturers often design an external battery pack for those photographers who frequently work in the cold. These packs may be kept warm, usually inside the photographer's jacket, and power is supplied to the camera via wires. Canon's battery pack for the A-series cameras was called the External Battery Pack A, but is little-known nowadays.

Owners of the newer Canon EOS models might like to look up the battery pack for the EOS 5, which I'll add to this page soon.

The battery pack holds two sets of AA size batteries to power the winder, and also has a small compartment for the PX-28 battery to power the camera's meter and shutter. The silver disk on the front of the pack is the cover for this compartment.

The power supply to the camera is via a dummy battery that fits inside the normal battery door. This picture shows the connection to a Canon A-1. Note the wire coming out of the bottom of the adaptor. The A-1 has a Winder A attached, which can also be powered by the External Battery Pack A.

Here's a photo of the A-1, the Winder A and the External Battery Pack A, all wired up. The manual mentions that the battery pack will also work with the AE-1 (and presumably with other A-series cameras powered by a 6V silver-oxide PX-28). It's also posible to run the F-1's Power Winder F from this pack.

The power for the Winder A is supplied through another dummy battery pack. This photo shows the rear of the A-1 with the winder attached, but with the pack unclipped. Note the cable on the right-hand side.

The last two photos show the rather unreliable connectors on the battery pack. They screw on, but only light spring pressure actually holds the contacts together. This means that any tension on the wires will disconnect the power from either the camera or the winder. This is just what we don't want! Canon's connector designer didn't seem to notice the mistake. Note the red dot on the power supply for the camera's meter and shutter (from the PX-28). The manual suggests that you can use the AA batteries to power the shutter during long exposures, simply by plugging the red-dot plug into the unmarked socket. It also cautions against doing this with the AT-1 camera, because that model's meter relies on precise voltage from the silver oxide battery for accurate metering.

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