Tascam and Zoom recorders are really impressive for their price, but given that they are made for cost conscious film makers like myself, the engineers had to sacrifice some things. On the Tascams in particular (DR-60D, 70D), battery life seems to be one of the things that isn’t perfect for longer shoots. The 4 AA batteries power the DR-60D for about 2.5 to 3 hours when phantom powering two mics.
So what can you do for those days when you have a 6 hour shoot?
You could carry around a lot of AA batteries and change them out several times, hopefully without sacrificing any of the takes. And if you’re recording a live event, you cannot afford to stop the recording while you change batteries.
The USB batteries on the market can be a good solution. In this episode we look at two on the market: Coocheer (cost conscious option that offers nearly 8 hours of power for the DR-60D with two phantom powered mics) and LifeCHARGE (pricier option that offers over 20 hours for the same recorder/mic combo).