Hi Wayne,

On eBay, I bought two 60w panels that were hinged together for 120w. They're the better monocrystalline type and had the adapter boxes and cables already installed, ready to be set up in series or parallel. I then just bought a $20 solar charger and it's been working out great. All told, I spent a little over $300 for the setup.

If you're like me and you image from twilight to twilight, the 80AH battery will probably barely make it through 1 night (especially in the colder and longer winter nights). The camera and laptop will be the biggest power consumers. If you're very conservative with laptop usage (turn down the LCD brightness, turn off bluetooth and wi-fi, etc.) and you don't need to aggressivley cool the camera, you might be able to make it.

As far as solar panels vs. a generator, I greatly prefer the solar panels. No gas to carry around, it's absolutely silent, everything I need fits in an artist's portfolio bag, and if it's cloudy, I'm not imaging anyway.

Best,
Danny