Battery Dilemma!

So now I have both an FS700 with it’s 7.2v batteries and the F3′s with their 12v batteries I have a real dilemma. I’m putting together shoulder rigs for both cameras and I’m really not sure what batteries to use. I already own a number of V-locks, several Swit S-8U62′s some Sony BP-U60′s and now a few NP-F970′s.

My first thought was to use V-Locks for everything, run the camera and all the extra gear attached to the camera like recorders and EVF’s of a single V-Lock. But, as my regular readers know, I travel a lot and V-locks are bulky, as are the chargers. So my next through was why not use the BP-U60′s and Swit’s to power both the FS700 and F3. This certainly works for the F3 and the D-tap on the Swit’s can power any accessories. To use them on the FS700 will require an external battery plate and an adapter to get from the 14.4v of the EX batteries down to the 7.2v of the FS700. The problem with this is that when I want to “go naked” and use the FS700 without any extras, then I need to also have the standard NP-F970′s. That means taking two lots of batteries and chargers on a shoot.

So, my current thinking is to stick to the batteries designed for each camera. For the FS700 I intend to make an external battery plate that will take an F970 that will then power the camera plus all the various accessories I use. For the F3 I’ll continue to use the Swit batteries with their convenient D-Tap outputs. I’ll probably will keep a couple of V-Lock plates handy for those jobs where I will have a lot of kit on the camera like drama and commercail shoots. It’s not really what I want, I only want to spend money on one battery system, but I can’t see a way to make only one system work the way I need it to.

Wednesday, August 8th, 2012 Uncategorized

9 Comments to Battery Dilemma!

  • Johannes says:
    August 11, 2012 at 10:32 am

    Hello, I am in the same situation as mentioned in the above article. I have the Series 7 EX-L96 for my F3 setup, which introduces the D-Tap option; I only have the Zylight Z90, which requires the D-Tap off the EX-L96 (no AA battery options). I need to keep my FS700 light, so I do not want to put a battery rig on the rails, but I cannot find an option for D-Tap for the FS700 for the Sony F970’s do not have a D-Tap. You talk about an adapter, what adapter? My question is how, without introducing rails and a battery plate for AB or V, can I power accessories on the FS700? Johannes

    Reply
    • alisterchapman says:
      August 11, 2012 at 12:20 pm

      It is a problem. For the Zylight you need 12v and the FS700 is a 7.2v camera, so even if you did find a F970 with a d-Tap it would not work. What I’m looking at is a dummy f970 that goes into the standard battery position on the FS700 with a holder for an EX battery attached to the back of that. Dolgin make the EX battery mounts, but no one makes exactly what I want at the moment so i may have to make my own.

      Reply
      • Johannes says:
        August 12, 2012 at 8:23 am

        Well the FS700 has that new power connector on the side of the camera, for before you needed the dummy battery to power via AC, now you have this connector, maybe an adapter which plugs into this power connector and takes BPU style batteries while converting the 14V to 7V and fits in the camera itself so we can use our D Tap BPU Style Batteries?

        Reply
  • alisterchapman says:
    August 12, 2012 at 8:29 am

    Sadly BP-U batteries are too big for the NP-F battery hole. I think a dummy battery that slots into the existing hole which would contain the DC to DC converter and then a battery plate for the BPU on the back of the dummy battery would be a neat solution.

    Reply
    • Johannes says:
      August 12, 2012 at 9:05 am

      Well, this is been a good conversation. Let me know if any solutions come to market. The Sony F3 and the Sony FS700 are completely different cameras for Sony (professional and prosumer) and I guess, in the end it makes sense. So, for now we are carrying around two different Battery systems unless we use AB or V style batteries with the right D Tap converters on rails. Look forward to your future posts. Johannes

      Reply
  • Peter Triglone says:
    August 13, 2012 at 12:30 am

    This may be of some assistance
    http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-nxcam-nex-fs700/509695-powering-fs700-anton-bauer-batteries.html

    Reply
    • alisterchapman says:
      August 13, 2012 at 4:50 pm

      Not really because the discussion is about powering the camera with an external battery that is different from the original battery, so if you do want to go back to barebones while on a shoot you need to have both the external battery system and the standard system, which is what I want to avoid.

      Reply

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