Battery Plate with On/Off switch?

Bern Caughey

Bern Caughey

Veteran
Unfortunately Zacuto's Eye EVF does not have an On/Off switch so needs to be unplugged to avoid draining the battery when the camera is idling, so I'm looking for a brick battery plate that has a On/Off switch for it's D-Tap(s).

Could be Anton/Bauer, or V-Mount, as I have adapter plates for both.
 
I have been considering the Gratical Eye, glad you mentioned this, I had no idea that it did not have an on/off switch. That is a design flaw for sure. Even my little cheap EVF Pro has an on/off switch. I would be afraid of burn in and overheating not to mention you are just draining your battery all of the time. I shoot documentaries where I am constantly turning the camera on and off all day so this makes me rethink the product. Two pin Lemos are not the most robust of connections nor are D-Tap so constantly unplugging and plugging it in to save battery isn't good. Oh Steve and Jens, what were you thinking? I guess if your camera can power it directly, that would be okay but if you are tapping the battery, yikes.
 
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A side note - I guess some cameras eg fs7 you need to power down with care - aka make sure the light by the card has gone green as pulling the power is not great for the last file written
 
puredrifting said:
Wow, if that power switch works, this would be a great solution for the Gratical Eye.
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Well I can now confirm the power switch does work for all the various outputs. (I never realized how strict I am about powering everything else down before turning that switch off until this thread. ) At least on the version I have which is this one:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1119716-REG/ikan_fs_t01_camera_mounted_v_mount_battery.html
but I assume they work the same.

I highly recommend it instead of the ext unit on the fs7. Been using mine for nearly 2 years - let's me power camera, PixE5 recorder (or other 12 v monitor) or small 12v light and other accessories like ff when necessary. And it balances the camera nicely when using large cine glass. One warning - the one I linked in this post does use the dtap port on side to power the FS7 (comes with small cable, as well as other accessory cables) which leaves you no other dtap output - unless you use battery that has dtap (which I do).
 
Thanks for the suggestions!

Hoping to buy just the battery plate, & mount it on a Wooden Camera Battery Slide.

https://www.woodencamera.com/battery-slide-p/156600.htm

What I like about the Battery Slide is it folds down relatively compact for transport, & it's easy to install a BP-U battery into the FS7's body even when a brick is attached, which then it acts as back-up/hot-swap.

Unfortunately it seems Tilta only sells their plates bundled with mounting hardware, & with the exception of some audio bits, Hawk-Woods products are not sold in the USA, so still looking for additional suggestions.

Exchanged some emails with Mandy from Zacuto about this topic, & she wrote, "We are however looking making a cable that will have an on/off switch to turn on/off the Gratical Eye. We should have more details on that in the next coming weeks". Been meaning to pickup a spare Gratical Power/SDI cable as backup anyways, so hope it solves this issue in a elegant way.
 
Bern Caughey said:
Thanks for the suggestions!

Hoping to buy just the battery plate, & mount it on a Wooden Camera Battery Slide.

https://www.woodencamera.com/battery-slide-p/156600.htm

What I like about the Battery Slide is it folds down relatively compact for transport, & it's easy to install a BP-U battery into the FS7's body even when a brick is attached, which then it acts as back-up/hot-swap.

Unfortunately it seems Tilta only sells their plates bundled with mounting hardware, & with the exception of some audio bits, Hawk-Woods products are not sold in the USA, so still looking for additional suggestions.

Exchanged some emails with Mandy from Zacuto about this topic, & she wrote, "We are however looking making a cable that will have an on/off switch to turn on/off the Gratical Eye. We should have more details on that in the next coming weeks". Been meaning to pickup a spare Gratical Power/SDI cable as backup anyways, so hope it solves this issue in a elegant way.
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I have a lot of Zacuto equipment. It seems strange that Zacuto, who usually really thinks out how their gear is engineered and used, neglected to design the Graticle Eye with a simple on/off switch when we are so concerned about burn-in. Makes no sense, even my EVF Pro has an on/off switch, a much cheaper, older product. Looking forward to seeing the cable, that does seem like the simplest solution, it would be Lemo to D-Tap with a simple in-line switch?
 
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Zacuto claims the Eye draws so little power that they opted to keep the design more compact by omitting the the On/Off switch & circuitry.

One great feature of all the Graticals is they constantly pixel-shift the overlays they generate, so the OLED burn-in issue only comes from camera generated overlays. In practice I minimize the overlays in the camera's menus so only the most important are displayed, & toggle them On briefly when checking settings. The exposure/focus tools, & Tally Light, built into the Gratical are usually all I need when rolling.

Supposedly if a Gratical's ever develops burn-ins, & the typical remedies don't fix them, the OLED can be replaced by Zaculto for $150 USD.
 
Bern Caughey said:
Zacuto claims the Eye draws so little power that they opted to keep the design more compact by omitting the the On/Off switch & circuitry.

One great feature of all the Graticals is they constantly pixel-shift the overlays they generate, so the OLED burn-in issue only comes from camera generated overlays. In practice I minimize the overlays in the camera's menus so only the most important are displayed, & toggle them On briefly when checking settings. The exposure/focus tools, & Tally Light, built into the Gratical are usually all I need when rolling.

Supposedly if a Gratical's ever develops burn-ins, & the typical remedies don't fix them, the OLED can be replaced by Zaculto for $150 USD.
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Good to know as I am sure I will be buying one eventually, depending on which camera I end up with. I am pretty happy with the EVF Pro but that is for shooting at 1080, have not tried to gian fine focus with it when shooting 4K, which would still obviously be output to the EVF Pro at 1080. For my C100/300, the EVF Pro works a charm. I will have to try it with the C300 MKII shooting 4k next time I rent one.
 
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