Battery Solutions for Varicam LT

S

Straw Man

Active member
After months of research and reading all of your experiences with the the LT, I finally pulled the trigger and am a couple weeks away from receiving my LT-VF package. Which is very exciting! But I've been on an AF100 since 2011, so I'm new to gold mount batteries and looking for any recommendations or what solutions you guys prefer to use. I know AB is industry standard - but is the hypercore stuff well made / reliable?

I've seen the camera draws quite a lot of power, so any tips you might have in terms of real-world runtimes, etc are greatly appreciated. (I'll probably just be powering the LT and VF off these batteries) Thanks!
 
I've been using A/B's since day one. Until last year. I've completely switched my camera batteries over to Switronix, which is now CORE SWX. I have six Hypercore Primes, which are 190 WH and they break apart into two 95 WH halves to meet (US)airline travel restrictions, and two Hypercores that were part of a special run that are actually 230 WH. Obviously you can't fly with them, but they are like the Energizer bunny... I wish they would actually make them as a normal stocking item.
 
+1 to CORESWX, I have the 150Wh option and it keeps the camera going for 3 hours or so. Love it! Nice and lightweight too.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I'm looking into all those suggestions.

Chris - Have you flown with the 150s? I read up on the regulations and it seems TSA allows any number of <98Wh batteries, and then a couple places said also 2-3 batteries up to 150Wh provided they are discharged. But then other sources seemed to negate this.
 
Straw Man said:
Thanks for all the replies. I'm looking into all those suggestions.

Chris - Have you flown with the 150s? I read up on the regulations and it seems TSA allows any number of <98Wh batteries, and then a couple places said also 2-3 batteries up to 150Wh provided they are discharged. But then other sources seemed to negate this.
Click to expand...

Not yet, if I was planning on flying with the Varicam LT, I would either rent batteries when I land or bring 98Wh's for the trip. I don't think I would try to fly with the 150Whs just based on what you mentioned. I found the same information as you did.

I was going to buy the PAG batteries but thought they were a bit much for me and would need 2x the amount of batteries to cover my all day needs for this camera. If you have the budget, you couldn't go wrong with those.
 
Chris Langer said:
Not yet, if I was planning on flying with the Varicam LT, I would either rent batteries when I land or bring 98Wh's for the trip. I don't think I would try to fly with the 150Whs just based on what you mentioned. I found the same information as you did.

I was going to buy the PAG batteries but thought they were a bit much for me and would need 2x the amount of batteries to cover my all day needs for this camera. If you have the budget, you couldn't go wrong with those.
Click to expand...

The Primes(190's) were designed specifically to answer the problem of flying with high capacity lithium batteries, because they split into two 'legal' 95WH halves. But I believe the new regulations state that batts are supposed to be discharged to 30% remaining power or less.

The last time I flew with my camera(P2 Vari, not a 35 or LT), I didn't travel with batts(or any support gear), because I was only shooting one day and I was shooting with a friend that had everything already on-site. But I would be nervous about just flying into some place and renting batts from someone or someplace I didn't know. You never know what kind of shape they may be in. "Oh yeah, we forgot to tell you, that batt dies when it gets to 50%"...

Here is a link to the Lithium Ion batt transport page on A/B's site. I believe it has the new regs from April 2016.
http://www.antonbauer.com/en-US/Transportation-Information/safety-regulations-when-travelling-with-lithium-ion-batteries
 
Tilta made this very interesting cage for the Varicam LT: https://vimeo.com/180484331

Which has an integrated V-mount back-plate battery option with multiple power breakouts.

SWIT makes a split battery system that is IATA Compliant and splits into two halves of 92Wh each (combined: 184Wh) http://www.swit.us/s8192a-9292wh-separable-goldmount81929292.html

I emailed Tilta USA and was given this PDF that lists all the various parts the cage comprises of: https://goo.gl/1HOzfI It can be ordered directly from Tilta USA, which is based in Burbank, CA (Contact details: http://tilta.com/contact/) The quote I received was $1599 for the ES-T65 (Shipping $100 extra)

Flying with batteries from the US:

For the latest TSA guidelines PDF: https://www.faa.gov/about/office_or...fo/media/Airline_passengers_and_batteries.pdf

Comprehensive list of rules: http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/retriev...&ty=HTML&h=L&r=SECTION&n=49y2.1.1.3.12.1.25.5
 

Attachments

  • s-8192a-1-13.jpg
    s-8192a-1-13.jpg
    95.9 KB · Views: 0
Last edited:
Thanks for all the additional battery info guys.

One more power question: What do you guys use for external DC power supply? Is a 12v 72watt supply enough? I know on the spec sheet it says LT runs up to 77W with "maximum power supplied to all outputs." I'll probably be running LT and Viewfinder normally, occasionally a second monitor and phantom XLR power. Seems like that should work right?
 
I had invested in a IDX V-Mount battery system as I was going to buy a Red Scarlet-W. So I bought the Ikan AB-Mount to V-Mount Battery Adaptor Plate (sku: IB-BTE) at $79 USD. Works great. Thinking of the Tilta ES-65T cage, top handle & integrated V-Mount battery place sometime soon
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20170408_125739.jpg
    IMG_20170408_125739.jpg
    68.4 KB · Views: 0
  • IMG_20170408_125802.jpg
    IMG_20170408_125802.jpg
    76 KB · Views: 0
  • IMG_20170408_155141.jpg
    IMG_20170408_155141.jpg
    87.5 KB · Views: 0
Should have posted sooner. I currently run IDX which are extremely reliable and never let me down, though Im very interested in seeing these smaller blocks Blueshape have coming up.
 
Update on batteries -

After researching airline stuff and seeing the major US carriers allow 2 batteries up to 160wh in carry on, I ended up going with 2x Hypercore 150s. I just finished a job that included a roundtrip flight from Chicago to Austin and can report that TSA didn't even notice or open my camera bag on either route.

Maybe they just weren't paying attention? Maybe the fact that I put them in the "sleep mode" made them not ping on the x-ray? Who knows for sure. But there's some anecdotal evidence that you can travel with a couple big batteries.
 
To the best of my knowledge maximum wattage for carry-on baggage (cannot and should not be checked-in unless "installed" in the equipment) is under 100WHr. Under 160WHr is permissible depending on the airline (has to be negotiated at the time of boarding) I have heard instances of other people who have checked the batteries with the luggage (even those under 100WHr) and the batteries were missing when they opened cases at the destination. I would suggest it is better to be on the side of caution, unless you are willing to have your batteries confiscated on that one time someone was paying attention.
 
The 100WHr mark is for "unrestricted" batteries. They don't really have any restrictions if they are under that size. I used to fly with an AF100 and 6 or 7 batteries and though they would open the case to look sometimes, they never cared or cited any restrictions on them.

From Delta's site, copy/pasted:

"Passengers are permitted to travel with lithium ion batteries that contain a maximum of 160 watt hours per battery. Any lithium ion battery containing more than 160 watt hours is prohibited from carriage on all passenger aircraft. Lithium ion batteries installed in a personal electronic device can be transported as checked or carry on baggage. Lithium ion batteries not installed in a device (spares) must be in carry-on baggage and no more than two (2) spares between 100 and 160 watt hours are allowed."

Note this is for CARRY ON baggage only. I found the same verbage on the other major domestic carriers. The cases you are talking about are for checked luggage. They are completely forbidden in checked bags which is why those people opened their bags to find the batteries missing.

And I did not have to negotiate or make any special arrangements with Delta. Think about it... if I am able to get through TSA, which is independent of Delta, how would Delta know what is in my carry on bag as I am boarding the plane? They wouldn't. But even if they did, they state explicitly it's ok on their site.

I believe the only fine print I found was the FAA required 100-160WHr batteries be below a 30% charge for carry onto a plane. Which I did to be safe before flying.
 
Straw Man said:
I just finished a job that included a roundtrip flight from Chicago to Austin and can report that TSA didn't even notice or open my camera bag on either route.
Click to expand...

Could you post a picture of your camera case please. There still a few of us contemplating on which one to buy. I was leaning towards the 1615Air from Pelican.

I posted a link to PDF copy of the FAA / IATA regulations for carrying batteries a few posts back, do check them out as well to be knowledged about current regulations. From what I remember there is no restrictions on how many pieces of under 100WHr batteries you can fly with in your carry-on luggage as long, but for under 160WHr you have a maximum of two.
 
Last edited:
The restriction isn't from Delta, it's from the FAA. Pretty much every authority in the world follows the FAA's lead on this. HOWEVER, Delta can choose to be more restrictive than the FAA if it so chooses.

Several battery makers now sell discharger devices or chargers that can be switched to discharger mode so that the batteries can be lowered to 30% charge. That's the new regulation: As many under 100w lithiums as you want and up to two 160w lithiums, all in carry-on, all at 30% charge or below.

It's fun when you get to your destination and tell the producer that you need to charge the bricks. It's also fun when an attendant says that they're out of carry-on space in the cabin so your bag has to go in the hold. Sorry, no. FAA regs, ma'am.
 
Mitch Gross said:
The restriction isn't from Delta, it's from the FAA. Pretty much every authority in the world follows the FAA's lead on this. HOWEVER, Delta can choose to be more restrictive than the FAA if it so chooses.

Several battery makers now sell discharger devices or chargers that can be switched to discharger mode so that the batteries can be lowered to 30% charge. That's the new regulation: As many under 100w lithiums as you want and up to two 160w lithiums, all in carry-on, all at 30% charge or below.

It's fun when you get to your destination and tell the producer that you need to charge the bricks. It's also fun when an attendant says that they're out of carry-on space in the cabin so your bag has to go in the hold. Sorry, no. FAA regs, ma'am.
Click to expand...

IMG_1912-1024x768.jpg

Everything old is new again. I used to shoot for a guy back in the '90's who had a stand-alone discharger from A/B. But back then we were shooting with 65 WH/5.5lbs Nicad's and the purpose of the discharger was to help maintain the batts, not make them "safe" for air travel.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top