Blackmagic Design Announces New Blackmagic Pocket Camera Battery Grip

[Stephanie Hueter]

Blackmagic Design announced Blackmagic Pocket Battery Grip, a new battery adapter that features a slide out tray designed to hold two L-series batteries. This allows customers to power external flash disks or run the camera for over 2 hours of record time before charging. Blackmagic Pocket Camera Battery Grip will be available in August from Blackmagic Design resellers worldwide for US$245.

The Blackmagic Pocket Camera Battery Grip will be demonstrated on the Blackmagic Design NAB 2019 booth #SL216.

Designed for the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K, the new Pocket Camera Battery Grip lets customers replace the camera’s standard LP-E6 battery with two L-series batteries so they can shoot for over 2 hours on a single charge. It’s perfect for anyone that needs to shoot for extended periods of time. Featuring a unique carbon fiber design, non-slip hand grips, and a slide out tray that holds 2 L-series batteries, the Pocket Camera Battery Grip also makes it easier to hold the camera on longer shoots. L-Series batteries are standard batteries used for a variety of professional lighting equipment, so they’re readily available. Customers can even charge the batteries in the grip via the camera’s 12V DC connection in between takes.

Unlike traditional external battery packs that hang off the side of the camera, the Pocket Camera Battery Grip has a unique design that makes it part of the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K. Simply remove the detachable LP-E6 battery door cover from the camera, slide the pocket grip in and lock it into place. There’s even a storage slot built into the grip for the battery door cover. Because the Pocket Camera Battery Grip becomes part of the camera, customers get larger non-slip hand grips that make holding the camera even easier. Best of all, there’s no extra gear hanging off the camera so customers still have a compact camera that can go anywhere.

"The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K has been received incredibly well by our customers because it’s not a dumbed down consumer product, but it is a true digital film camera with incredibly advanced features generally only found on the most expensive cameras available," said Grant Petty, Blackmagic Design CEO. "The new Pocket Battery Grip is exciting because it lets you power external flash disks allowing customers to record to the disk used for editing. It will even power the camera for over 2 hours on a single charge. As it’s designed to integrate into the cameras design, it’s more comfortable to hold the camera on longer shoots. Unlike regular external battery packs that hang off the camera, the Pocket Camera Battery Grip is integrated into the cameras design itself, so it doesn’t add a lot of weight and it fits perfectly!"

Availability and Price
Blackmagic Pocket Camera Battery Grip will be available in August for US$245 excluding duties from Blackmagic Design resellers worldwide.

Press Photography
Product photos of the Blackmagic Pocket Camera Battery Grip, as well as all other Blackmagic Design products, are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/images.

About Blackmagic Design
Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.

 

[Benjobe]

I'm glad they're addressing the BMPCC4K's poor battery life with this new product, but I wish that they had designed it better. The grip holds two batteries and yet prevents a third battery from being used in the camera's battery slot. This means that batteries are not hot-swappable when using the new grip.

What I love about the Panasonic GH4/GH5 battery grip is that it allows that third battery in the camera's battery slot (the grip communicates with the body through a port on the bottom of the camera) thus allowing hot-swapping batteries.

Also, it seems strange that the new grip takes Sony L batteries while the BMPCC4K takes Canon E6 batteries.

 

[jb.]

The GH5's battery grip only holds _one_ battery. It's also a pain in the ass to pull the grip off every time you want to change the internal battery. I'm 100% glad BMD did their grip the way every other manufacturer does.

It is weird the grip takes Sony batteries and the camera takes Canon batteries... but Canon batteries were a poor choice anyway because they're so small.

 

[puredrifting]

...I'm 100% glad BMD did their grip the way every other manufacturer does...

Other than Fujifilm. I'm really glad that the X-T3 battery grip actually adds two more batteries to the in body battery, rather than taking away the in body and replacing it with one in the grip for a total of only doubling capacity, rather than tripling it.

 

[jb.]

I'd probably put up with the pain of removing the grip for every battery change if it tripled capacity. Maybe.

As it is, I really prefer the Canon model where the batteries are easy to change out without removing the grip over the Panasonic where I can only easily switch out one single battery.

 

[Benjobe]

As it is, I really prefer the Canon model where the batteries are easy to change out without removing the grip over the Panasonic where I can only easily switch out one single battery.

Why would you ever need to switch out the internal battery? It's just there so you can swap out the battery in the grip without losing power.

I didn't know that every other camera brand did it the other way. I guess that shows how much thought Panasonic puts into their gear compared to everyone else.

I get about 2 hours/battery with my GH5 when shooting continuous video. I rarely need more than three batteries a day.

 

[puredrifting]

Why would you ever need to switch out the internal battery? It's just there so you can swap out the battery in the grip without losing power.

I didn't know that every other camera brand did it the other way. I guess that shows how much thought Panasonic puts into their gear compared to everyone else.

I get about 2 hours/battery with my GH5 when shooting continuous video. I rarely need more than three batteries a day.

On the Fujifilm X-T3, I am lucky to get 40 minutes per battery when shooting video. That's really the only major shortcoming of the camera IMHO, the battery life is kind of weak. My other camera is the C200, with the BP-A60 large battery, I get nearly four hours.

 

[jb.]

Why would you ever need to switch out the internal battery? It's just there so you can swap out the battery in the grip without losing power.

Maybe because the battery in the camera isn't some kind of nuclear reactor that has unlimited power? It has to be recharged too.

I've also never run into an issue where I really need to hot swap batteries in my cameras. If I'm doing a long-run record session, I'll use a camera that uses real batteries (C200, XF705, or something powered with a V-mount) or just hook it up to AC. My 5D Mark IV and GH5 are B-cams and I can easily swap batteries on those if I need to (or just power them off of V-mounts or AC).

It's not like a 5D Mark IV takes a long time to reboot and be ready to shoot. It's a second or two at most.

I guess that shows how much thought Panasonic puts into their gear compared to everyone else.

Yeah, just keep thinking that... they sure put a ton of thought into where the tripod screw is located on the grips for the GH4 and GH5. But you'll probably now tell us why putting the tripod screw an inch off of the lens axis is somehow "good design" I'm sure.

 

[Benjobe]

Maybe because the battery in the camera isn't some kind of nuclear reactor that has unlimited power? It has to be recharged too.

So instead of hot-swapping out the battery in the camera grip without losing power (so you can keep rolling on the interview, performance, etc.) you would power off your camera just to switch-out the internal battery, and miss part of the interview, performance, etc?

I prefer to do things the easy way, and not miss any important footage.

 

[jb.]

So instead of hot-swapping out the battery in the camera grip without losing power (so you can keep rolling on the interview, performance, etc.) you would power off your camera just to switch-out the internal battery, and miss part of the interview, performance, etc?

I prefer to do things the easy way, and not miss any important footage.

Do you do a lot of interviews that last longer than two hours without a break? Those must be really fun for the interviewees.

My interviews rarely last more than 30-45 minutes and most of those have plenty of time for breaks where I could easily swap a battery in my B-Cam if I needed to. To be honest, I usually don't have to swap batteries at all because both the 5D Mark IV and GH5 will run for at least an hour on a battery (or set of batteries).

As I said before, my A-cam is nearly always a cinema or ENG-style camera with a longer runtime. I also have access to AC power in nearly any situation involving rolling for 2+ hours.

I can't even imagine conducting an interview for 2+ hours straight.

 

[puredrifting]

Is there an eye-roll emoji?

Do you do a lot of interviews that last longer than two hours without a break? Those must be really fun for the interviewees.

My interviews rarely last more than 30-45 minutes and most of those have plenty of time for breaks where I could easily swap a battery in my B-Cam if I needed to. To be honest, I usually don't have to swap batteries at all because both the 5D Mark IV and GH5 will run for at least an hour on a battery (or set of batteries).

As I said before, my A-cam is nearly always a cinema or ENG-style camera with a longer runtime. I also have access to AC power in nearly any situation involving rolling for 2+ hours.

I can't even imagine conducting an interview for 2+ hours straight.

I try to avoid it, but last year I shot two very emotional interviews that delved into the childhood dysfunctions of two subjects for a documentary, super emotional, lots of tears and moving stuff.
In both cases, stopping the interview as we re-traced the emotional territory would have fallen apart if we were starting and stopping as the subjects were re-living deep seated trauma and wrongdoing in their lives.
I agree with you though, for nomal work interviews, usually no more than an hour, more often 30 minutes.

 

[jb.]

I try to avoid it, but last year I shot two very emotional interviews that delved into the childhood dysfunctions of two subjects for a documentary, super emotional, lots of tears and moving stuff.
In both cases, stopping the interview as we re-traced the emotional territory would have fallen apart if we were starting and stopping as the subjects were re-living deep seated trauma and wrongdoing in their lives.
I agree with you though, for nomal work interviews, usually no more than an hour, more often 30 minutes.

Fair enough. For that kind of thing I’d likely just plug in or run off of a VMount. I certainly wouldn’t sit there swapping tiny GH5 batts in and out of a grip.

You still liking your XT3? I’m really tempted to pick one up.

 

[puredrifting]

Fair enough. For that kind of thing I’d likely just plug in or run off of a VMount. I certainly wouldn’t sit there swapping tiny GH5 batts in and out of a grip.

You still liking your XT3? I’m really tempted to pick one up.

Agreed, I shot those interviews on the C200 using the BP-A60, one battery ran the whole time.

Loving the Fujifilm X-T3. Doing a big shoot in Florida next month with just two X-T3s on gimbals for our documentary.
F-Log at H265 200Mbps has been great, it looks almost as good as Canon Cinema RAW Light although the Canon still holds the edge.
But for what we are covering, hopping in and out of a support van for 30 hours, running beside our ultra marathoner, the X-T3 is by far the best tool.
I'm hoping the improved face and eye detection in the new firmware this month will improve the face eye tracking to the point where I can use it
again, I was getting pretty inconsistent results using it with the present firmware so switched to just zone AF-C and it's working great as long as I
can see the screen enough in bright sunlight to move the focus box. Adding a 5" monitor to the gimbal for the Florida shoot. Was waiting on the
Portkeys BM5 to ship but we leave May 13th so if it's not available by then, will have to get a Shinobi or something else.

Back on subject, I am beginning to see a lot more work with the BMPCC 4K that actually looks good. The early stuff didn't. And that battery grip was soreley needed.

 

[jb.]

Yeah. I was pretty impressed with the time I spent with the BMPCC 4K recently. Still has its oddities, but it makes a pretty image.

I’d still probably rather own the XT3 tho. I’d love something a bit smaller than my 5D for stills too.

 

[Benjobe]

For that kind of thing I’d likely just plug in or run off of a VMount. I certainly wouldn’t sit there swapping tiny GH5 batts in and out of a grip.

I've seen so many "professionals" look down their noses at those of us who shoot with DSLR cameras that I've gotten bored with it. Congratulations, you've got yourself a big camera that takes big batteries. That doesn't make you a better videographer.

Some of us PREFER to shoot with DSLR cameras because they DON'T require large V-mount batteries and are more mobile.

 

[filmguy123]

Lumix S1 charges internal battery very fast via USB... no need to ever remove internal once grip is installed. Just swap the grip batteries out, and recharge camera via USB every so often to keep the internal topped off.

 

[jb.]

I've seen so many "professionals" look down their noses at those of us who shoot with DSLR cameras that I've gotten bored with it. Congratulations, you've got yourself a big camera that takes big batteries. That doesn't make you a better videographer.

Some of us PREFER to shoot with DSLR cameras because they DON'T require large V-mount batteries and are more mobile.

You can run nearly any camera off of a VMount or Anton Bauer battery.

How mobile is your camera during a five hour marathon interview session? Probably not very.

Also, I looked through your blog... your GH5 rig looks significantly bigger than my C200 in its “normal” configuration for me.

I have plenty of smaller cameras (including the GH5s), i just don’t try to sell a compromised design (needing to remove the grip to get at both batteries) as some kind of benefit. I understand the ability to hot swap batteries is nice, but for MY use case that’s far outweighed by the inconvenience of disassembling my camera every time I need to charge the in-camera battery (and it WILL need recharging). Not to mention the brain-dead location of the tripod socket on the GH4/GH5 grips.

 

[jb.]

Lumix S1 charges internal battery very fast via USB... no need to ever remove internal once grip is installed. Just swap the grip batteries out, and recharge camera via USB every so often to keep the internal topped off.

Pretty sure the GH5 doesn’t charge the internal battery via USB. I could be wrong, but I don’t think I am. Even external power requires a dummy battery.