C200: BP-A30 prices finally dropping?

Still a rip off either way ;-) We know how much it takes to actually build quality batteries, just buy some decent V-Mounts or look at other 14.4v batteries. $500.00 for 6200 MAh? The BP-A60 should sell for $300.00 tops and the BP-A30 for $169.00 and both should include D-Tap. Canon would still make plenty of profit and we would all be able to afford to buy more batteries.
 
I was going to say, "But Redvolts are only xxx," but Redvolts actually are only $195 now. I think they used to be a lot more expensive.

The batteries are on the expensive side. When buying them for a $16k C300 Mark II camera when it first came out, spending an additional $1300 on batteries, was a good amount of money, but compared to the cost of the camera, not so terrible. A C200 at less than half the price make the price of the batteries twice as expensive in relation to the cost of the camera body. Same with media. Hence everyone suffering from sticker shock.

The BP-A30 dropped in price to $270 some months ago. It was originally $300. The BPA-60 has been the same price at $495.

I guess if you always shoot rigged up you can get away with V-mount or AB batteries. Otherwise, the BPAs are a must have. I have three BPA-60s and four BPA-30s. Gets me through just about everything for two camera shoots. I do have one p-tap power cable to power the C300 Mark II which I got from Media Blackout; I primarily use it with Steadicam since the rigging often blocks the battery compartment on the camera and it means one less quantity of batteries to manage. I still typically have the BP-30 battery in there, so if the AB battery on the Steadicam goes down the camera battery will kick in so the camera won't suddenly shut down.

It would be great if a BPA came out with P-tap out. Maybe with the rise in popularity of the BPAs due to the C200 it will be more likely to happen.
 
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Eric Coughlin said:
I was going to say, "But Redvolts are only xxx," but Redvolts actually are only $195 now. I think they used to be a lot more expensive.
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The new redvolts only last like 30min or so and right now there is a lot of complains over the reduser forums about them:

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?160798-REDVOLT-V-Charging-Problem

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?157059-REDVOLT-V-Mini-V-Locks-now-shipping



I'm OK paying $260 for over 2 hours of quality batteries that will not fail and are very lights.
 
The Redvolts always lasted around 20-30 minutes.

Red draws 50 around watts. C300 Mark II draws I believe around 20 watts.

I've had my eye on the Intellytech Socanland 280Wh AB battery. That should last a C300 Mark II or C200 about 13.5 hours, though I'd more so use it for LED lights, Steadicam, and powering higher power cameras like Arri and Red.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...lytech_176000_280wh_lithium_battery_with.html

People (such as ACs) who work with me find I don't like having my camera turned off. I typically leave it on all the time except during long breaks such as lunch. Often people turn their cameras off during 5-10 minute breaks, which sometimes end up being just 1-2 minute breaks unexpectedly, and then when suddenly it's time to roll again, hold on, the camera needs to be turned on, just give us, oh, 15 seconds for it to boot up and be ready to go, yeah, cause wasting time on set isn't a big deal. Why did we waste this time? So we could save five minutes of battery, on a 240 minute battery. Absurd, I say. Why risk a 10 second delay in production to save five minutes of battery? Bring plenty of batteries instead, with sufficient run time on each, so then you can accordingly plan out changing batteries during actual down times instead of having people waiting around for the camera to boot up at important moments. Even if the boot up time of the camera is fast, the 1-2 extra seconds it takes to flip the on switch can still cause a delay in production.
 
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dave12781 said:
I bought some BPA-30s used on eBay for around $150/each. Worked out great so far!
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Have you been buying the used A30's being shipped over from China? Some say they are based in the US, but then get drop shipped. I've been trying to figure out what the deal is with those batteries. How much life does the camera say is left on them and do they look used? I doubt their counterfeit since it is such a low volume sales item to try to counterfeit.
 
cpreston said:
Have you been buying the used A30's being shipped over from China? Some say they are based in the US, but then get drop shipped. I've been trying to figure out what the deal is with those batteries. How much life does the camera say is left on them and do they look used? I doubt their counterfeit since it is such a low volume sales item to try to counterfeit.
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I ordered from one seller that was supposed to be based in PA and get to me in 2-3 days. The day after I placed the order for 2x batts @$160/ea, he contact me and ask me if it's ok if he ships from China and it'll get to me in 10-15 days. I didn't want to wait and I was worried about counterfeiting, so I cancelled the order and still need to buy 2-3 of these to go along with my 3x v-mounts.

Using v-mounts all the time sounds like a PITA.

I don't trust the ones from China; I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and resent Canon for charging so much for these...
 
I am very scared about counterfeiting, especially in batteries. I know the Canon guys charge a premium for their batteries, however, I can't compromise on my safety and security. In my previous role in a mobile phone company, I had seen the impact of chinese batteries on the phones and they way the batteries have burst. So I will not buy potential third party bombs.
 
The one I got was from PA. Looks totally legit, and lasts as long as the battery that came with the camera. Not sure about Counterfeit ones from China... I did hold my breath a second when I put it into my camera...
 
dave12781 said:
The one I got was from PA. Looks totally legit, and lasts as long as the battery that came with the camera. Not sure about Counterfeit ones from China... I did hold my breath a second when I put it into my camera...
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Did you check that status of the battery with the camera. I'm wondering how much life is left on those "PA" batteries and how many hours can be expected.
 
The PA batts are back in stock, but they've jacked up the price to $190 (link below). That being only $80 less than a brand new warrantee'd and supported battery no longer seems worth it to me. I just ordered a brand new one from Adorama. Not happy about paying $300 for something that I don't think should cost that much, but I have a 3-hour gig tomorrow that I need to be more nimble than I can be with v-mounts, so here we are...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Used-Origin...133029?hash=item2cb78e8a25:g:dqwAAOSwUsJYWPY1
 
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