Do people buy battery powered LEDs because they are lazy?

puredrifting

puredrifting

Major Contributor
I have just bought two LED panels, the Brightcasts, that take either V-Lock or BP-U batteries. I will be shooting with a gimbal all over a large city, so for that kind of use, obviously battery is the way to go. But I see a lot of people shooting interior interviews with batteries. Do people just do this because they are too lazy to run a stinger? The same mentality that uses wireless lavs for sit down interviews? I am the opposite, I hate using batteries for an interior shot since the batteries always fade, flicker or die at the most inopportune moment. So how many people who go nuts for battery powered larger LEDs actually NEED battery power to shoot away from AC versus just people who are too lazy to unpack and plug-in a stinger?
 
I'd buy 'em for versatility, if it were me. . .if you're walking around with a producer at an event/convention doing MOS interviews and need a light you can walk around with and plant quickly, or for some other quick moving situations. Otherwise, yeah, plug in, dummy.
 
It's a dream of mine to shoot sit down interviews on battery only. I mean, Anton Bauer batteries are super reliable, so reliable that they're used to power Arri Alexas on 100 million dollar shoots, so why wouldn't you trust it with powering a light? There's an accurate digital readout of remaining time on the battery (depending on what battery you get; I have AB digital ones), so if your battery says four hours left and you have a two hour interview, you're good to go. Just don't cut the run time close and you're taking little risk. I've never noticed flickering or fading while using batteries.

You're saving time on set by not needing to run cables, find outlets, repack cables, etc.

Right now I often use a 90w AB battery for my hair light. Since the hair light is often at 10-20% power, the battery will last something like 10-20 hours at that power level. The hair light is often on a boom arm, the most precarious light setup I've got, so not having to worry about someone tripping on a power cable and bringing that whole setup down is a definite plus. But that plus goes to all of my lights; stingers are a liability for tripping, so eliminating that safety concern is a good thing.

Sometimes my fill light will be battery powered if I'm using the Astra soft bare, which may only be at around 20% which would last about five hours. I typically don't use do my key Astra light on battery for sit downs since it only lasts about an hour at full power with my 90w battery.

I have three 90w AB digital batteries now. I want to get more higher powered batteries. I'm eyeing the Intellytech 280w battery which has a digital readout on it for $500. That should power an Astra at full power for about 2 hr and 45 minutes, which is enough for most half day single interview type shoots.
 
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I just bought some LED and skimped on buying batts

(well 6 Vlocks and a charger could cost more than the lights)

Instantly last week I was on a not enough time pop video and running cable was a pain, esp as the wreck location had minimal functioning sockets so had to do super long runs.

So call it lazy or call it use of resources.

Of course cables are a trip hazard and in some buildings they dont like 'external devices' to be plugged in without being signed off by the in house safety bods.

So batts are good, but pricey and should be charged for!
 
I use V-locks as much as I can as it makes setting up everything much easier. It's also more convenient when I have to move lights not having to deal with cabling. A huge benefit is also I don't have to rely on mains outlet and can setup and interview or the like anywhere, even in a location with no power at all.

Sometimes on the other hand I leave the V-locks at home when I have to fly as 150W batteries isn't to popular with airlines.

As far as running time I often know how long I'll need to light and can calculate if my batteries will last or not. Usually I bring cables also so I have the option to go wired.
 
Yep, Morgan just said it - trip hazard and time. I Love the ability to roll in, throw lights up, move them around freely and pack up just as quickly. Lazy? no way. Being able to focus on client interaction before, during and after the shoot is golden to me and not running cables is a part of that.
 
The downer I see with batts is it kind of puts weight on your production.

Flat batts? Director/Client thinks you are an idiot.

Almost better.. depending on your budget to offer them as a line item and get a peli full from a rental house.

Then the director chooses, money or cabling.

I have £2k of Vlocks and that will do camera and monitors but Id need to step up for panels.
 
Interesting range of responses. For moving, or get in, get out as quickly as possible, almost news style shooting, totally, they make sense. I guess I do a lot of shooting of a whole cast of actors or a staff of writers for a show or movie when I am actually rolling for 10-12 hours in one or two setups a day (I usually flip the key for green screen at the halfway mark so editor has some variety of key sides and shoulder direction) so batteries in those cases would be the wrong choice. For anything exterior, run and gun interiors with different locations, batteries are genius. But for an assembly line of interviews, shooting all day, batteries are inconvenient. I often shoot with an Atomos recorder that eats up batteries so I am already minding two sets of batteries for camera and recorder. Adding in more of them when I can tap into the wall would not be a smart choice. But we all shoot different styles of production.
 
When I shoot a video inside I don't plug in my C100's or 5D3 to AC power, I have a Kessler Second Shooter with batteries that last I think 6 hours or so, I don't plug that in unless I know I'm shooting longer than that. Some but not all of my audio devices are battery powered. I have the Aputure Lighting kit H672's and I plug those in because they only last 2 hours at the most. All my other gear goes for 6 hours on one battery, with the exception of the 5D3. That said the convince of having the option to shoot for 2 hours with out AC power is really nice. Also, get paranoid someone will trip over the power cords.

Actually when I'm not using them for video I use them in my shop and outside at night for work. I also, just bought a new battery powered Mikita drill, cause I hate plugging in a drill with a power cord anymore.
 
Using a battery on LED lights when indoors eliminates a trip hazard. So in that sense it is smart. Especially if in an area where the public is walking around near your lighting units.

The maxim regarding audio of "never go wireless unless you HAVE to go wireless" more applied in the days when wireless audio was less dependable. Prior to dual-channel wireless ( or whatever they call it. )

It is similar with battery powering of lights. It used to be that lighting units drew so much power that battery systems could not last that long. But with the low power draw of LED's it isn't nearly as risky to battery power a light.
 
Having battery powered lights with great output is a boon and comes in handy, BUT when i'm in a static location for extended periods, think live shots, I go A/C if it's available. I have a friend who is almost exclusively battery powered on his lights outside with NILA's and I have to wonder why. The lights are underpowered for what he is doing a lot of times. Was it the allure of being able to go "just battery powered" or something else?
 
I love going on battery power for lighting. I often work in offices and locations where finding outlets is a pain and as mentioned stingers become a safety issue, not to forget the frowns or "No" when it comes to taping them down. If I am shooting corporate for the day I find a charging location and set up chargers for camera, monitors and lights. I am usually a one man band and expedience would be the word I would use rather than lazy.
 
How many times have people experienced someone tripping on a cable that caused an injury or damage to equipment? I was on a music video where the three phase power run tripped someone walking down the street and they lost a few teeth. With power requirements that large it wasn't as if V-lock batteries were an alternate option anyway so my example doesn't hold much weight. I'll brace myself for everyone throwing all sorts of personal experiences at me. However, the incidents are few and far between and are tiny fractions in relation to how many times cables are used.

I understand the reasoning "well why even have risk it if you don't have to?" Poor cable management can surely be a hazard, but a cable people know about, that's been made as safe as possible is not hazardous - they're two different things.

Ironically there are some LEDs where the battery plate then rests on the ground so you haven't exactly done away with the "hazards".

If it's not too public, I'll use a cable whenever I can to help keep the batteries charged.
 
Lost a few teeth? That is a major pain to that person and probably- I don't know $100k damages?

I don't know if it is passing my 40th birthday or the propensity of the youth to walk while staring at a screen but trailing cables flash red to me these days
 
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I'm not lazy. I love running lights on batteries if I can. Stingers are a pain. My shoots don't last hours and usually have multiple locations with different talent and short setup times. As for wireless. Guilty as charged. I hardly ever use cables with lav mic unless I get interference. Always use cable on boom.
 
Interesting to read all of this.

I can certainly see the advantages for one man bands or close to it, for short shoots and overall run-and-gun.

Where I find relying on batteries to be stressful is when there are multiple of them working across the set, which means regular rounders to make sure they are all intact. Few things make me more frustrated than anything (camera, lights, monitors) dying in the middle of a shot because the battery went down. I don't consider that acceptable. It happened to me last week during a mission-critical moment and I had some strong words for the party responsible for ensuring it didn't happen.

One area that I have long been fanatical about is having a single battery on a camera. I'm utterly perplexed when I see rigs that have separate batteries on the monitor, the wireless receiver, maybe a light or a signal convertor or whatever. Just seems like you multiply your chances to have something die. One battery powering everything means only one readout to monitor. Back in the 5DMKII days I had up to 7 p-tap cables on my rig running off a single Dionic 90. Maybe an OCD thing that is specific to me, but I think it makes far more sense.

Eric Coughlin said:
Right now I often use a 90w AB battery for my hair light. Since the hair light is often at 10-20% power, the battery will last something like 10-20 hours at that power level. The hair light is often on a boom arm, the most precarious light setup I've got, so not having to worry about someone tripping on a power cable and bringing that whole setup down is a definite plus. .
Click to expand...

Eric, isn't the extra weight of the battery making the boom arm that much more precarious (I'm assuming for a portable setup this is a pretty lightweight boom)? Would it perhaps make sense to run the battery off a plate and mount it to the stand rather than the arm, with an XLR or p-tap cable running to the light?
 
Actually - a charging regime both on loactaion and the night before take effort- in some ways cables are lazy. Also they can help with the client interface as one does not have half an eye on levels swaps and charger running.

I think overall it is a logical production skill - many short setups? Batts. Less longer setups - mains.
 
CharlesPapert said:
Eric, isn't the extra weight of the battery making the boom arm that much more precarious (I'm assuming for a portable setup this is a pretty lightweight boom)? Would it perhaps make sense to run the battery off a plate and mount it to the stand rather than the arm, with an XLR or p-tap cable running to the light?
Click to expand...
That's pretty much what I do, except instead of mounting the battery to the light stand I mount it on the opposite end of the boom arm to act as a counterweight, which is generally enough counterweight, though sometimes I'll still add more counterweight.


In this particular setup for the next two photos, the Astra Soft was in the middle of the walkway for the people working there, so while I was tempted to plug it in to wall power, I figured it would be safer to stay with battery power for the 30-60 minute interview.
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Setup before I had a longer extension cable.

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