FS7: FS7 Tilta V-mount plate -- your experiences?

mattmealer

mattmealer

Member
On my FS7, I use the Tilta FS-T01 V-mount plate in conjunction with the now-discontinued IDX Duo-C95 battery.

I've owned this combo for over a year, and I've found that the IDX batteries do not attach securely to the Tilta plate. It's far too easy to accidentally knock a battery right off the camera, especially while shooting handheld. I've had to stop interviews because the battery almost literally flew off the plate at little more than the slightest bump against a wall or other obstacle. Extremely embarrassing -- and unprofessional -- to say the least.

The batteries do attach quite securely to my IDX charger, which suggests that the issue is with the plate, or possibly something to do with this particular combination of Tilta and IDX hardware.

Has anyone else experienced this problem? Any suggestions on a different V-mount plate for the FS7 -- one that attaches directly to the camera? Would something like the Wooden Camera FS7 battery slide be a more reliable solution? I have no need, nor budget, for the XDCA unit.

Or is the ultimate answer to migrate to gold mount batteries?
 
I have no personal experience with external adapters since I am a XDCA owner who uses BP-U90's on the rare occasions I run without the XDCA. But I can add that your issue is a reason that gold-mount is considered by some to be a superior design to v-mount. And recommend that you make the switch to gold-mount.

I like and own some of these budget gold-mount batteries:

https://www.intellytechusa.com/products/the-mini-95wh-rugged-series-li-ion-battery-pack-anton-bauer-gold-mount-v-mount

I think the "ultimate answer" is to get the XDCA unit. IMO the camera isn't really a "professional-level" camera until it has timecode-in. The 4-pin power option made possible by the XDCA makes the camera further of professional-level.

The "ultimate answer" in terms of non-XDCA solutions might well be the Core Jet-Pack, in gold-mount version:

JPA-FS7.jpg

https://www.adorama.com/sxjpafs7.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI4MzI6pay3QIVk7XACh0wDQpFEAQYASABEgLlL_D_BwE
 
Bought my FS7 camera at the end of 2014... and that Tilta v mount plate probably 6 months later. And have never had any issues with batts that are easy to knock off or fall off it. No experience though with that or other IDX batteries, however. And usually I'm not shooting much handheld with this configuration - since I mostly use the Tilta when using larger Cine Primes w/ follow focus, etc - which helps balance the whole rig out.
 
mattmealer said:
On my FS7, I use the Tilta FS-T01 V-mount plate in conjunction with the now-discontinued IDX Duo-C95 battery.

I've owned this combo for over a year, and I've found that the IDX batteries do not attach securely to the Tilta plate. It's far too easy to accidentally knock a battery right off the camera, especially while shooting handheld. I've had to stop interviews because the battery almost literally flew off the plate at little more than the slightest bump against a wall or other obstacle. Extremely embarrassing -- and unprofessional -- to say the least.

The batteries do attach quite securely to my IDX charger, which suggests that the issue is with the plate, or possibly something to do with this particular combination of Tilta and IDX hardware.

Has anyone else experienced this problem? Any suggestions on a different V-mount plate for the FS7 -- one that attaches directly to the camera? Would something like the Wooden Camera FS7 battery slide be a more reliable solution? I have no need, nor budget, for the XDCA unit.

Or is the ultimate answer to migrate to gold mount batteries?
Click to expand...

I did have similar issues a couple of years back - and I think it was because the battery release button was too easy to knock.

I have a Hawk Woods V Lock version now. It ain't as pretty, but it's definitely more butch and no longer feels like it might the snap the camera in half (the Tilta is an unsupported lever waiting for an accident.)

Ben.
 
Interesting thoughts...thanks guys. I've used the XDCA unit as a rental item in the past; it was brought in by a producer specifically for the ProRes functionality. I did like the extra heft it added to the camera.

I'll give the Hawk-woods another look. A friend also recommended the Core SWX line, though I guess he uses the v-mount version. Fortunately, I'm not yet too heavily invested in v-mount, so it probably wouldn't be too painful to switch to gold at this point.
 
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One other thought. HW modified my plate with an additional switch for a Gratical Eye. Very useful and neat and charged only a few £ extra.

Ben.
 
mattmealer said:
It's far too easy to accidentally knock a battery right off the camera, especially while shooting handheld.
Click to expand...

Yes have experienced the problem with the Tilta V Mount adapter. Interesting though I have seen Tilta adapters with IDX plates and Tilta adapters with some unbranded V mount plates. My plate is the unbranded version. It has its D Tap on the far side of the camera not on the operator side as I have seen with the IDX plates. In my case the jumping issue was with some batteries that had some kind of plastic/composite material used for the actual "V" that is held onto the battery with three screws. Hunting around I found some old dead batteries that had metal "V" plates on the batteries. I did a swap job on those three screw plates and find the latching of the batteries with the metal V plates to be much more secure. Still in all I reckon AB or PAG have far more secure mounts that the one Sony blessed the world with.

Chris Young
 
Huh...I'll have to take another look at mine to see if it's branded or not. The D-tap on my plate is on the dumb side, so I guess it's one of the unbranded variants. Interesting solution you came up with!
 
All I cared about was a solution and the V plate swap worked. As you say it is a pain when they jump off. Not a good look in front of the client is it :)

Chris Young
 
Definitely not...fortunately on the one or two times it's happened to me in front of clients/talent, no one batted an eyelash. Still embarrassing either way!
 
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