puredrifting
Major Contributor
Good to hear Alex. If they do BP-A60s with D-Tap at a decent cost, I predict they would do very well with them.
C200: Generic Canon BP-A60 Battery Packs???
- Thread starter dave12781
- Start date
Good to hear Alex. If they do BP-A60s with D-Tap at a decent cost, I predict they would do very well with them.
definitionxmk
Member
Bringing this one back up, I'd like to see how you guys are utilizing your rigs to hold the V-Mount batteries. Aside that, let's hope to see some more battery alternatives for the C200.
puredrifting
Major Contributor
Nothing yet. Also, beware, I have been using the Wooden Camera battery plate for the C300 MKII, works okay but the Lemo AC power connection that the plate plugs into seems finicky, it momentarily loses the connection. This is on a new camera with a new battery plate so it cannot be worn out or loose. A few times I was running shoulder mounted with only a V-Mout and the camera was losing power every time I mounted it upon my shoulder. The solution seems to be, as unsatisfying as it is, to always have the stock BP-30 on the camera, charged and that way if the Lemo connection loses power from the V-Mount mometarily, the camera will not lose power. This is disppointing but apparently common as many C300 MKII owners have complained about the quality of the Lemo AC power in connection.
Run&Gun
Veteran
Goes back to what I said years ago, these cameras are not really built like professional cameras. Prosumer build, at best. Canon still doesn't get it. And I know they've been told. I've talked to sales reps who have told them. It was one thing to tolerate some of the things with the first generation C300 for what we were getting in exchange, image wise, but now... There are no excuses.
chris f
Veteran
That would be so nice, especially when shooting handheld with the 200B and a SmallHD w/ p-tap adapter. To shoot with that rig without adding any extra weight for monitor batteries would be a dream.
puredrifting
Major Contributor
FWIW, I agree. The C series camera are built very prosumer. I just spent three weeks shooting a RED Weapon 6K and that camera is built like a pro camera, but it's $50k. But also, the FS5 and FS7 are no different, they are flimsy and fragile too. It must be a function of cost, I don't think they can build really professionally engineered cameras for under $15k or so. The Varicam LT feels like it is built to pro build standards but it seems to be the cheapest of them that are. I miss the days of the F900 and original Varicam build quality.
Agreed but I wrote to SWIT HQ email a months ago about this and they didn't care to reply...
puredrifting
Major Contributor
I finally gave in. The C200 with the rails and brick in the back, at least with my heavy bricks, is not a small, agile camera any longer, it's a heavy, long camera. Great for tripod mounted shooting, I still use the plate for sit down interviews and stuff off of tripod. But I have the BP-30 that it came with and I gave in and bought a BP-60 from Full Compass for $368.00. My handheld rig with the BP-60 or the 30 in place is still light, short and I can quickly switch from shoulder mounted to cradled, which I do a lot. I was shooting an MMA workout, grappling yesterday and it was perfect going back and forth from shoulder mount to flying the camera around the subjects on the ground using the handle. The Canon batteries are a rip off but functionally they work really well. It would be nice if a third party made some knock off batteries but it appears that nobody is doing that. For me, I now don't care as I can shoot all day with just the BP-30 and BP-60.
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The point of C200 existing is it's small size and weight and fast workflow, there is no place to be cheap there and make 10 pound heavier camera just to save money, I've actually stripped down my C200 as much as I could, and it's almost as light as C100 mark II, there is no faster camera on the market, and now no faster RAW camera then C200. If you want extra slow workflow and too expensive to move concrete block, there are Reds and Alexas for that 
The main reason why Canon Cinema is made half metal half plastic is it's weight, and C200 is very solid for it's build, and because of that and great ergonomics, it's 3 times faster to work with than any cinema camera on the market.
The main reason why Canon Cinema is made half metal half plastic is it's weight, and C200 is very solid for it's build, and because of that and great ergonomics, it's 3 times faster to work with than any cinema camera on the market.
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puredrifting
Major Contributor
Agreed. Other than the space that CRL takes up, it is turning out to be the almost ideal documentary camera. I am fine with three hours of CRL with five EgoDisk cards but if you needed to shoot 5-8 hours a day, CRL becomes too large to download and archive. But so far, for my style of shooting on two separate documentary films, the C200 is a winner. Not perfect but pretty good.
chris f
Veteran
Double agreed, which is why I plan on mostly buying extra BP-30 batteries instead of the BP-60's even though it means swapping more and spending more. I want it to be as light and as small as possible.
The other day I did a shoot (also filming crossfit) that was mostly my fully rigged C500 (cage, rails, anton bauer bricks, etc.) on my Easyrig with a little bit of C200B on a Ronin and one hour into shooting it solidified that I'm definitely selling my C500 setup and getting a C200 as my A-Cam. The whole rig got lots of ooo's and aahhhh's from the client, but it was so slow, heavy, and cumbersome to deal with. I most certainly could have got much better shots much easier/and faster if I was just hand holding a C200.
I'll probably get one or two BP-60's for tripod/interview situations, but will just pony up and buy a handful of the small ones.
puredrifting
Major Contributor
I have to say, I am very happy having one of each. The BP-30 for lightest weight and it gives me about two hours of recording and the BP-60 which isn't that much heavier and doubles that recording time. I still will use the bricks for interviews on tripod or other tripod stuff because it's nice to just not have to think or worry about batteries all day. But mine are too large and heavy for comfortable handheld shooting, especially if you want to cradle the camera.
Just curious. If you want to go cheap until there are knockoff canon batteries why don't you use Sony BP-u60/90 battery knockoffs with a BP -u battery mount connecting to the dc in on the c200. Total cost for battery and plate about $100. Sony BP-u battery knockoffs are real cheap and plentiful. SonyBP-U batteries are same voltage as Canons for c200. footprint much smaller than V mount. Sony battery mounts can be found with 15mm rod soupport which can be removed so that you can come up with other mounting options as the plate is very light in weight.
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puredrifting
Major Contributor
I bought two Ikan Sony U-Mount batteries for my Kamerar Brightcast LED panels. That is an intriguing idea. Still not sure where I could mount the Sony plate on my C200 without using the rods in the rear though? I paid a good amount for the Ikans and they rarely get used. I can say that the DC in connector on the C200 is not very good, when I operate shoulder mounted with just a V-Mount on the plate, the camera loses power every time I heft it up onto my shoulder. This is a new V-Mount battery, new Wooden Camera battery plate and a new C200 so I don't think it's wear and tear, it's just that Canon's DC in connector seems to not be particularly reliable. So I have to keep a charged BP-30 on the C200 when using the V-Mounts so the camera won't momentarily lose power. Disappointing.
Plenty of cheap 15mm rod mount plates available but if you don't want to go with rods theres this:
http://www.swit.us/bracket-with-dv-battery-mount-for-sony.html
And for power cable issues theres this:
https://www.amazon.com/Tether-JerkS...F8&qid=1513170985&sr=1-1&keywords=JerkStopper
You can also clip the battery plate to your belt like the old 16mm days but with significantly less weight.
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