Highest Capacity Gold Mount Batteries

Eric Coughlin

Eric Coughlin

Veteran
What are the highest capacity Gold mount batteries?

On the B&H search it tops out at 300w and one 367w option from Core SWX. I seem to recall seeing other higher powered Gold mount options but since I couldn't find them on B&H I was wondering if anyone could point me to them. SWIT has a 420w battery that is also reasonably priced but I've only seen it available in V-mount.
 
Last edited:
Anton/Bauer makes camera batteries that can be either Gold Mount or V-mount. So, it's not really correct to say a battery has an "Anton/Bauer" mount if you are looking for a Gold Mount battery. The biggest Anton/Bauer makes is 240W. If you want to search for bigger capacities from other brands, use "gold mount" as the search term instead of Anton/Bauer.
 
I edited the post to reflect gold mount instead of Anton Bauer mount. My B&H search was for gold mount and I had just found what was listed above.
 
Along the lines of Anton Bauer branding, it's interesting that P-tap and D-tap have become synonomous over the years (with AB themselves calling it P-tap for Powertap, and other manufacturers callling it D tap presumably for the shape). It's also interesting that it has become such an industry standard considering how prone it can be for reverse polarity--those AB four-way splitters can seperate enough to allow the cables to be inserted backwards.
 
CharlesPapert said:
Along the lines of Anton Bauer branding, it's interesting that P-tap and D-tap have become synonomous over the years (with AB themselves calling it P-tap for Powertap, and other manufacturers callling it D tap presumably for the shape). It's also interesting that it has become such an industry standard considering how prone it can be for reverse polarity--those AB four-way splitters can seperate enough to allow the cables to be inserted backwards.
Click to expand...

It's based on country Charles.

Everywhere else except the US seems to call it D TAP (for the shape)

Americans call it P TAP.

Just like everywhere else in the world is V mount and the US seems to be AB / Gold mount.

This has been changing too over recent years.

And yeah agree. They are such an unsafe invention especially with modern batteries. They should be banned.
 
What is the difference between P-TAP and D-TAP?
It’s the same thing. P-TAP is short for PowerTap® a power outlet port invented by Anton/Bauer as a way to power external accessories in addition to the camera. As PowerTap is a registered trademark of Anton/Bauer, other manufacturers sometimes call it a D-TAP port.

https://www.antonbauer.com/en/products/titon/
 
This meme came up for me on Facebook today on the subject of Gold mount in the US Vs VLOCK everywhere else….

”When you go to Sydney Australia for a gig with an Arri Amira gold mount from the states and the local rental houses tell you gold mount batteries are dated and v-lock is superior and industry standard.
Excuse me WHAT?”

https://www.facebook.com/groups/moviesetmemesofficial/permalink/709975207337244/?mibextid=S66gvF

Was a funny addendum to me having been in this exact situation. It used to be as delineated as NTSC / PAL
 
I got into the Core Helix Max 360’s (367wh) as soon as they dropped earlier this year. I wanted larger capacity batteries than my 190’s for my Amira, but also compatibility with my upcoming 35. They are absolute beasts, both physically and power wise. I’ve literally shot two days with one on my F55 on a certain real estate show. I get around 5 to 5.5 hours on my Amira and 4 to 4.5 on the 35. The 35 was on a rental to a client being used with the Fuji 25-1000 box lens and between build & prep and the shoot, I think they only used up “2.5 batteries”.

The great thing about the Core dual voltage batts, is that they work with the 12-14v gear and the high voltage 24v gear. The A/B 26v batts are only high voltage and only work with high voltage gear with AB’s batt plate, because they changed the height/thickness of the terminal block on the 26v batts so they can’t mate to regular plates. With the Core’s, I have one battery system that works with all of my gear.
 
Doug Bee said:
This meme came up for me on Facebook today on the subject of Gold mount in the US Vs VLOCK everywhere elseâ¦.

âWhen you go to Sydney Australia for a gig with an Arri Amira gold mount from the states and the local rental houses tell you gold mount batteries are dated and v-lock is superior and industry standard.
Excuse me WHAT?â

https://www.facebook.com/groups/moviesetmemesofficial/permalink/709975207337244/?mibextid=S66gvF

Was a funny addendum to me having been in this exact situation. It used to be as delineated as NTSC / PAL
Click to expand...

Yep…. How many times have you seen a gold mount battery just fall off the cam or have to re-seat it multiple times just to seat properly and make electrical contact so the cam powers on? It’s also pretty telling when pretty much the largest rental house on the planet, Panavison, is gold.

V-lock is a $h!t mount. The kids and cheap-@$$e$ can have them. I’ll stick with the adult standard.
 
Doug Bee said:
It's based on country Charles.

Everywhere else except the US seems to call it D TAP (for the shape)

Americans call it P TAP.

Just like everywhere else in the world is V mount and the US seems to be AB / Gold mount.

This has been changing too over recent years.

And yeah agree. They are such an unsafe invention especially with modern batteries. They should be banned.
Click to expand...

How do you feel about the “twist tap” variant that BeBob came up with? I mean hell, Arri is using it.
 
Run&Gun said:
V-lock is a $h!t mount. The kids and cheap-@$$e$ can have them. I’ll stick with the adult standard.
Click to expand...

I'm 100% Anton/Bauer V-mount. All my cameras, all my video monitors, all my LED lights (those that take bricks), eMotimo, waveform monitor, and more.
Never had one fall off or become loose.
 
Somehow I knew this would turn into a v-mount vs gold mount discussion! I have indeed seen v-mounts get knocked off or come off in the hand. I have long been a gold-mount kinda guy, but gold mount ain't perfect either. It's not unusual for there to be a bit of play between battery and mount which can cause vibration with certain mounts--in my Steadicam days I used to have a little piece of soft sided velcro on the plates to wedge the battery tighter. I've never been the kind of person who operates a camera from the battery (didn't do it from the mag on film cameras either), but many people are, and with either mount it presents issues due to these concerns.

Run&Gun, I do think the B-mount offers some smart upgrades in many ways, but it is a little exhausting to think about having to change to a new ecosystem. I do think it is funny that Bebob opted to name it that which would obviously cause some confusion--B and V are very similar sounding especially to Spanish speakers! Chevy made the same mistake by naming two of their cars Volt and Bolt--as the owner of a latter, I constantly have to over-enunciate for people to know which one I have.

Let's just go back to NP1's (said no-one, ever).
 
Back in 2008 I was scratching my head over an adult battery system.

I did a job with some BBC 2/3 chaps and they had v lock.

My assumption was if you are in the UK and use the same kit as the BBC it would be no bad thing.

No thought on what was actually better!

--

On my recent film the 'trainee' managed to attach a Dtap backwards.. unbeleivable and instant smoke.

Really I thought that design was fool proof.

--

A for large batteries.. (erics orignal post) I wonder if at some point large v/gold batteries are beyond funny.

All the big alexa rigs Ive worked with on the feature films mainly used 'floor', batteries unless it was a handheld shot.

(they fly 2 small vlocks all the time to do handheld or enable hot swapping of the vlock or floor batt. With all the focus calibration a power down is a major PITA for lunch and wrap only)

Maybe one should choose a different system above maybe 150 w/hr
 
CharlesPapert said:
Somehow I knew this would turn into a v-mount vs gold mount discussion!
Click to expand...

It always does. Lol. It's like the old Ford vs. Chevy...

I think one of the issues with V mounts are because they are a vertically mounting battery(generally), gravity can fool people into thinking they are on securely, when in-fact they aren't fully locked in.

It's funny you mention the soft sided velcro. I had my F55 out on a rental earlier this year and it was being used on a Steadicam and it came back with a few small square pieces of soft velcro on the plate. I text'd the 1st and told him he was a genius. Lol. And then I commenced to doing the same on my Amira and my Vari's. The Core direct connect gold mount plate for my Alexa 35, though... There is zero play between the battery and plate. When the battery locks in, it's solid as a rock. And I'm with you, I've never really operated from the battery. Maybe once every fifth blue moon in a leap year I may do a move that I'll grab the battery, but otherwise no. I also agree that V and B sound too similar, especially in this instance, since they're both "competing" battery mounting systems.

One of my buddies, a younger guy, is all V mount on his cams. F55, Komodo, Alexa mini and Amira(and his Gemini before he sold it). And he went B mount on his Alexa 35. So he has two completely separate, incompatible systems he has to worry about now. My dual voltage gold mounts are backwards compatible with any 12-14v piece of gold mount gear and work on everything I own and charge on any of the 6+ chargers I have.

The only bad thing about the high-voltage gold mount systems from Core and A/B, they are incompatible with each other and the A/B 26V's aren't backwards compatible with anything, period. So if you go A/B for high voltage, you're still essentially buying a new, incompatible system. Would have been nice if everyone would have gotten on the same page and we could have had a more compatible, universal system.

The station that I did my intern ship at back in the mid 90s was still using NP's on their Betacam's for the rank 'n file guys. The chief used gold mount bricks, because he had a BVW-300 or 400. Everyone else was shooting on docakbles. Lol.
 
Run&Gun said:
How do you feel about the “twist tap” variant that BeBob came up with? I mean hell, Arri is using it.
Click to expand...

Love them.

BeBob invented them a while ago. I have Bebob gold mount batteries and have had BeBob for many years. They are more expensive but they have great features like the twist and the built in light etc.

Run&Gun said:
Yep…. How many times have you seen a gold mount battery just fall off the cam or have to re-seat it multiple times just to seat properly and make electrical contact so the cam powers on? It’s also pretty telling when pretty much the largest rental house on the planet, Panavison, is gold.

V-lock is a $h!t mount. The kids and cheap-@$$e$ can have them. I’ll stick with the adult standard.
Click to expand...

Welllll

Go to Panavision Australia and they are VLOCK. That is what I was saying

That is just how they roll in Australia, and lots of other parts of the world. Though in the last few years there is less militancy about which system.

VLOCK for sure is more prone to the battery flying off the back. I always test my rental pick up ones by giving them a hard slap from the bottom and 1 out of ten will fly off.

I find Gold mount are not always secure either, but the bigger problem for me with gold mount is when they get loose and rattle. If you have some bad habits and grip the battery on the back of the camera instead of the tripod pan stick then they start to rattle and wobble loose. It is why Panavision and others started doing those crazy long curved handles on the back of the camera builds
 
Last edited:
morgan_moore said:
On my recent film the 'trainee' managed to attach a Dtap backwards.. unbeleivable and instant smoke.

Really I thought that design was fool proof.
Click to expand...

I've seen people post about it happening, but being a life long P-tap/D-tap user going back to my first Betacam, I've never personally seen it and I kind of scratch my head over it and wonder how? How in the hell did someone manage to force that in backwards? I guess it's like the old saying, you can't make anything fool proof, because fools are so ingenious.
 
Run&Gun said:
I've seen people post about it happening, but being a life long P-tap/D-tap user going back to my first Betacam, I've never personally seen it and I kind of scratch my head over it and wonder how? How in the hell did someone manage to force that in backwards? I guess it's like the old saying, you can't make anything fool proof, because fools are so ingenious.
Click to expand...

A long time ago I worked at a camera rental company. We tried to avoid using them because people did it ALL THE TIME. It is often less experienced crew forcing it when it seems a tight fit and they are in a hurry. It can be really bad on some of the batteries if they are not well protected and it usually smokes whatever you are trying to power too.
 
What can happen is that the outer shell of the female d-tap assembly splits a little and it becomes possible for the plug to be inserted backwards. It happened to me once on a four-way splitter (Anton Bauer brand, not a cheapo) and yes the results can be disasterous. There are polarity protected splitters available now.
 
Doug Bee said:
Love them.

BeBob invented them a while ago. I have Bebob gold mount batteries and have had BeBob for many years. They are more expensive but they have great features like the twist and the built in light etc.



Welllll

Go to Panavision Australia and they are VLOCK. That is what I was saying

That is just how they roll in Australia, and lots of other parts of the world. Though in the last few years there is less militancy about which system.

VLOCK for sure is more prone to the battery flying off the back. I always test my rental pick up ones by giving them a hard slap from the bottom and 1 out of ten will fly off.

I find Gold mount are not always secure either, but the bigger problem for me with gold mount is when they get loose and rattle. If you have some bad habits and grip the battery on the back of the camera instead of the tripod pan stick then they start to rattle and wobble loose. It is why Panavision and others started doing those crazy long curved handles on the back of the camera builds
Click to expand...

I misunderstood a little. I was just thinking like an average rental house. But yes, it's funny how intense some of the discussions end up over gold vs. v, especially with younger/newer people and people outside of the US. They act like if you're using a gold mount battery instead of v, you're powering your camera off of steam. Same brand, same model, they are literally exactly the same battery- same cells, same electronics, same shell, except for the mount on the back(or front depending on how you look at it).

Yes, sometimes you can have a slightly loose/jiggly gold mount, but the electrical contacts are still tight and secure and the mechanical lock keeps it on the plate.
 
I guess when you own and maintain your own gear and you're the one using it the vast majority of the time, you take some things for granted, like knowing how it's actually supposed to be used. I mean I have seen utilities actually break tie-down knobs on lights, because they think they're cranking down the bolts that hold the hatch closed on a submarine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top