FS7: New Battery for Sony FS7 and PMW Sony cameras ...

ddh

ddh

Well-known member
It's been awhile everyone since I posted but I keep up here on the forum. I recently have been looking seriously enough at the Sony FS7 to have batteries made with D-TAP/USB2 connections of what is called a BP-U65 battery. Last fall, I began talking to a manufacturer in China about having these batteries made with Samsung cells. I lived and worked in the film industry back in the 1980s in Hong Kong spoke Mandarin Chinese and spent time in China proper as a tourist and engaging in film work ... so, I'm very familiar with Chinese society.
You can read my blog on tests I've done of the BP-U65 battery on my blog: http://www.deanharringtonvisual.com/blog/
 
Not sure how many of you are familiar with the Sony BPU60-t. I only recently became aware of it. It has a hirose (4-on 2A ) power tap built onto the battery pack.

BPU60-t.jpg

The power tap is convenient for powering accessories when operating the Fs7 without the extension unit. Sound Ops like it for the ability to power Lectrosonics receivers mounted on the camera. ( the higher-end Lectro receivers lack an internal battery capability. )

The only rub is that you would need all of your batts to have this feature if you are running a configuration dependent upon the hirose tap.
 
SWIT is introducing a bigger brother to their S-8U63 battery, it is 86wh capacity, the same size and weight as S-8U63. D-tap/USB. Will be shipping later this Spring.

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adolgin said:
SWIT is introducing a bigger brother to their S-8U63 battery, it is 86wh capacity, the same size and weight as S-8U63. D-tap/USB. Will be shipping later this Spring.

So it appears unfortunately that Swit have failed to address the one remaining issue with these batteries and that is that in an FS7, the D-Tap and USB ports are inaccessible using standard D-Tap connectors.
All they needed to do was to make the case a little longer, or mount the connectors elsewhere.

Hawkswoods make the best solution so far, the battery is designed to allow access to the D-Taps by putting them on the rear face of the battery, unfortunately one of the D-Taps is used as the batteries are not coded so they connect via the DC input. It still leaves one D-Tap useable which (if we disregard the USB) is on par with the Swit but a coded battery has to be preferable.

Hopefully it won't be too long before someone makes a battery which deals with the shortcomings of each. I had such high hopes of Swit being the ones to fix this.
Click to expand...
 
SWIT is aware of the issue, and is about to introduce a special low profile D-Tap adapter for their battery. Unfortunately it is not available yet. I will post an update as soon as they release it. In the meantime WestsideAV make a similar adapter one by one using their production equipment.
 
I have the FS7 Swits and the Olof at Westside AV made me a custom D-Tap out and it works great and fits into the tight space. Josh Becker on our forum also made a custom D-Tap out as well. Hit them up.

The Swit battery is great, works just like the Sony version and I power my 7Q from the D-Tap. I love it.
 
Finally we have a winner!! Hawk-Woods have now made their BP-75UX battery to work with the FS7 without the need for a power connector and also have the D-taps mounted in a useable condition. They have discontinued the BP-FS7U as it is no longer needed.
I was not comfortable with the need to buy 3rd party leads which also seemed unnecessarily expensive.
 
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I have one of the Swit S-8U93 as a trial to see if I should invest in more. How do the Swits compare to the Sony large battery for usage time and accuracy of time remaining?

Has anyone got any experience the both brands?

Cheers
 
I've ordered the Swit S-8U93 from Dolgin. Should be receiving it this week. I'll give a brief update on my first experiences.
 
SWIT just let us know that they released an adapter (S-7105) for their S-8U93/S-8U63 batteries to be used with Sony FS-7 cameras. It allows for a convenient connection to the D-Tap power jack in the battery. It is just a $20 piece, addresses the limitation often mentioned here and other Sony forums.

S-7105-adp.jpg
 
I have been using the Swit S-8U93 batteries and Dolgin TC-200 EX charger with the FS7. I get roughly 5-5.5 hrs per battery and they fully charge in about the same time frame on the charger.

I think the charger and the battery are pretty amazing options to the much more expensive Sony counterparts.
 
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