On camera light powered by camera battery?

B

booth

Well-known member
Is there an on-camera light that I can draw power from the camera itself (on-cam battery)? I currently use a PAG light but carrying around the shoulder battery is getting to be a bit cumbersome.
 
Swit are bringing out a Panasonic type battery with a DC tap but it will only be 7.2 volts. I presume the PAG is 12volts.
 
Consider switching to an Anton Bauer system by integrating one if their loose Gold mounts that are pre-wired for your camera type. With the Gold mount is an integrated PTap. On-camera lights (any worth anything) will have PTap adapter cables available.
 
Thanks for all your replies, much appreciated and very helpful.

Bruce196 said:
Swit are bringing out a Panasonic type battery with a DC tap but it will only be 7.2 volts. I presume the PAG is 12volts.
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I will buy something else if I can connect it to the AF101 (I'm in UK). The Pag is not as good as LED lights anyway, even if most of the time it does do the job.

It seems from the replies there is no way of connecting to the camera. The Swit battery that you mention may be helpful if I can find a suitable on cam light.
 
The SWIT battery just arrived here in US. It has a 2.1mm DC jack so you can plug in a DC powered accessory. We just finished testing the battery, loaded at 18 W it runs for about 1h 40 min. The AF100 camera uses about 12.5W, so if your LED light is not too power hungry (under 10W) you will be able to run both for about 1.5h or a little less.
HTH
 
The only reason to power a light with your camera battery these days is if that is what you already have. Today's LEDs are so much more efficient compared to the Frezzi Mini that I still have. My Comer 1800 lux can go 3 hrs at full brightness with a small $40 attached battery. Since I usually dim it down half way that goes to 6 hrs. A huge added benefit is that the light can also be mounted on a light stand away from the camera, with no power cable needed.
 
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Beware dimmable LED's. I bought a whole bunch of these things, one of each, I think I have three or four, including the CL-126, the Z96, a couple of YongNuo 160's, and every one of them is dimmable, and dimming them even the tiniest bit sends nasty scrolling bands through the CMOS sensor. Don't do it. Beware. Dimming LED's = ruined CMOS footage.
 
Barry,
Using a camera-mounted Litepanel 1x1 w/2 HVX200 batts produced no scrolling bands when dimmed, but it was darn heavy. I will lose those batts. when I rig a Dionic 90 w/d-tap next week. Hoping that will not affect CMOS sensor.
 
Perhaps I should stick with the pag light!

Interesting about the dimmable LEDs, is this all of them or just certain kinds? I just need something that can throw a bit of light on a subject, run n gun, following police work in progress at night (for example).
 
We've been conducting tests using an HPX300 across several brands of LED fixtures - mostly theatrical emitters at this point. During color blending dissolves (effectively a fade from one color to the next through luminance control), we see some banding on very low-end fixtures. On the ones we have seen, it manifests as banding and not strobing as we expected.
 
I own two different on-camera led lights; a Zylight Z-90 and a LitePanels Micro Pro. Both units are able to be powered from external sources via DC input jacks. I currently use a battery belt with the Zylight, but would like to try powering it with the new Switronix battery that has been mentioned previously in this thread. I believe all one would have to do is get the correct DC cable to connect the battery to the light and you'd be all set to go. Interestingly enough, I contacted LitePanels about powering the the Micro Pro in this fashion and they said the only officially supported means for externally powering the light was from their ac adapter. Any other means of powering the unit could cause it to fail and would void the warranty (of course!). Th ac/dc wall adapter is great if you are keeping the light on a stand, but terrible if you want to be portable with it. In this situation, I resort to the Panasonic battery adapter for the MicroPro and power the light with a CGR-D54. The light is a bit heavy but lasts forever this way. For this reason, I'd really like to try out the Switronix/dc cable method with both of my lights. I could get away from the battery belt when using the Zylight and away from the additional on light battery when using the Micro Pro. Has anyone given this a try?

Regarding the banding reported by other users, each of our led lights, both the Zylight and Micro Pro are fully dimmable from 0-100% and exhibit no banding or flickering whatsoever. I just figured I'd let everyone know that these lights are absolutely fine with CMOS imagers (the ones in the GH1 and AF100 anyway).
 
Barry_Green said:
Beware dimmable LED's. I bought a whole bunch of these things, one of each, I think I have three or four, including the CL-126, the Z96, a couple of YongNuo 160's, and every one of them is dimmable, and dimming them even the tiniest bit sends nasty scrolling bands through the CMOS sensor. Don't do it. Beware. Dimming LED's = ruined CMOS footage.
Click to expand...

Can someone please tell me what I'm supposed to be looking for here... I tested the IKAN Dimmable Multi-K LED on the AF100 at Power 100%, about 50%, about 20% in a pitch black basement, and I don't see anything offensive.

Am I missing something subtle?

Thanks in advance.

 
kylekmd said:
Can someone please tell me what I'm supposed to be looking for here... I tested the IKAN Dimmable Multi-K LED on the AF100 at Power 100%, about 50%, about 20% in a pitch black basement, and I don't see anything offensive.

Am I missing something subtle?

Thanks in advance.

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Loving that test... :)

I think I'm going to go for the FloLight 128 it's nice and bright and I can power it with the swit battery if I'm hand held, and if I'm not I can attach a HVX battery to it and have it running for hours.
 
steadihut said:
I just order the Flo light as well, the Microbeam 256. Hadn't thought about banding being an issue. We'll see.
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Once you guys get your Microbeams, please report back about this banding issue. I would greatly appreciate it.

I don't see any in the DR. TONGUE test I did with my dimmable LED. Do you?

Thanks!
 
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