FS7: Sony FS7 Battery Solutions

Eric Coughlin

Eric Coughlin

Veteran
Kind of curious what people's thoughts are on batteries (assuming you're not using V-mount, as I most likely wouldn't want the bulk). For my two C100's I have three Canon batteries (about 5 hours each) and four off-brand batteries (about 4 hours each), which gives me 31 hours (or 15.5 each, though I'm typically not running the second camera constantly) of batteries for just an additional $272 in spending. A lot of my shoots range from 10-16 hours in a day and I like not having to charge batteries in the field if I don't have to. The FS7 comes with one Sony BP-U30 which gets one hour of battery. To get 15 hours of battery with the Sony BPU90 ($425 for three hours) that would be $2150, or Sony BPU60 ($270 for two hours) $1890.

Going off-brand, Amazon has these BP-U60 for $50 each, which would be $350 for about 15 hours if they gave the same amount of run time as the Sony branded ones, and these for $110 each which would be $550 going off of the same assumption. Then Switronix, Ikan, and Watson also offer various options priced in-between.

Compared to the GH4 shooting 4k or the C300 as a 12k camera, I'm finding the FS7 to be a bit pricey in terms of the cost of on-brand batteries in ratio to the cost of the camera. We're talking a 19 watt power draw on the FS7 vs. 5.6 watts on the FS700.

Also, the FS7 brochure states, "Power Consumption Approx. 19W (while recording XAVC-I QFHD 59.94P, SELP28135G Lens, Viewfinder ON, not using external device)," so I'm curious to how the power draw would be different when not recording at those specifications, such as recording at 1080 24p and powering different lenses than that one.
 
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The cost of batteries (and recording media) is maybe the biggest reason I might keep my FS700 instead of selling it and buying the FS7.
 
Looking at the Sony website I can see the FS700 @9,6W (HD 60i) without the information, if any lens is powered.
The FS7 seems at 19W (QFHD60p XAVC-I) with the Sony 28-135 lens.

In the end, I don't think the power consumption will be that higher. Maybe 20-50% depending what kind of codec
and additional hardware you use.

If you need more power for less money you can buy 3rd party offerings of the BP-U90.
In the end, batteries will be more expensive, as the storage will be too.

I plan to buy 3rd party offerings first (3x BP-U60 at approx 250-300€) and think they gonna
last one hole day filming.
I learned to always power down my camera when working with NiCd battery belts...

The XQD cards are more of a problem for me. I'll need at least two 64GB cards to begin with.
That'll approx. 500€ for 2 1/2 hs (XAVC-I 25p) today.
But these prices will fall quickly when other manufacturers as Sandisk join the XQD club.
I'll start with the Sony S or Lexar Pro ones, which have a nice price point below the Sonys.
I use very good+fast Lexar Pro cards in most of my cameras. I never had a problem...
 
I plan on getting 3 BPU-60 batteries and even if I get the extension box I'll just use a BPU - Vmount adapter plate and run all 3 BPU-60. Should last a long time depending on how power hungry the extension pack is. I don't have any V mount batteries so buying into the system would be pricey and I like how compact the FS7 is with the BPU batteries. Great for shoots that require travel.

I'm going to get 2 x 64gb S series cards and maybe buy a cheap N series for long rec HD jobs where offload isn't an option.

I haven't seen a release date for the XQD G cards. Price has been hard to find also. Those 128gb will be pricey but I hope the price falls. I do love professional media over CF or SD cards.
 
I have a number of BPU-30 batteries sitting around but since I am getting the extension box, I'll use a V-Mount to Anton Bauer adapter and use my fleet of Dionic 90's. One of the attractions of the FS-7 is as far as I'm concerned the multiple power options not to mention the low cost of XQD cards when compared to SxS or even to CFast. I see the FS-7 as a very cost effective tool. Guess it is all a matter of perspective. No pricing released yet for the G cards. As I have written, the advantage will be offload speeds.

Ned
 
If you are invested in BPU type batteries (F3, EX1) and get the extension, an alternative to buying a whole new set of V mt batts is to get an EX to V-mount adapter from Alex Dolgin. Somewhere in the neighborhood of $50. That's how I power my 1x1 LED's.
 
There is a slide in the massive 122 slide FS7 presentation (archived at another site) that indicates that a BPU-30 will run the camera one hour, a -50 for two hours and a -90 for three hours.

So better invest in some more batteries.

BTW, Convergent Design makes a Sony U-series battery plate for the Odyssey7 & Odyssey7Q should you wish to pair it with an FS7.
 
On my F3 I use three BP-U60 batteries and as long as I can plug in my dual charger I can keep on recording forever. But for most jobs I never run out of juice with the three U60 batteries even without charging.
 
Since you guys in the F5/55 forum are a bit more high end than us FS700 people, here's my battery question

Seems like a BPU 90 has very similar specs to a Swit V-Mount S-8082S

Here's Swit S-8082S which I've heard is used by some on the F5/55

Voltage = 14.4V
Capacity = 88wh

Sony BPU90

Volage = 14.4v for nominal, 16.4v for maximum voltage
Capacity = 85 wh

Same voltage with only a slight difference in Watt Hours (WH). So do you guys think that a BPU-90 can power the FS7 with the back attachment? Maybe use the above mentioned BPU to V-Mount Battery converter?
 
Yes of course they will work. In fact I checked with Swit and they are basically identical batteries with different shapes. That's exactly what I was talking about in my post above. you just need the Dolgin adapter. Its interesting that y0u can get very cheap knock off BPU 60 batts but theya re harder to find with V mount.

The BPU60 will work very well . However the BPU-90's are long batteries 5" x 1./5" x 2.5" and they attach on the short end - soy the stick out 5".
I don't know how well this form factor will work on the camera. I use the BPU batts on my 1x1 LED and generally feel more comfortable with the 60's just because they're not sticking out as much. That said I haven't had any problems with the bigger batts, I just worry about knocking into things and having the connector get stressed. Maybe it would work fine.
I use the 90's all the time on my F3 , but half the batt is buried inside the camera so no problem.
 
Lenilenapi said:
If you are invested in BPU type batteries (F3, EX1) and get the extension, an alternative to buying a whole new set of V mt batts is to get an EX to V-mount adapter from Alex Dolgin. Somewhere in the neighborhood of $50. That's how I power my 1x1 LED's.
Click to expand...

Just to clarify if I may.

So basically, in theory we can power the Back Attachment and camera with BPU batteries (since they are similar specs to V-Mount), but we just need to attach the Dolgin BPU to V-Mount adapter to the back unit? I figure if the camera is popular, someone will make this adapter if Dolgin's doesn't already fit.

I would love that so I don't have to own 2 different types of batteries and 2 different types of chargers for the same camera - expensive and a lot more gear. Plus, I'm not crazy about needing different batteries for different FS7 configurations - the minimal configuration or the built up configuration with back attachment.

Fingers crossed on this.
 
Yes you have it right.
Here's a link to the Dolgin adapter:
http://dolgin.net/zen_dolgin/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=15&products_id=36

I was confused by the pics at first. The basic unit is nothing more than a back that holds an EX type battery ( BPU 60 etc) and pigtails coming out of it to carry power. Many choices available for the pigtails, and one additional choice is have a V mount Male attached to the basic unit. (add $19) The whole thing is so small so there is no question about it fitting. You could also get it without the V mt as well and just Velcro the damn thing wherever you wanted.

It won't automatically carry power through the V Mt. In fact it doesn't even touch the power clips. That's what the pigtails are for and you can order 2 or even more as I recall.

No doubt the FS7 will have a plug for external power in. You simply order a EX-V adapter and specify what pigtails you want and how long you want them.
I own an F3 and Ex-1 so I have 2 Sony BPU60's, 3 Switronix BPU90's and 4 Swit BPU60's. The Swits and Switronix won't operate the Sony cameras directly even though they plug into the camera. Sony demands some kind of addressing they don't make available. So the off brand batts have a pigtail with the Sony proprietary plug SBAC-US10 that the EX cameras use. On the EX-1, I simply plug that in to the external power-in plug on the EX. As I recall on an EX-3 the plug is a little further away and some of my batts didn't reach so I was going to ask Alex Dolgin to make me an extension jumper. ( You can also just buy the plug itself from Alex or some other vendor and make your own.)

On the F3 the ext plug is 4Pin XLR so I had Dolgin make up a couple of XLR to SBAC-US10 Female pigtails to receive the off brand batts. Works great. i'm guessing that's how the FS7 will be configured.

I use the BPU batts on my 1x1 LED's and bought the EX-V mount for those. To make that work I also had to fashion power adapters. My LED has an external power jack that is 2.1mm DC, so I had the EX-V adapter made with a 2.1mm DC pigtail out. For the FS7 it might work to have it made with the 4 PIN XLR out,
or to be flexible with both an XLR and 2.1mm. As you can see there are lots of ways to configure it so that your batts can be used in a variety of ways. You can also run anything ( say a 17" monitor) with this adapter just using the pigtails even if you don't have a V mt to attach to.

On my LED I made a little 2.1mm extension cable with a rt angle that stays on the LED all the time because that was more convenient for my use - so you can make up any kind of connectors you want to make stuff work.

A side advantage of the knock off BPU batts or the EXV adapter is that its the only way to battery power my SxS card>USB adapter that is needed to download the F3 cards. That unit won't take power from the computer . It requires an AC power supply that's not too handy in the field, but it has a SBAC-US10 plug in it. So I had my EX-V made with the 2.1mm DC and the SBAC-US10 pigtail . Now I can power the card reader with the little BPU 30 that came with the camera.

The EX-V pushes your battery out almost an inch from the Vmount plate though, so it can start to be unwieldy with longer batts like the 5" BPU-90 which is then about 6" long. A Swit BPU 60 is already 3.5 " so now its hanging out almost 4.5" with the adapter.

I agree it would be a major drag to have to invest in 2 separate battery systems for this camera. The EX-V allows you to invest in one type of battery for a wide variety of purposes and makes available knock offs that seem to be much cheaper and hopefully pretty good.
 
Chances are if I committed to the extension I would get both the single and triple battery plates. Sometimes the extra weight back there would help with balance. I'm not too concerned about weight when its on shoulder.
 
I recently ordered a couple of generic BP-U60 equivalents made by DSTE and they don't work with the FS7. The camera powers on for a few seconds and then goes black with the message, "Battery Error. Please change battery." Before the camera turns off.

Has anyone had luck using generic batteries on this camera? Preferably not the kind you have to plug into the DC power and that the camera can detect run time. The ones from DSTE were advertised to be fully compatible.
 
marauder09 said:
I recently ordered a couple of generic BP-U60 equivalents made by DSTE and they don't work with the FS7. The camera powers on for a few seconds and then goes black with the message, "Battery Error. Please change battery." Before the camera turns off.

Has anyone had luck using generic batteries on this camera? Preferably not the kind you have to plug into the DC power and that the camera can detect run time. The ones from DSTE were advertised to be fully compatible.
Click to expand...

The answer to your question is discussed at length in this thread:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?330534-FS7-3rd-party-batteries

The short answer though is that the only currently reliable 3rd party batteries are ones with the pigtail like the S-8U62. It is likely that we will soon see some 3rd party batteries that work without the pigtail, but there are none available just yet. Sony seems to intentionally try and reduce compatibility with existing 3rd party batteries.
 
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