When I look into buying new gear I am always evaluating the three following factors: quality, easy of use, and of course cost. Over the years I have found that sometimes these factors are mutually exclusive- for example getting a quality piece of gear can mean that it will not be affordable. And through some of my own personal experiences I have found that it is better to spend the money up front on the right piece of gear and spend it once, rather then spend the money twice on a lesser piece of gear.
With my recent purchase of the Red One camera I was evaluating my power supply options and trying to decide if I should go with the more pricey Red batteries, or get a 3rd party battery and charger. In my past experience with the Red One and their batteries I had a very mixed experience with them. On the plus side of the batteries were two strong suits: 1. The batteries were guaranteed to work with the camera; and 2. The camera can display on screen how much power is left in the battery. However, in practice the drawbacks to this system I found to be frustrating, especially for their premium price. In my experience the downside was threefold. First, you can only charge one battery at a time with the Red charger. So, if you have more then one battery that needs charging, you had better have enough time in-between uses to fully charge both batteries. Second, even though you can see the remaining life of the battery on screen, it is displayed in a percentage. And while it is a helpful reminder that there is only 5% left, what does that 5% mean? 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 15 minutes? Can I get this last shot in, or do I have to power down and swap batteries? Which leads me to my third complaint- powering down. While Red continues to improve (shorten) the time it takes to boot up the camera, it still takes in-between 60 – 90 seconds, and with the current Red offering of batteries and mounts there is no way to hot swap the batteries. And while 60 – 90 seconds may not seem like a long time, when you are on set and all you need is one last shot, having to wait can spoil the mood of the scene or the flow of the actors- not a good thing. So after weighing the plus side and minus side, the only benefit I saw with the Red batteries was that I would know that they would work with the camera straight out of the box. But $1,500 for two batteries and one charger felt a little steep for that reassurance.
Batteries from Batteries For Broadcast.
This lead me to researching other alternatives for powering my Red One. In the past I have rented various camera systems from rental houses here in the area and one of the brands of batteries that they use is Batteries For Broadcast (www.batteries4broadcast.com). On the rental cameras the batteries had worked fine and I did not have any complaints with them. So I went online to check them out. As of this writing (11/6/2008) they offer a 150Wh V-Mount battery package that includes 2 batteries and 1 charger for $1,000. Additionally they were offering a 10% off discount bringing the price down to $900. That was a savings of about $600 from the Red batteries- nothing to sneeze at. Additionally the B4B batteries offered 10 more watt hours then the 140Wh Red batteries, and the B4B charger would simultaneously charge both batteries. Saving $600, getting a little more run time, and being able to charge at the same time all seemed to add up to a no brainer choice for me. One of the problems that I knew that i would run into with any 3rd party battery is that I would loose the ability to monitor the percentage of battery life on screen. But the pluses far out weighed that one draw back. (Additionally, I plan on buying the ViewFactor Orgio, which would allow me to monitor remaining battery power.) So went ahead and I placed my order. The order went easily, quickly, and in about a week I had my batteries and charger.
After receiving my order, I still had about one week to wait until my camera arrived so i charged the batteries and anxiously awaited the arrival of he Red One. Upon the arrival of the camera I quickly un-boxed it and began the assembly process. With the camera assembled, the moment of truth was now at hand- I had to plug in the battery and fire up the camera. As I pressed the power button and the LCD on the back lit up as the camera began to turn on - it was alive!!! One minute passed ... two minutes passed ... three minutes passed ... and the camera was not starting the boot up process. The back display was on, but it was not showing the boot up text. Further more, the external LCD was not powering up. ARGH!!! Had I just received a camera that needed to be sent back? (Which is not unheard of as I have a friend who received their new Red One with a faulty CF Card module.) Before freaking out, and worring about sending the camera I just got back to the manufacture I called up my friend and fellow Red Owner Hunter Richards. Fortunately he was able to let me barrow his Red batteries and power adapter to test out with my camera. After testing my camera with the Red batteries, the camera was able to boot up just fine. So the issue was not with the camera, but was with the batteries I had. But how could this be? The batteries were the correct spec- at least from what i could tell anyway...
So I called up Batteries for Broadcast and Spoke with Kevin. The people at Batteries From Broadcast were very helpful and understanding of my situation. Apparently they have received some other reports that their batteries are not working when directly attached to the Red One. They were in the process of figuring out why this is the case, as they did not have any solid answers. Kevin did offer to refund my money and take the batteries back which I appreciated. He also offered another solution- their dual mount the GT-TS.
The GT-TS dual mount from B4B.
Apparently with the dual mount in-between the B4B batteries and the Red One the batteries will power up the Red one just fine. And when using the dual mount you have the option of using two batteries for extended run times, or for hot swapping batteries. So that meant that I could run the camera for longer, and not have any downtime between battery changes! While this adapter did cost an additional $170, I still ended up saving about $400, and I could now run the camera for longer - still a head of the game when compared to the Red batteries. Kevin made sure to ship out the adapter that day, and had it rush shipped to me in order to cut down on any lag time. In this day of big companies and automated systems, it was nice to be able to speak with a person and have the problem quickly resolved. They will definitely continue to have my business.
While in this case I was bitten by going with the more affordable option, in the end I actually ended up coming out ahead. Being able to hot swap batteries, charge them at the same time, and save $400 on top of that made the experience worth it. Fortunately, I had the time, as well as access to other options while I figured out the problems. But even with the minor set back, I would still recommend getting these batteries from B4B. Just be sure to order the GT-TS - otherwise you will be shooting yourself in the foot.
Cheers,
Ryan E. Walters, Cinematographer
