One of the least secrets Connoisseurs of professional video technology has to do with the role that in versatility, functionality and expandability of the system develops a small metal adapter located to the backrest of your ENG/EFP camera.
This adapter Batteries is the key to the type of batteries you can install on your camera. But it also serves as an articulating axis on which you can add a variety of accessories on your camera, such as lights, recorders and even microwave transmitters.
If one can distinguish the variety of adapters available for different cameras and understand that battery manufacturers are constantly working to provide adapters updated to suit your customers, then you can also understand that in the business of battery adapters there is much more than what appears to the naked eye.
When you buy a camera –no matter the manufacturer–, one of two adapters is included in the original system: gold mount or V-mount. The gold mount is generally identified by its association with the battery manufacturer Anton Bauer, while the V-mount is associated with Sony and my company, IDX. As a rule, Anton Bauer constitutes the brand of batteries most widely used in the United States, while the most familiar IDX, is more accepted in Latin America and elsewhere in the world.
However, adapters of batteries with which the camera comes, are not permanent; one Philips screwdriver and a couple of cable adjustments is all that is required to transform a V-mount into gold and vice versa.
In this industry, in the which people increasingly like to modify features Original of your equipment, interchangeable battery adapters have helped a lot to give customers what they are looking for in their cameras. For be successful in the business of manufacturing batteries for Professional video, manufacturers must provide customized and up-to-date plates. In the face of constant model innovation, this is an endless story.
A good example is work what we do at IDX with WFLA-TV, a TV station of Tampa, Florida, major user of Panasonic P2 cameras. Recently Time, the company acquired 20 cameras, all equipped with plates gold mount. As the station uses almost exclusively batteries IDX, our company replaced the 20 gold mounts and supplied V-mounts.
Eventually, some professionals they will say that a V-mount is better and more flexible as an adapter battery. IDX users can take advantage of, for example, PowerLink exclusives, a battery-gluing feature additional to the primary battery and thus multiply the power available for live recordings.
When a manufacturer launches a new professional camera system, we inevitably get calls of users who request adapt our V-mounts to connect devices which are not batteries. The most frequent calls refer to portable hard drive recorders from third homes, such as the DTE FS-4 from Focus Enhancements, and the lightweight nNovia QuickCapture portable recorder or a microwave link like the popular Nucomm SD/HD COFDM lightweight transmitter CamPac2. Other devices that are usually connected to adapter mounts include small monitors in black and white or color, luminaires laptops such as Frezzie or IDX X3 LED lights.
At IDX we are permanently flooded with questions about our adapters. In a recent training session at B&H Camera in New York – a large camera distributor professionals and consumers–, we were asked several times if we had adapters for the new Sony HD recorder PMW-EX1. The answer, of course, it was yes.
The IDX Catalog It has five adapters that should be highlighted:
- One power unit for four-pin XLR connectors (C-EB-XLR).
- A connector that can used on one belt and supports two IDX Endura batteries with 7.2 V or 12 V outputs and a four-pin XLR connector to the battery (SD-1E).
- A charging adapter for IDX NP-style Li-Ion batteries, in Endura mount chargers V (A-E2NP).
- An adapter for charging IDX Endura batteries in IDX NP chargers (C-NP2E).
- A mount adapter V for Canon professional camcorders (A-E2H1).
And, in addition, there are dozens of other adapters for a wide variety of specialized applications.
Many of the adapters Battery have subsystems within subsystems. For example, to the luminaire users like to have on/off switches that synchronize with the start and stop of the camera recording. IDX's Syncron does just that. Others want indications in the viewfinder when the battery charge is low. IDX's Digi-View serves for that application. Some manufacturers include features similar to make different adapters attractive to their users.
Now, what? how complex is it to change battery adapters? Here's an example that uses an adapter to power JVC HD-100 cameras and HD-101 7.2 V. The converter changes the power supply from 14.8 to 7.2 V and includes protection against eventual voltage overload. With a optional plate next to it, the charger also allows the user connect a wireless receiver. In other words, a battery adapter that works like a Swiss army knife.
To do the installation, the back cover of the chamber is separated with two screws, it is put the adapter in the battery hole and is secured in place. Later the screws and washers are replaced. The new battery it is thus available, installed and ready, with its additional advantages.
In simple terms, a company cannot be in the battery business and not produce custom battery adapters. If a customer orders manufacturing of an adapter, woe to the company that doesn't want to listen to its customers! in this fundamental issue! Here's what battery customers demand and what we deliver.
