@@dutchgroundmedia there's always that guy that doesn't understand the context of a conversation and says something that goes against what everyone is talking (no they're not pretty)
Thank you so much for being one of the only people on CZcams to review other accessories we all need as working professionals and not just the "sexy" stuff like cameras and lenses. It's been so helpful to check out your channel and be able to know what monitor, preamp, light stand...etc to get when most other camera channels ignore these tools.
I didn’t have time to wait for these to release and ended up getting the CAME-TV ones in August, but I would’ve held out if I’d had a choice. V-mount battery chargers are expensive and bulky, so the fact that we can use tiny chargers that are likely already in our bags adds value on top of convenience. Also they look sexy.
how do you recharge the 99wh vmount? i am looking for a nice charging brick for it, i was about to order a 100 watt usb c gan charger (was thinking that obviously charging bricks are now intelligent & would not send more than 65 watts to it as per its maximum input capacity even if the charging brick is more than 65 watts in my case 100 watts) ,have been searching how people have been charging them but could not find any thing related. regards
I have to admit, I was skeptical about SmallRig taking a step outside of what I originally branded them to be when I started in professional video. Much like how DJI put out a camera and a wireless transmission system. Or how they made a wireless mic (SmallRig also). I had just never heard of brands doing what they're not known for. But I have to admit even further- I'm genuinely impressed. I'll have to consider these as new priorities for new batteries rather than others. All thanks to you, Caleb. I'm glad to see you staying committed to analyzing and testing new gear for the video community😊
Tbf if there's one company I'd trust to put out a wireless transmission system - it's gonna be DJI 😃 They're on such a different level from the rest of the industry they have to make their own silicon to handle their transmission tech
I'm glad that a lot of these companies are branching out and expanding the scope of their products, more competition is always better. Prices into the video production space are absolutely insane because there's only a couple companies that make everything in each category of gear.
Power Delivery to charge the V Mount Battery is a massive game changer. Anker just released their new GaN prime chargers. With a 100W charger, you can charge a 99Wh battery in less than an hour. My $400 150W Core SWX battery takes 4-5 hours to charge via D-Tap.
Damn, I used to come to your channel about 6-7y ago , always saw the potential, and now that im back at looking gear reviews on youtube, this is easy one of the best, if not the best channels about that on youtube. No BS, straight to the point, informative info! Also love how the new ways to assemble gear gets done here. Creative! Cheers, keep up!
I was literally only a few weeks ago wishing a product like this would come out. Small, convenient, multiple charging options and USB-C PD/high wattage charging in and out. Basically a really functional high capacity battery bank that also does V-Mount. All of my equipment now charges via USB-C so I can not only use one of these to power or recharge anything nice and quick, but I can also recharge IT nice and easily with the same charger I use for everything else. Instead of 4-6 different bulky inconvenient chargers (especially V-Mount chargers), it's one slim little pack that does it all with a really small charger AND it still mounts via V-Mount for my BMPCC4K - the only camera that doesn't run on USB-C (effectively). Crazy good. SmallRig really, really knows how to get camera accessories right and it's so satisfying.
I have no use or any optimal understanding to anything about this video but I finished it because it is interesting. It's like watching some home shopping network when you were a child.
Thanks for checking these batteries out but I'm not sure they are really all they're cracked up to be. I purchased a VB50 and can't get it to send power to my USB-C dummy battery. It's supposed to send 9V/3A. Its advertised to work with PD, QC 2.0, and QC 3.0 but this support is spotty at best. The dummy battery works fine when connected to any and every USB-C phone charger I have laying around. Also, the LCD only shows output voltage, not amps, and the voltage shown is the intended voltage and not actual measured output, it still shows 9V even if you connect just a USB cable that goes nowhere. If you connect USB-A and USB-C at the same time, voltage cuts down to 5v for each. The two power jacks are 8V and 12V, many users would prefer 8.4V. Without that missing 0.4V many cameras have problems shooting higher bitrate videos and powering peripherals via hot shoe. I want to connect my GH5 to USB-C because most dummy batteries seem to be sketchy at best and I don't want to have to trust one to properly regulate D-Tap from 24V down to 8.4V, and most of them go to 8V anyways. So now I'm stabbing into the dark buying every USB-C dummy battery I can find hoping one has the secret specific flavor of QC / PD charge circuitry that this battery supports. The SmallRig support team don't have any clear answers themselves. These batteries cost almost twice as much as other options and depending on your setup there's a good chance you'll still need to buy a D-Tap splitter anyways. I'd love for you to do a video exploring these details further as you probably have more expertise with all of this than myself.
Good to see small batteries with the same capacity as regular ones.What confuses me a bit is a presence of additional display and controllers required to manage the information shown on them. If the battery life is one year or two it seems to be a waste for environment.I would opt on locating all those features on v-mount plate and reducing the cost of the batteries.
Remote power for monitors, lights, cameras, microphones - covered. These will be perfect for building our own versions of your Pelican case / trolley mobile studios. I'm in.
I noticed that they have also introduced lights seems they are diversifying their portfolio. I personally have a Baxxtar V50 compact which also has a USB A port and D-tap. But this one is even better as it can be charged via USB-C instead of a dedicated charger with D-tap though it is a lot more expensive.
I was literally placing order for V-Mount batteries while I got a notification for this video... Coming back later to mention the change of plans, I ordered 2x99W :DD
I use FX-Lion batteries. Also small with built in ports similar to this. In fact... the FX-Lion batteries work perfect with Sony Mirrorless as it butts up perfect with the viewfinder - like the curves wrap around the diopter. It's crazy...
I have 1/2 dozen 99W Indi Pro mini-V mounts that have served me well until A74 and FX-3. They don't deliver enough power via the USB port (USB-A to USB C) to maintain the battery in the Camera. Sony doesn't like dummy batteries on these cameras (That why they don't have the notch) so you would have to leave the door open (or take it off). I tried 4 different brands and none would keep up with the FX3 draw. So I did a Google search and found ZGCINE ZG-V99 (a brand I have never heard of but I order two) they are working. I generally only order 99W (I do international flights) but to try it I order the 50 to check it out.
@@Superjeanmarc hey bro how long do you get on a 99wh battery powering in 4k? And what's the charge time like for the battery? And lastly if I can ask - do you need to leave a battery already in the camera when doing charge via USBC?
@@Addrian. I always connect both the camera and my field monitor to the V-lock and it last approx 4,5 to 5h. I assume that powering the camera only, you could reach 9h-10h maybe? Never tested. My monitor is a 2200 nits Portkeys BM5 III, so maybe if you use a less bright model, it could even last for longer.. ? Battery charge time depends on the power of your charger, it accepts chargers up to 65W. With my double 45W charger (meaning 20W and 25W on each battery) it charges in a few hours.. but I've never calculated precisely.
@@Superjeanmarc this is actually super helpful. Thank you so much bro. I'm surprised no ones talking about battery life in these reviews. Blows my mind. Appreciate the insight. I ordered two 99wh of these. So looking forward to using them. I have a Hollyland Mars M1 and it's 1000 nits so would imagine it'd lasting a lot longer which is awesome. I was considering the 155wh but I think it's overkill and it's about $200 more currently than the 99wh. So I got two 99wh.
Sweet. I was just checking prices on how much it would cost to buy a usb-pd plate and a v mount charger. With the 99 model I can probably do everything without charging so the extra time to swap is not a big loss
They’re awesome! I have three (2x99WH and 1x50WH). They also pass the drop test onto a concrete parking lot. 😂 Pro tip: don’t use a phone clamp to hold a v mount battery just because you’re too lazy to go back inside and find your v mount clamp.
Sheesh this stuff has come a long way since I was at Emerson... and I only graduated in 2017- it is like companies caught on that people would absolutely buy and use something like these batteries- even just how far the rail/clips have come
FxLion have had a similar form factor battery in their Nano series for a few years now. I love my Nano One 50WH battery - which has USB A and PD USB C.
But SmallRig has 2 DC output（one is 8V, another is 12V）And it can charge for monitor/ APPLE 61W/DELL 65W. SmallRig has a bigger screen. Sure, EXLION is also a good choice. And I will try SmallRig this one, after all SmallRig innovate all the time. They put lots of money and energy for research last 2 years !
@@rachelyuan3459 I got my FxLion 3 years ago though... so they've been making these for a long time. You should make it clear that you work for SmallRig channel sales too ;)
This video is still relevant - I have been looking for smaller V mount battery to power my iPhone rig. I have the Came-TV 99. But I have been ;using a regular USB power brick with my rig. I just scored a deal on Amazon for a used like new one for $106. I snatched it up. I wanted to go light with the handheld rig. I still can use the heavier ones for my other rigs. BTW love that you have the Mix Pre 3 - I have the Mix Pre 6 for mobile recording work and use the Came-TV with that in my recording bag. These are the way to go for the mobile or even studio content creator.
Ive used the 99 for a little bit, but when I pulled the DTAP out it snapped the housing. I've had a good experience with SmallRigs customer support so I'm talking to them right now. Hoping to get it resolved soon.
I’d like to know if you can actually use all those ports at once? What are the limitations? Would it overheat, would it turn off some ports? It’s a shame you missed that test/step which would be the most important in my opinion if we’re talking about one versatile battery that can rule them all, so to speak. I hope you could clarify that point.
I do think having ports on the battery is a nice option, but I'd personally always prefer to have my connections running from a plate, that way if I have to swap out my V-mount battery, I don't have do disconnect or reconnect any of my devices.
It's actually very interesting. Working at events sometimes I wish I was more prone to use a ninja V for better preview/control purposes. But the weight of the NP battery is just too heavy, specially for longer shoots where a small NP won't do. After that is the fact that I might want to power some LED panels and will also have to carry other kind of batteries. This maybe solves some of that, I'll get into more study but seems like the unification of systems which is very interesting.
These sound absolutely amazing. However, at 3400mAh they wouldn't last even an hour powering both an A7S3 and a Shinobi, unless I'm severely misunderstanding something here? I'm powering my rig using a 20000mAh Ravpower power bank and I can easily get 11 hours of run time with this setup (for both devices).
@@12handley You need to supply power using a USB-C cable and the power has to match 9v 3A, so check your power bank to make sure that it can supply that kind of power (read the öutput"" details on your PB)
I've been using IDX for years, and I don't think I'll be going away from them for my main camera rigs, but these SmallRig ones look amazing for powering everything else.
One downside vs using a plate. Unplugging and replugging 5 cables vs sliding in a new battery. This is more important for long shoots with battery swaps. Otherwise it looks like a great system.
I use the Fx lion nano one tons of power and lasts ages very rugged but shares the same silicone flaps, I would say they are very close to the small rig as they are also small. The 50 watt hour is smaller then small rig.
I loved the VB50! However I had to return for an FXLion Nano One...The issue was when using to power my R5C, after turning the camera off and back on, I had to unplug and plug in the usb-c cable for it to power the camera...If not, the camera would only use the Canon battery. I tried using the power button on the VB50, but it didn't work. Not sure if this is an issue with certain cameras, or if I got a bad battery or bad cable...works fine with my FXLion's though...and when the SmallRig battery was connected it lasted about the same as the FXLion. I just couldn't go with it since I would forget to unplug and plug back in the cable and then I would end up draining my canon battery and the SmallRig battery would just be used to charge it , and drain faster...So unfortunately not ideal for my needs.
Used one of these batteries over the weekend to power my BMPCC6k for an event shoot and gotta agree - they're great. Could get a days worth of interviews and B-Roll and off the one 50Wh battery and the rig was able to stay very minimal. They are not rugged though - I also ran into screen scratches almost instantly and I did manage to drop it (from about 1.5m), and the whole front section of the case just popped off. I can't get it to click back in at all, so will have to use rubber bands/glue to patch it up. Still, highly recommend, just take a little more care than you would with a traditional v-mount
When they said they were going to use rubber bands I thought that might be cool to have on there anyways it might help protect it maybe get some thick black rubber bands? @@makatron
I saw these at Cinegear Atlanta this weekend. Anna at the Godox booth sold me on them, even though she was there with Godox. (LOL.) They were powering their new Knowled 300 with a 50 and a 99, which was pretty amazing. They are almost as small as two large Sony Npfs and incredible light. I will be buying a few of these soon myself. Just wish the price point were a little lower, but I guess that's what you pay for a new premium V-mount.
Have you tried using these to power light sources i.e. a 120D II? Unfortunately my 98Wh IDX's can't power at 100% output, my 198's can though. Would be nice having something a bit smaller.
the price is pretty high but i really like this to slim down the rig. instead of having a vmount plate, a dtap splitter and a gazillion dtap to something spiral cabbles tangling around i now only use a very short usb-c cable to the camera, usb-a to the viewfinder, the 12V directly to the monitor and the 8V to the follow focus motor. done. so much cleaner, especially with angled cables. and i can re-charge on short brakes from a PD powerbank so even one battery lasts quite a while. i would actually buy two of the small ones today and just have one re-charging from a big powerbank while the other is in use. would slim down the rig even more and last the whole day.
I power my camera and Mixpre-3 off of USB-C with the Mixpre recording internally as well as providing an audio signal to the camera for a scratch track. Every time I try to use the same power source to power both, whether it be a battery or AC power supply, I just get horrible static going to the camera. It goes away if I power each with a different source. Have you tried to use this configuration with these batteries? I would love to have a portable setup using one source of power.
Great to see a review on those batteries but I’m missing a drop test i Haven’t tried this battery but the display and the design looks very weak compared idx, swit, bebop etc. The other think that’s a future with this batteri I think is the weak point of using vlock. I get the point that it’s good to have usb etc but to me I want to quick replace the battery not connecting many cables also this is a big problem if you need to rent a battery then you rig is useless if you don’t find the same battery.
I don't know..aside from all the connection options I would rather stay with my Bebob V98micro (or an Anton Bauer Titon Micro V90) which is almost the same price, the same weight, made in Germany and pretty much an industry standard safety and quality wise. Not to mention that this one doesn't look like it has the airline safe approval unlike those other two 🤔
My only issue is that the usb a port outputs at 5v while the fxlion vmount outputs 5.1 to 5.2. Normally a non issue but it is a make or break with trying to power the tilta imirage wireless vnd motor. It cuts in and out and will not effectively work. This is a very specific use case, but for that reason the fxlion is still my go to vmount solution.
These seem pretty tempting. But (correct me if I'm mistaken) in a closer look the capacity is not that great. The 99 model is 6700mAh whereas you can get 10000mAh powebanks for much less. Sure I understand there are benefits in the design and features but the raw capacity seems to be lacking if you consider the price of these imho.
It's not all about the mAh, other factors such as volt output are much more important. The VB99 at 5V would be equivalent to a 19800 mAh power bank, and the VB50 at 5V to a 10000 mAh power bank.
dang I want one lol....I can see this working great with lights like the 60X so you don't have to use the V-Mount adaptor and just use the barrel. Great video.
Hey Caleb, love your videos as always. That new camera rig briefly shown at the end really intrigues me. I hope you'll be making a video about the new and improved rig soon !
In the process of sourcing out parts to rig out my FX3 (from your suggestions, thank you). These would be ideal I think for an fx3, ninja v rig. Plus the 99 would power my StellaPro reflex lights.
They look awesome 👍🏼. However, I don’t see how they’re different from the FXlion Nano One and Nano Two. If not, the FXlion’s are slightly lighter and smaller, and have proven to be incredibly reliable.
I hope they also release a battery plate with a lot of the same stuff on it… it really sucks to have to unplug a bunch of rig peripherals from your battery every time you swap to a freshie… I’d much rather plug everything in the rig into a plate, especially if the plate had native USB-PD for my camera!
Looks like the batteries are on sale during during the prime early access sale! SmallRig VB 99: geni.us/ly3eP and the SmallRig VB 50: geni.us/kWUG9
Ok you convinced me to buy them!
what is the weight? i saw 55whr r5c charging capable battery for 273 gramms worth of weight
Yeah I hope they are on sale, nice idea but very pricey compared to the competition.
Well not available from Amazon anymore, too much retail. Otherwise what I've been looking for.
Out of stuck 😞
Finally someone figured out that batteries should be nicely designed.
Rather have plastic case that can take a beating for life.
the connections are awesome too
Yep, and that they don't have to look like they belong as a prop in an Alien movie or something.
The FXlion Nano One and Nano Two still look very sexy, and have been out there for years already 👌🏼
@@dutchgroundmedia there's always that guy that doesn't understand the context of a conversation and says something that goes against what everyone is talking
(no they're not pretty)
Thank you so much for being one of the only people on CZcams to review other accessories we all need as working professionals and not just the "sexy" stuff like cameras and lenses. It's been so helpful to check out your channel and be able to know what monitor, preamp, light stand...etc to get when most other camera channels ignore these tools.
That means a lot to hear Eric! Trying to make that stuff sexy ha!
AGREED!
Others are just sponsored salesmen pushing any latest products they receive for free lol
They made so many great camera accessories that non-camera people thought SmallRig is a camera brand.
Well, it almost is. But the word "rig" in the brand name helps to understand what they actually do. Great brand and its products.
I didn’t have time to wait for these to release and ended up getting the CAME-TV ones in August, but I would’ve held out if I’d had a choice.
V-mount battery chargers are expensive and bulky, so the fact that we can use tiny chargers that are likely already in our bags adds value on top of convenience.
Also they look sexy.
I just CAME
how do you recharge the 99wh vmount? i am looking for a nice charging brick for it, i was about to order a 100 watt usb c gan charger (was thinking that obviously charging bricks are now intelligent & would not send more than 65 watts to it as per its maximum input capacity even if the charging brick is more than 65 watts in my case 100 watts) ,have been searching how people have been charging them but could not find any thing related. regards
Literally have fallen in love with these batteries over the month. Couldn’t be happier with them
Good to hear bro!
I have to admit, I was skeptical about SmallRig taking a step outside of what I originally branded them to be when I started in professional video. Much like how DJI put out a camera and a wireless transmission system. Or how they made a wireless mic (SmallRig also). I had just never heard of brands doing what they're not known for. But I have to admit even further- I'm genuinely impressed. I'll have to consider these as new priorities for new batteries rather than others.
All thanks to you, Caleb. I'm glad to see you staying committed to analyzing and testing new gear for the video community😊
Tbf if there's one company I'd trust to put out a wireless transmission system - it's gonna be DJI 😃
They're on such a different level from the rest of the industry they have to make their own silicon to handle their transmission tech
I'm glad that a lot of these companies are branching out and expanding the scope of their products, more competition is always better.
Prices into the video production space are absolutely insane because there's only a couple companies that make everything in each category of gear.
Another good option is the Andycine micro v mount battery. Is a 95W battery and gives me around 5.5h of recording on the BMCP6K filming in ProRes 422
Power Delivery to charge the V Mount Battery is a massive game changer. Anker just released their new GaN prime chargers.
With a 100W charger, you can charge a 99Wh battery in less than an hour. My $400 150W Core SWX battery takes 4-5 hours to charge via D-Tap.
Thanks so much for this Valuable Tip. Will look into buying Anker's Prime Charger. Peace
Damn, I used to come to your channel about 6-7y ago , always saw the potential, and now that im back at looking gear reviews on youtube, this is easy one of the best, if not the best channels about that on youtube. No BS, straight to the point, informative info! Also love how the new ways to assemble gear gets done here. Creative! Cheers, keep up!
Only gripe about it is the price. You can get a ZGCine V99 for $179 with most of the same features and size the SmallRig has
I was literally only a few weeks ago wishing a product like this would come out. Small, convenient, multiple charging options and USB-C PD/high wattage charging in and out. Basically a really functional high capacity battery bank that also does V-Mount. All of my equipment now charges via USB-C so I can not only use one of these to power or recharge anything nice and quick, but I can also recharge IT nice and easily with the same charger I use for everything else.
Instead of 4-6 different bulky inconvenient chargers (especially V-Mount chargers), it's one slim little pack that does it all with a really small charger AND it still mounts via V-Mount for my BMPCC4K - the only camera that doesn't run on USB-C (effectively). Crazy good. SmallRig really, really knows how to get camera accessories right and it's so satisfying.
I have no use or any optimal understanding to anything about this video but I finished it because it is interesting. It's like watching some home shopping network when you were a child.
Thanks for checking these batteries out but I'm not sure they are really all they're cracked up to be. I purchased a VB50 and can't get it to send power to my USB-C dummy battery. It's supposed to send 9V/3A. Its advertised to work with PD, QC 2.0, and QC 3.0 but this support is spotty at best. The dummy battery works fine when connected to any and every USB-C phone charger I have laying around.
Also, the LCD only shows output voltage, not amps, and the voltage shown is the intended voltage and not actual measured output, it still shows 9V even if you connect just a USB cable that goes nowhere. If you connect USB-A and USB-C at the same time, voltage cuts down to 5v for each.
The two power jacks are 8V and 12V, many users would prefer 8.4V. Without that missing 0.4V many cameras have problems shooting higher bitrate videos and powering peripherals via hot shoe.
I want to connect my GH5 to USB-C because most dummy batteries seem to be sketchy at best and I don't want to have to trust one to properly regulate D-Tap from 24V down to 8.4V, and most of them go to 8V anyways. So now I'm stabbing into the dark buying every USB-C dummy battery I can find hoping one has the secret specific flavor of QC / PD charge circuitry that this battery supports. The SmallRig support team don't have any clear answers themselves.
These batteries cost almost twice as much as other options and depending on your setup there's a good chance you'll still need to buy a D-Tap splitter anyways.
I'd love for you to do a video exploring these details further as you probably have more expertise with all of this than myself.
Just got the 99 as well and yeah, big big fan.
Good to see small batteries with the same capacity as regular ones.What confuses me a bit is a presence of additional display and controllers required to manage the information shown on them. If the battery life is one year or two it seems to be a waste for environment.I would opt on locating all those features on v-mount plate and reducing the cost of the batteries.
Remote power for monitors, lights, cameras, microphones - covered. These will be perfect for building our own versions of your Pelican case / trolley mobile studios. I'm in.
Finally one good review about these smallrig batteries! I'm definitely getting them
I noticed that they have also introduced lights seems they are diversifying their portfolio. I personally have a Baxxtar V50 compact which also has a USB A port and D-tap. But this one is even better as it can be charged via USB-C instead of a dedicated charger with D-tap though it is a lot more expensive.
same here they grate
I was literally placing order for V-Mount batteries while I got a notification for this video... Coming back later to mention the change of plans, I ordered 2x99W :DD
I use FX-Lion batteries. Also small with built in ports similar to this. In fact... the FX-Lion batteries work perfect with Sony Mirrorless as it butts up perfect with the viewfinder - like the curves wrap around the diopter. It's crazy...
Which v mount plate do you use to rig it up with your sony cams?
Loved the last b roll shot over the textured mat, its the first time I’ve seen that and it adds a lot of dimension.
This is gonna help my “old school” set ups be a lot more sleeker ~ BMPCC OG and BM Cinema Camera 4K
I have 1/2 dozen 99W Indi Pro mini-V mounts that have served me well until A74 and FX-3. They don't deliver enough power via the USB port (USB-A to USB C) to maintain the battery in the Camera. Sony doesn't like dummy batteries on these cameras (That why they don't have the notch) so you would have to leave the door open (or take it off). I tried 4 different brands and none would keep up with the FX3 draw. So I did a Google search and found ZGCINE ZG-V99 (a brand I have never heard of but I order two) they are working. I generally only order 99W (I do international flights) but to try it I order the 50 to check it out.
I have this Smallrig battery and perfectly powers my FX3 and A7IV via USB with no need of dummy battery and no internal battery drain.
@@Superjeanmarc thank you for the info!!! I will try it out :)
@@Superjeanmarc hey bro how long do you get on a 99wh battery powering in 4k? And what's the charge time like for the battery? And lastly if I can ask - do you need to leave a battery already in the camera when doing charge via USBC?
@@Addrian. I always connect both the camera and my field monitor to the V-lock and it last approx 4,5 to 5h. I assume that powering the camera only, you could reach 9h-10h maybe? Never tested. My monitor is a 2200 nits Portkeys BM5 III, so maybe if you use a less bright model, it could even last for longer.. ? Battery charge time depends on the power of your charger, it accepts chargers up to 65W. With my double 45W charger (meaning 20W and 25W on each battery) it charges in a few hours.. but I've never calculated precisely.
@@Superjeanmarc this is actually super helpful. Thank you so much bro. I'm surprised no ones talking about battery life in these reviews. Blows my mind. Appreciate the insight. I ordered two 99wh of these. So looking forward to using them. I have a Hollyland Mars M1 and it's 1000 nits so would imagine it'd lasting a lot longer which is awesome. I was considering the 155wh but I think it's overkill and it's about $200 more currently than the 99wh. So I got two 99wh.
I just got my VB99 in recently and absolutely love it’s compact size and ability to power my rig all day long!
The battery is actually cheaper now. I'm shopping around. Great video.
Sweet. I was just checking prices on how much it would cost to buy a usb-pd plate and a v mount charger. With the 99 model I can probably do everything without charging so the extra time to swap is not a big loss
They’re awesome! I have three (2x99WH and 1x50WH). They also pass the drop test onto a concrete parking lot. 😂
Pro tip: don’t use a phone clamp to hold a v mount battery just because you’re too lazy to go back inside and find your v mount clamp.
I want them both!! Been using vmount for a while now and it makes my rigs really bulky, this is a game changer!
Actually these V mount batteries are exciting to those of us who don’t like caring a whole bunch of batteries for cameras etc.
Sheesh this stuff has come a long way since I was at Emerson... and I only graduated in 2017- it is like companies caught on that people would absolutely buy and use something like these batteries- even just how far the rail/clips have come
Damn! Great review, Caleb! The simple fact that you can see the battery percentage on them is enough to get me excited. I gotta pick me up some 🔥
FxLion have had a similar form factor battery in their Nano series for a few years now. I love my Nano One 50WH battery - which has USB A and PD USB C.
But SmallRig has 2 DC output（one is 8V, another is 12V）And it can charge for monitor/ APPLE 61W/DELL 65W. SmallRig has a bigger screen. Sure, EXLION is also a good choice. And I will try SmallRig this one, after all SmallRig innovate all the time. They put lots of money and energy for research last 2 years !
@@rachelyuan3459 I got my FxLion 3 years ago though... so they've been making these for a long time.
You should make it clear that you work for SmallRig channel sales too ;)
This video is still relevant - I have been looking for smaller V mount battery to power my iPhone rig. I have the Came-TV 99. But I have been ;using a regular USB power brick with my rig. I just scored a deal on Amazon for a used like new one for $106. I snatched it up. I wanted to go light with the handheld rig. I still can use the heavier ones for my other rigs. BTW love that you have the Mix Pre 3 - I have the Mix Pre 6 for mobile recording work and use the Came-TV with that in my recording bag. These are the way to go for the mobile or even studio content creator.
Super thought out design. Really glad to see more companies adding flexibility with all these USB-PD capabilities.
Ive used the 99 for a little bit, but when I pulled the DTAP out it snapped the housing. I've had a good experience with SmallRigs customer support so I'm talking to them right now. Hoping to get it resolved soon.
Sheesh.
I’d like to know if you can actually use all those ports at once? What are the limitations? Would it overheat, would it turn off some ports?
It’s a shame you missed that test/step which would be the most important in my opinion if we’re talking about one versatile battery that can rule them all, so to speak.
I hope you could clarify that point.
You can use all at once with no restrictions. Just the power will drain faster.
@@maruwaanmoses Sweet, thank you!
I do think having ports on the battery is a nice option, but I'd personally always prefer to have my connections running from a plate, that way if I have to swap out my V-mount battery, I don't have do disconnect or reconnect any of my devices.
It's actually very interesting. Working at events sometimes I wish I was more prone to use a ninja V for better preview/control purposes. But the weight of the NP battery is just too heavy, specially for longer shoots where a small NP won't do. After that is the fact that I might want to power some LED panels and will also have to carry other kind of batteries.
This maybe solves some of that, I'll get into more study but seems like the unification of systems which is very interesting.
I still think using ports off the plate is better on a rig due to swapping battery time, but all those ports are quite neat
Cool but for the price i prefer the came tv option or the andycine micro v mount battery.
These sound absolutely amazing. However, at 3400mAh they wouldn't last even an hour powering both an A7S3 and a Shinobi, unless I'm severely misunderstanding something here? I'm powering my rig using a 20000mAh Ravpower power bank and I can easily get 11 hours of run time with this setup (for both devices).
What connection are you using to the A7S3? I've only just got one and am looking for external power outside of dummy batteries
@@12handley You need to supply power using a USB-C cable and the power has to match 9v 3A, so check your power bank to make sure that it can supply that kind of power (read the öutput"" details on your PB)
Got the VB99 and love it so far. Might pick up a 50 as well. As far as cosmetics, I rather like the bling too.
Great video as always. Glad to see SmallRig expanding their gear production list with cool little features.
Your videos are so helpful, especially for someone like me who has to buy gear from the US to Zambia.
I've been using IDX for years, and I don't think I'll be going away from them for my main camera rigs, but these SmallRig ones look amazing for powering everything else.
These look great. You didn't cover off noise... I assume because they are silent and no fans or anything inside?
Thanks
Wow, great review, left me with absolutely no further questions. Going to buy 4 VB 99s right now...
Great video and dam those nice top-down shots. Can't wait for that tutorial video!!!
I absolutely love Small Rig anything. Might make the leap to V Mount now
One downside vs using a plate. Unplugging and replugging 5 cables vs sliding in a new battery.
This is more important for long shoots with battery swaps.
Otherwise it looks like a great system.
You can still use your plate so ? I think these are also great as newcomers dnt need to buy a plate which is at the price of one of these
Hi, can you share the detail cable from smallrig battery to feelworld monitor, cause i cant find it the detail in internet. Thanks
These look cool! I don't have a use for them yet, but adding them to a list for future.
Small rig are doing some great stuff right now
3D printing to the rescue! Could be a good time to make a simple TPU shoe to keep the glossy surfaces off of the “ground”.
I use the Fx lion nano one tons of power and lasts ages very rugged but shares the same silicone flaps, I would say they are very close to the small rig as they are also small. The 50 watt hour is smaller then small rig.
Awesome! Thanks for sharing! Definitely plan on picking one up!
what lens do you use for top down shots?
This is the best channel on CZcams
I loved the VB50! However I had to return for an FXLion Nano One...The issue was when using to power my R5C, after turning the camera off and back on, I had to unplug and plug in the usb-c cable for it to power the camera...If not, the camera would only use the Canon battery. I tried using the power button on the VB50, but it didn't work. Not sure if this is an issue with certain cameras, or if I got a bad battery or bad cable...works fine with my FXLion's though...and when the SmallRig battery was connected it lasted about the same as the FXLion. I just couldn't go with it since I would forget to unplug and plug back in the cable and then I would end up draining my canon battery and the SmallRig battery would just be used to charge it , and drain faster...So unfortunately not ideal for my needs.
Approx how many little canon batteries for the m50 would this 50w replace?
They sound nice, I guess that's why they are out of stock on both Amazon & B&H sites.
Used one of these batteries over the weekend to power my BMPCC6k for an event shoot and gotta agree - they're great. Could get a days worth of interviews and B-Roll and off the one 50Wh battery and the rig was able to stay very minimal. They are not rugged though - I also ran into screen scratches almost instantly and I did manage to drop it (from about 1.5m), and the whole front section of the case just popped off. I can't get it to click back in at all, so will have to use rubber bands/glue to patch it up. Still, highly recommend, just take a little more care than you would with a traditional v-mount
Yeah I guess they need some sort of silicone sleeve for corner bumpers like phone covers to provide some protection.
When they said they were going to use rubber bands I thought that might be cool to have on there anyways it might help protect it maybe get some thick black rubber bands? @@makatron
I saw these at Cinegear Atlanta this weekend. Anna at the Godox booth sold me on them, even though she was there with Godox. (LOL.) They were powering their new Knowled 300 with a 50 and a 99, which was pretty amazing. They are almost as small as two large Sony Npfs and incredible light. I will be buying a few of these soon myself. Just wish the price point were a little lower, but I guess that's what you pay for a new premium V-mount.
Have you tried using these to power light sources i.e. a 120D II? Unfortunately my 98Wh IDX's can't power at 100% output, my 198's can though. Would be nice having something a bit smaller.
Thanks Cale’s! Would these have enough voltage to power Stella Pro Reflex continuous lights?
I'm putting the 50w one on my wishlist. thanks for making this video!
kind of like the FXLION Nano but with dc plugs. i like the fxlion body more but yeah the dc plugs are a nice touch
the price is pretty high but i really like this to slim down the rig. instead of having a vmount plate, a dtap splitter and a gazillion dtap to something spiral cabbles tangling around i now only use a very short usb-c cable to the camera, usb-a to the viewfinder, the 12V directly to the monitor and the 8V to the follow focus motor. done. so much cleaner, especially with angled cables. and i can re-charge on short brakes from a PD powerbank so even one battery lasts quite a while.
i would actually buy two of the small ones today and just have one re-charging from a big powerbank while the other is in use. would slim down the rig even more and last the whole day.
Oooooo, these are sweeeeet, time to toss my FXLions
I power my camera and Mixpre-3 off of USB-C with the Mixpre recording internally as well as providing an audio signal to the camera for a scratch track. Every time I try to use the same power source to power both, whether it be a battery or AC power supply, I just get horrible static going to the camera. It goes away if I power each with a different source. Have you tried to use this configuration with these batteries? I would love to have a portable setup using one source of power.
You need a ground loop isolator. Plug it in line with the cable running from the mix-pre to the camera
@@BryceDearden Thanks for the tip. I just ordered one.
Oooo these are great!! Love their product design as well 👍
Great to see a review on those batteries but I’m missing a drop test i Haven’t tried this battery but the display and the design looks very weak compared idx, swit, bebop etc.
The other think that’s a future with this batteri I think is the weak point of using vlock. I get the point that it’s good to have usb etc but to me I want to quick replace the battery not connecting many cables also this is a big problem if you need to rent a battery then you rig is useless if you don’t find the same battery.
I don't know..aside from all the connection options I would rather stay with my Bebob V98micro (or an Anton Bauer Titon Micro V90) which is almost the same price, the same weight, made in Germany and pretty much an industry standard safety and quality wise. Not to mention that this one doesn't look like it has the airline safe approval unlike those other two 🤔
My only issue is that the usb a port outputs at 5v while the fxlion vmount outputs 5.1 to 5.2. Normally a non issue but it is a make or break with trying to power the tilta imirage wireless vnd motor. It cuts in and out and will not effectively work. This is a very specific use case, but for that reason the fxlion is still my go to vmount solution.
curious if you can output both from the d-tap and either of the usb ports at the same time? (with the same output amps as if only 1 was plugged in)
Yes. I have the vb99.
For those looking to purchase, you can use up to 65w charger for quick charging. I’ve been using my MBP charger and charges fast when necessary.
What if you want to quickly swap out one battery for another? Having connections on a separate plate helps
How long do you think an average rig > , Camera, MIC, Monitor, small light would run with each battery option?
I agree, These look amazing, cannot wait to pick a couple up.. Thanks for the awesome review.
First time I have seen another Caleb on YT.
I got one of these two weeks ago freakin love it
This is gonna help me if i cn charge the unit with solar panel, it could then send USB power to Gopro for weeks or months of timelapse footages.
These seem pretty tempting. But (correct me if I'm mistaken) in a closer look the capacity is not that great. The 99 model is 6700mAh whereas you can get 10000mAh powebanks for much less. Sure I understand there are benefits in the design and features but the raw capacity seems to be lacking if you consider the price of these imho.
It's not all about the mAh, other factors such as volt output are much more important. The VB99 at 5V would be equivalent to a 19800 mAh power bank, and the VB50 at 5V to a 10000 mAh power bank.
i absolutly love em i now need to get my hands on that 50! perfect to mount on my gimbal
I picked up 2 andycine mini V lock batteries 95wh with 2 dtap outputs for the price of 1 smallrig battery.
Looking for options on my first V Mount setup and I’m sold on this NO doubt 😅
dang I want one lol....I can see this working great with lights like the 60X so you don't have to use the V-Mount adaptor and just use the barrel. Great video.
Smallrig is just killing it!
Hey Caleb, love your videos as always. That new camera rig briefly shown at the end really intrigues me. I hope you'll be making a video about the new and improved rig soon !
In the process of sourcing out parts to rig out my FX3 (from your suggestions, thank you). These would be ideal I think for an fx3, ninja v rig. Plus the 99 would power my StellaPro reflex lights.
Big fan Caleb. Thanks for helping me build my new studio
They look awesome 👍🏼. However, I don’t see how they’re different from the FXlion Nano One and Nano Two. If not, the FXlion’s are slightly lighter and smaller, and have proven to be incredibly reliable.
Great video. These batteries look interesting but they seem to be a bit scarce. I didn't find the VP 50 but B&H had the VP 99.
You always make me want to buy things.
I hope they also release a battery plate with a lot of the same stuff on it… it really sucks to have to unplug a bunch of rig peripherals from your battery every time you swap to a freshie… I’d much rather plug everything in the rig into a plate, especially if the plate had native USB-PD for my camera!
i mihht get a few of these!i think they look perfect and small enough to carry in a bag
Ok, the 8v and 12v is nice. I just got the zcine 99 and love it but now I wish it had those two extra options.
Thanks for the cable Options (vmounts - Equipment) ! Which one Is the cable you use for your Monitor?😅
Can I use all port together at the same time in this battery? Or current of each port will be lower in this case?