Is it me, or are V-Mount to AB adapters garbage?

[Ryan Brown]

These adapters seem to be of poor quality. I've gone through 3 of them in the last year. They seem loose, and after a small time, any bump to my camera (like being on shoulder), and the cam shuts down because the battery lost connection for a quick second.

Anyone else having this issue? My most recent is the actual anton bauer made adapter, and it's now pretty much worthless. Last one was a wooden camera one I think, worked for like a month. Before that, another actual AB brand.

Any solution for a more secure fitting V to AB adapter?

My setup: Epic-W, i/o expander, AB adapter, ab batteries.

I've tried putting velcro behind the adapter to make a more secure connection, made sure all connections are clean and in proper condition, and even gaff taped the battery to add pressure. Nothing seems to work

 

[Steve Sherrick]

They are shaky. I've had issues at times as well. I used the gaff trick which did seem to work most of the time. I think in general, it's best to just go with the proper battery system if possible.

 

[Dan Kanes]

Let me add my (salty) personal opinion into the mix:

V mount is absolute shit. Period. End of story. Any battery that self-ejects if accidentally bumped against something is a no-go in any professional environment. Sorry Sony, and anyone who adopted the v mount standard after its invention.

Sadly - you don't need a gold-mount to V mount adapter to experience this fail.

I would say 8/10 Red One on set "failures" back in the day were due to the use of V mount batteries as the kit standard. Thus, deprecating the status of Red in its early years and making camera assistants and some DP's "Afraid" of "the camera that shuts itself off" because it's "overheating" (actually most likely V mount fail almost EVERY time).

PS - the Shitty-Rigs solve for this is to use the shitty V-Mount, but also redundantly power your camera body into it's DC in port with a P-Tap to DC in Cable, or make a hard wired DC in Cable to the AB plate and just use the V mount as a physical "dock" for your Gold mount battery plate which would then make Zero electrical contact to the camera body.

 

[Nick Gardner]

Totally agree with Dan. V-locks suck. I have no idea why Red ever adopted them. Everything about the v-lock design sucks.

Nick

 

[Cody Hurd]

it might be worth selling the V-Lock I/O and getting the Base Expander with the new DSMC2 GOLD MOUNT BATTERY MODULE PRO. Ive never had problems with Vlock Batteries but I get it if you are already invested in the AB system.

 

[Björn Benckert]

I never had an issue with Vlocks... ever. What is the problem? They disconnect? Possibly happen once or twice when I been using a 6 dollar Vlock plate from eBay but never ever on any of the red V lock plates I had.

I use mostly Blueshape Granite, but also I rented all kinds of Vlock batteries and never had a power fail due to it.

 

[Jens Jakob Thorsen]

No problem with V-lock here either. Like Björn maybe once or twice in my 30 year career. And that was due to the faulty V-lock of the RED ONE, that I fixed myself with some pliers.

 

[Matt Bass]

I've been using V mounts for years, no problems what so ever. In fact most of the world, with the exception of America has adopted the V mount. Try finding Anton mount in Europe or Asia...it's not easy.

On another note I've seen Anton to V mount adapters freak cameras out! My conclusion was that these plates do not have any fuse or power regulator - so if these adapter plates are worn out the contacts can be sketcy and will end up with the camera powering off - and not in a good way! Avoid v mount to Anton and Anton to v mount adapters!

 

[Marcus Friedlander]

I second Dan. I've had tons of problems with V-mount batteries when I was AC'ing a lot more on other people's RED packages.

So now I only go AB gold mount in everything and I've never had a problem.

Though if I was traveling outside of America I would absolutely bring a V-mount plate just to be safe. Everyone else in the world seems to only have V-mounts.

 

[Alexander Thomson]

...

PS - the Shitty-Rigs solve for this is to use the shitty V-Mount, but also redundantly power your camera body into it's DC in port with a P-Tap to DC in Cable...

That is an excellent idea. I agree. V-mount is a crappy design. Just putting the camera on my shoulder is enough to trip it and shut it down.

 

[Alexander Thomson]

it might be worth selling the V-Lock I/O and getting the Base Expander with the new DSMC2 GOLD MOUNT BATTERY MODULE PRO. Ive never had problems with Vlock Batteries but I get it if you are already invested in the AB system.

Been thinking about doing this. I don't care about price. I need it to be reliable.

 

[Erich Roland]

Ive had V mount batteries pop off the camera before, but it could be off-brand batteries or adapters not sure haven't explored it. We mostly use Anton Bauer 3 pin and this system is reliable.
Cant speak for the rest of the world, but I know Pag offers the 3 pin system and they are in Europe somewhere.

 

[Meryem Ersoz]

I now carry both types of batteries, V-lock and Gold Mount, which is expensive and kind of a pain. But it has made the difference between happy ACs and unhappy ACs.

If there is one person I want to keep happy on my sets, it is the AC!

 

[Jens Jakob Thorsen]

I now carry both types of batteries, V-lock and Gold Mount, which is expensive and kind of a pain. But it has made the difference between happy ACs and unhappy ACs.

If there is one person I want to keep happy on my sets, it is the AC!

Really? I prioritise myself(the story), the director, the actor and the producer in that order.

 

[Troy Bakewell]

I don’t know guys. This feels a lot like a Ford vs Chevy thing to me. Lol

 

[Nick Gardner]

I think a lot of it has to do with AB mount being pretty dumb tech with big tolerances. V mounts are much more complicated, and are made out of varying materials that wear differently over time. A dovetail wedgeplate is way more complicated than a bayonet post. so many more variables in v-mount.

Nick