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Which Anton Bauer Gold Mount batteries to use?

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Michael Holmes

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I would appreciate some advice on which Anton Bauer Gold Mount batteries to choose. We are standardizing on AB Gold Mount. I see a lot of different AB batteries being bought/sold and it is not clear to me why some are preferred over others.

We need batteries for four services:
(1) A Red Weapon.
(2) A Steadicam. It is not bought yet, but assume for now it will be a Zephyr. We only need to power the monitor, since we will power the Red Weapon with on-board battery.
(3) An “audio bag”, which includes a Sound Devices 702 audio recorder, a Zaxcom wireless receiver, and a Zaxcom remote control for transmitter.
(4) A Director’s monitor cage for focus pulling, which includes a SmallHD 703 monitor, and a Teradek Bolt 500 wireless video receiver.

In looking at the options, we saw that:
A. The AB Cine 150 GM has the advantages of being (a) low profile at the back of the camera and (b) lower weight.
B. The AB Digital 190 GM has the advantages of (a) high WH, and (b) low cost per WH.

We didn’t see any advantages to other AB batteries such as the HyTRON 140 and the DIONIC HC. So we have looked only at Cine 150 and Digital 190.

On first look we said:
_1) Cine 150 for the Red Weapon, because of low height and low weight.
_2) Not really sure which is best for Steadicam, so we initially said the flatter Digital 190.
_3) Digital 190 for “audio bag” since fit in bag will be a little easier.
_4) Cine 150 for Director’s monitor cage, because of lower weight.

Questions:
1. Are we wrong to focus only on Cine 150 and Digital 190? Are there other AB batteries that have unique advantages that we should be considering?
2. Would you choose different batteries than what we initially chose for these services?

Thank you for your help.
 
The price between the two is literally $9 so you'd get the best bang for the buck with the 190wh, which also is just .3lbs heavier then the Cine 150. So unless your keen to shave every ounce then I'd go with the 190wh

I love the low profile of the Cine series, but just picked up several of the 90wh versions so I could fly with them. All the other AB batteries I have is the 190wh since to me the extra 40wh is a great value! They can power my Weapon, 4.7" LCD, and a 7" monitor for 3:45 hours each battery.

I'm interested in looking at the Blueshape Granite Mini batteries, the 140wh is 1.48lbs
 
Chris Kennedy said:
The price between the two is literally $9 so you'd get the best bang for the buck with the 190wh, which also is just .3lbs heavier then the Cine 150. So unless your keen to shave every ounce then I'd go with the 190wh

I love the low profile of the Cine series, but just picked up several of the 90wh versions so I could fly with them. All the other AB batteries I have is the 190wh since to me the extra 40wh is a great value! They can power my Weapon, 4.7" LCD, and a 7" monitor for 3:45 hours each battery.

I'm interested in looking at the Blueshape Granite Mini batteries, the 140wh is 1.48lbs
Click to expand...

I agree, Chris, that the 190 is clearly the best for the buck. The official weight difference is actually 1.60kg -1.22kg = 0.38kg = 380gm = 0.84lb.
So, on the Weapon, particularly when using the Steadicam or shoulder rig, that seemed to us to be significant for a long day of shooting.
But you have a lot more experience than we do. And we are fully agreeing with you that 190's are the way to go, unless 0.84lb really matters.

I'm still wondering why others would come to a different conclusion and buy other AB batteries.

Anyway, thank you so much. We will get our order in for some 190s (and maybe a Cine 150 to compare on the Weapon).
 
Michael Holmes said:
I agree, Chris, that the 190 is clearly the best for the buck. The official weight difference is actually 1.60kg -1.22kg = 0.38kg = 380gm = 0.84lb.
So, on the Weapon, particularly when using the Steadicam or shoulder rig, that seemed to us to be significant for a long day of shooting.
But you have a lot more experience than we do. And we are fully agreeing with you that 190's are the way to go, unless 0.84lb really matters.

I'm still wondering why others would come to a different conclusion and buy other AB batteries.

Anyway, thank you so much. We will get our order in for some 190s (and maybe a Cine 150 to compare on the Weapon).
Click to expand...


I just did a quick glance at the two on B&H which gave me the .3lbs difference-guess they aren't always right, but holding one in each hand now they don't seem that far off.

I've done handheld for the better part of all day shoots many times with the 190's, guess with my ENG background I'm used to lugging around a 22 lbs. rig all day on my shoulder
 
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The first set of batteries I bought for my RED were AB Dionic HCs. They have done me really well over the years, but they are not cheap. Heard good things about the Core SWX batteries and recently purchased 5 of the Hypercore 98wh Gold Mount batteries. 1/2 the price of the Antons, really neat LCD on the battery, intelligent software that tells you how long till done charging and some other great bits about them. So far, so good.... Worth a look. I also think they JUST rehoused some these into a smaller package- which were revealed at NAB. Not sure on availability yet....
 
DC Chavez said:
The first set of batteries I bought for my RED were AB Dionic HCs. They have done me really well over the years, but they are not cheap. Heard good things about the Core SWX batteries and recently purchased 5 of the Hypercore 98wh Gold Mount batteries. 1/2 the price of the Antons, really neat LCD on the battery, intelligent software that tells you how long till done charging and some other great bits about them. So far, so good.... Worth a look. I also think they JUST rehoused some these into a smaller package- which were revealed at NAB. Not sure on availability yet....
Click to expand...

Hi DC,

Thank you for the kind feedback :)

We did just announce the new HC9 Mini battery packs at NAB. They are 98Wh, 12A max load, and have the p-tap and USB relocated to the top of the pack so it will no longer interfere with the I/O on the right side.

They will be available in end of June and have similar pricing to the current Hypercore-98 battery packs.

If you will like to take a look at more information and photos, please check out the HC9 Mini product pages here: http://www.coreswx.com/product-category/battery/hc9-mini/

Best,
Caitlin Stroke
Core SWX, LLC
 
I bring this up everytime some one asks, but no one believes me ;-) Best bang for your buck is these unbranded Chinese batteries with japanese cells.

Google VSN-092

You get a million of these - https://www.amazon.com/PowerSmart-9200mAh-BP-C190A-BP-C130A-Panasonic/dp/B00HE1GPD4

etc.

As someone who at one time owned 24 actual Anton Bauer batteries, and has been using gold mount batteries to run everything from Arri BL4s on steadicam to panavison, to red and anything else you can think of - gyros, lights etc. these are just the best. I am finally having to rotate my batteries that are 7 years old out of rotation.

Nick
 
I use a mixture of Varizoom chargers, and what are they....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/9-2Ah-Batte...759136?hash=item5695673fa0:g:CQMAAOSwol5Yx4z7

Whatever those are. Not the best chargers in the universe, but they have taken a beating and keep working.

And also several of these -

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Channel-V...830517?hash=item4d3abb3a75:g:0X8AAOSwtExVgUhN

I have the Varizoom branded ones but I think they are the same. I Have a verizoom one that was dropped out of the back of a truck into an open sewer in india at least 7 years ago, and it still works. I think the AC just blew it out with air.

I have also used Switronix chargers with them, but over the years all my switronix chargers died. Been looking at getting some of the new 2 position simultaneous switronix chargers that are cheap.

Nick
 
Digital 190 batteries are great because they run forever but they're MASSIVE and insanely heavy and are the stupidest form ever conceived.

I'm currently running the cine 150 batteries and love everything about them except that they're so damn expensive.

I need to add a couple more batteries to my kit so those cheap knockoffs may be the move...
 
The digital 190s are great cost per watt hour and the quick charges charge about as fast as my cam will use them, so I can rotate off 190's all day if I have access to power and I also have slightly smaller 90s that are lighter weight. Weird looking though.
 
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