So now I have both an FS700 with it’s 7.2v batteries and the F3’s with their 12v batteries I have a real dilemma. I’m putting together shoulder rigs for both cameras and I’m really not sure what batteries to use. I already own a number of V-locks, several Swit S-8U62’s some Sony BP-U60’s and now a few NP-F970’s.
My first thought was to use V-Locks for everything, run the camera and all the extra gear attached to the camera like recorders and EVF’s of a single V-Lock. But, as my regular readers know, I travel a lot and V-locks are bulky, as are the chargers. So my next through was why not use the BP-U60’s and Swit’s to power both the FS700 and F3. This certainly works for the F3 and the D-tap on the Swit’s can power any accessories. To use them on the FS700 will require an external battery plate and an adapter to get from the 14.4v of the EX batteries down to the 7.2v of the FS700. The problem with this is that when I want to “go naked” and use the FS700 without any extras, then I need to also have the standard NP-F970’s. That means taking two lots of batteries and chargers on a shoot.
So, my current thinking is to stick to the batteries designed for each camera. For the FS700 I intend to make an external battery plate that will take an F970 that will then power the camera plus all the various accessories I use. For the F3 I’ll continue to use the Swit batteries with their convenient D-Tap outputs. I’ll probably will keep a couple of V-Lock plates handy for those jobs where I will have a lot of kit on the camera like drama and commercail shoots. It’s not really what I want, I only want to spend money on one battery system, but I can’t see a way to make only one system work the way I need it to.