Thank you for posting this, I am subscribing to you - It was great to see the modification - I purchased the BM Production 4k EF version of that camera, a few days ago - And I like what you have done with the SONY NPF Battery - What is the connector wire plug you are using tro plug it into the camera? We only got a glimpse of that at 3:53 in your video - Can you say please?
I think this is the concept behind kinefinity's kineplus mod - only in that case they used one np-f battery instead of 18650s. Honestly the fact that the factory BMCC can only be fed 12v has always been a pet peeve of mine, since 7.4v allows for greater flexibility and duration. To discover that there was a hidden 7.4v option inside the camera all along is wild. Nice video!
@@meanmarine24 That's exactly what I hate so much about the fact that the battery is only internal. If your internal battery is dying and can't be charged, using the 12V battery can oftentimes send it into protection, lose your footage if it is in prores and isn't processed yet and drain your external battery (it happened to me). Honestly I don't remember if the BMCC needs a 7.4V battery inside at all times (I think not given the BMPCC does not) for the 12V to work, but either way it being fed internally is a bad design choice because 1) if it's needed, then it would be better to just have a 7.4V battery slot or input with a 12v charger or 2) if it isn't needed, the internal battery just takes up what would be a useful and flexible power option. Even with the first BMPCC Blackmagic had this solution figured out, though I might guess it was more the result of mimicking DSLRs than a genuine choice. Regardless, the detachable battery design has been implemented in all future iterations with the charging capability still intact.
@@ShatteringKatana I don't think internal battery is the end of the world. It does run a solid 1½ hours iirc. But yes, a smaller package with an external mount is way better. BMCC is deffo a outdated design. I like 12-30v input though. That's very flexible for various power sources. The newer cameras are 12-20V. I recon you won't get below that 12v for whatever reason. You look at it from the consumer side, but there are electrical reasons why it could be good to run 12v in. I haven't studied the PCB of those cameras, but there are different types of voltage conversions, and they are not all equal in efficiency, hence why they may be running 12v in. For example, it could be that the voltage regulator component they use is most efficient around 12-30(20), and if they wanted to allow down to 6v in, they wouldn't have the 6-30v range, or lack efficiency etc. This stuff is always a bit more complex than it seems on the consumer side.
@@meanmarine24 You are not understanding. It was one and a half hours when it shipped. Most of them today run 20 minutes if you are lucky and they are not stable. Nowadays you either make your own balanced battery pack from 18650 batteries or you risk to overwhelm the camera. That's bad electrical design, not a consumer peeve. An old battery that can't hold charge and drains the external battery (and can kill the cached prores footage) is too much of a risk for any professional to run. Blackmagic doesn't really offer replacements and most of the RC batteries you can find are old. The other option is to DIY it but that means holding whoever agrees with that decision liable. And all of that is if you have a skilled enough crew to even bother diagnosing the issue. It's quite literally the end of the world for professionals. I wouldn't call it an outdated design either. No cinema camera that I know of uses an internal battery. Some have buffers, but they are sandwiched between the v-mount plate and the battery. The bad thing isn't that the BMCC uses 12V, it's that it also has a 7.4V that goes unused. As for what concerns power efficiency, I doubt the current design is in any way the best. Charging a 7.4V battery from a 12V source means having to step the voltage down to 8V, which is vampirizing the 12V battery, and constantly at that (even worse, most batteries don't really hit the 100% figure now so the overcharge protection never goes off. The camera is either constantly charging or charging and discharging). If the battery were removable that wouldn't be an issue. The fact that the voltage is 12-30 as you point out also suggests that the input is stepped down and my educated guess is that the baseline 12V isn't going straight into the camera in any component, so it would still be less efficient than feeding from 7.4V (it's a smaller voltage dropoff). But even with that in mind, having a 7.4V input option wouldn't impact the current design in any way, since the only thing that's needed is to wire a connector (or cradle) instead of the battery. Having the ability to use Canon batteries, Sony NP-Fs (which one could put in series if needed) and all that is what I call versatile, not the standard 12-30V we see on most high end cinema cameras. 12-30V in filmmaking terms basically means using a 14.8 V-mount and that's it. You seem to think I want a 6-30V input. What I want is the 7.4V that's already inside the camera to be available alongside the 12-30V input.
The mod is UGLY AS 🤪, but the fact that you drilled through the body and ran the battery wires out gave me an idea on how to modify mine. I think 18650 batteries are way more useful than people realize or the industry would like users to know. Well done. Thank you for sharing! 👍
@@BikmanTech Thanks, I might do the same but leave them inside. I always use Vmount batteries. With this at least I don't have to set the date everytime I restart.
Great to know you tried the same. The output should always be 7.4volt (2 cells on parallel), can you please measure your output first, then try different cells if the output is not stable. Good luck and let me know if this helps.
One of the best cameras when it comes cinematic look colour science that BM made I believe they head this camera I got one My self was used on multiple Hollywood films like mad max avengers ect
Thank you. The charging circuit is unchanged on the camera, and you may charge it with either the default charger or just charge the batteries themselves with an external 18650 charger.
Hey Patrik, in the unmodded BMCC the protection/balance circuit is inside the battery (which also makes replacement batteries hard to find), you'd need to put another circuit for li-ion batteries to avoid any long term problems. Without the circuit, however, the camera should still be able to function. I would recommend using a 2S PCM circuit though in order to be safe. (Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any damage that may be caused by following my advice)
I put two 18650s inside in place of the original battery. Plus BMS for 50cents - maybe not needed but.... The camera works for 1 hour. As external I have 2x Bosch 18V for free from the old drill - the next 2 hours of work :)
@@BikmanTech Charger housing converted into a socket with cable and plug. It really is good at attaching to a tripod or cage. The batteries are old but have 20v when charged.
Thank you for posting this, I am subscribing to you - It was great to see the modification - I purchased the BM Production 4k EF version of that camera, a few days ago - And I like what you have done with the SONY NPF Battery - What is the connector wire plug you are using tro plug it into the camera? We only got a glimpse of that at 3:53 in your video - Can you say please?
Thank you and good luck with your new&old camera. The plug is the same as the charger plug.
I think this is the concept behind kinefinity's kineplus mod - only in that case they used one np-f battery instead of 18650s. Honestly the fact that the factory BMCC can only be fed 12v has always been a pet peeve of mine, since 7.4v allows for greater flexibility and duration. To discover that there was a hidden 7.4v option inside the camera all along is wild. Nice video!
Thank you!
Yeah but they serve 2 different purposes. The 12(12-30V) input includes circuits for charging the internal battery, maybe other things.
@@meanmarine24 That's exactly what I hate so much about the fact that the battery is only internal. If your internal battery is dying and can't be charged, using the 12V battery can oftentimes send it into protection, lose your footage if it is in prores and isn't processed yet and drain your external battery (it happened to me).
Honestly I don't remember if the BMCC needs a 7.4V battery inside at all times (I think not given the BMPCC does not) for the 12V to work, but either way it being fed internally is a bad design choice because 1) if it's needed, then it would be better to just have a 7.4V battery slot or input with a 12v charger or 2) if it isn't needed, the internal battery just takes up what would be a useful and flexible power option. Even with the first BMPCC Blackmagic had this solution figured out, though I might guess it was more the result of mimicking DSLRs than a genuine choice. Regardless, the detachable battery design has been implemented in all future iterations with the charging capability still intact.
@@ShatteringKatana I don't think internal battery is the end of the world. It does run a solid 1½ hours iirc. But yes, a smaller package with an external mount is way better. BMCC is deffo a outdated design.
I like 12-30v input though. That's very flexible for various power sources.
The newer cameras are 12-20V. I recon you won't get below that 12v for whatever reason.
You look at it from the consumer side, but there are electrical reasons why it could be good to run 12v in. I haven't studied the PCB of those cameras, but there are different types of voltage conversions, and they are not all equal in efficiency, hence why they may be running 12v in. For example, it could be that the voltage regulator component they use is most efficient around 12-30(20), and if they wanted to allow down to 6v in, they wouldn't have the 6-30v range, or lack efficiency etc.
This stuff is always a bit more complex than it seems on the consumer side.
@@meanmarine24 You are not understanding. It was one and a half hours when it shipped. Most of them today run 20 minutes if you are lucky and they are not stable. Nowadays you either make your own balanced battery pack from 18650 batteries or you risk to overwhelm the camera. That's bad electrical design, not a consumer peeve.
An old battery that can't hold charge and drains the external battery (and can kill the cached prores footage) is too much of a risk for any professional to run. Blackmagic doesn't really offer replacements and most of the RC batteries you can find are old. The other option is to DIY it but that means holding whoever agrees with that decision liable. And all of that is if you have a skilled enough crew to even bother diagnosing the issue. It's quite literally the end of the world for professionals.
I wouldn't call it an outdated design either. No cinema camera that I know of uses an internal battery. Some have buffers, but they are sandwiched between the v-mount plate and the battery.
The bad thing isn't that the BMCC uses 12V, it's that it also has a 7.4V that goes unused.
As for what concerns power efficiency, I doubt the current design is in any way the best. Charging a 7.4V battery from a 12V source means having to step the voltage down to 8V, which is vampirizing the 12V battery, and constantly at that (even worse, most batteries don't really hit the 100% figure now so the overcharge protection never goes off. The camera is either constantly charging or charging and discharging). If the battery were removable that wouldn't be an issue. The fact that the voltage is 12-30 as you point out also suggests that the input is stepped down and my educated guess is that the baseline 12V isn't going straight into the camera in any component, so it would still be less efficient than feeding from 7.4V (it's a smaller voltage dropoff).
But even with that in mind, having a 7.4V input option wouldn't impact the current design in any way, since the only thing that's needed is to wire a connector (or cradle) instead of the battery. Having the ability to use Canon batteries, Sony NP-Fs (which one could put in series if needed) and all that is what I call versatile, not the standard 12-30V we see on most high end cinema cameras. 12-30V in filmmaking terms basically means using a 14.8 V-mount and that's it.
You seem to think I want a 6-30V input. What I want is the 7.4V that's already inside the camera to be available alongside the 12-30V input.
The mod is UGLY AS 🤪, but the fact that you drilled through the body and ran the battery wires out gave me an idea on how to modify mine. I think 18650 batteries are way more useful than people realize or the industry would like users to know.
Well done. Thank you for sharing! 👍
Haha thanks!
btw the hole was already on the metal frame, you only need to drill through the rubber.
Does the camera charges the battery (when you plug the camera to dc adaptor), or you have to charge them seperatly?
Yes it does charges the battery when plug-in. The cells are basically a replacement of the internal battery, but external.
@@BikmanTech Thanks, I might do the same but leave them inside. I always use Vmount batteries. With this at least I don't have to set the date everytime I restart.
I just did a size comparison between the original battery pack and 2x18650s, swapping them is totally fine.
I did everything like in the video! but the camera with these 18650 either does not turn on or turns off almost immediately, why?
Great to know you tried the same. The output should always be 7.4volt (2 cells on parallel), can you please measure your output first, then try different cells if the output is not stable. Good luck and let me know if this helps.
One of the best cameras when it comes cinematic look colour science that BM made I believe they head this camera I got one My self was used on multiple Hollywood films like mad max avengers ect
You are an absolute wild man. Respect. 👊 💯
Best camera mode ever! thank you
This is a really clever mod - I wonder if the camera itself has any overcharge protection in place or do the cells do this already?
Thank you. The charging circuit is unchanged on the camera, and you may charge it with either the default charger or just charge the batteries themselves with an external 18650 charger.
Hey Patrik, in the unmodded BMCC the protection/balance circuit is inside the battery (which also makes replacement batteries hard to find), you'd need to put another circuit for li-ion batteries to avoid any long term problems. Without the circuit, however, the camera should still be able to function. I would recommend using a 2S PCM circuit though in order to be safe. (Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any damage that may be caused by following my advice)
What lenns you use?
samyang 16mm f2
Nice idea I’m doing the same
thank you 中村君！
I put two 18650s inside in place of the original battery. Plus BMS for 50cents - maybe not needed but.... The camera works for 1 hour. As external I have 2x Bosch 18V for free from the old drill - the next 2 hours of work :)
damn a drill battery that's hard core! cool!
@@BikmanTech Charger housing converted into a socket with cable and plug. It really is good at attaching to a tripod or cage. The batteries are old but have 20v when charged.
Can you share name BMS? What battery do you use?
toPe mesmo Parabéns 👍
❤