someone i know actually thought of this idea. and its great to see it come to life. but there is one major thing this device doesn't charge ( yet so far ) and hopefully i can show this to my friend and he can see now that he has to get the ball rolling, because this device is actually one major very very necessary device to charge away from becoming an even bigger super hit.... shhhhhhh if i told you, you would agree 100%.....
Yes! This one is really an all-round solution with the different ports. Watched a video from Levi Allen a few week back - I might have to back this one. 👍🏻
I have a Sony M series battery (NP-QM91D) from a Handycam camcorder from the 2000s. Do you think I can use this M series battery in the SmallHD focus 5 monitor which seems like the one you showed in the video? I cannot find an answer to this on Google. Do you have any experience using the m series battery on those monitors or led lights?
Sony does have something, but instead of L batteries it takes up to four Z batteries. It can charge them, as well as power a camera (with a dummy Z/W battery) or power a USB device. It's the NPA-MQZ1K.
Yes the great thing about the Power Station is it charge L battery faster with its own AC adapter, and it take two L battery providing non-stop power with hot swap; but it doesn’t take USB power input and most of all, it’s 10 times the price!
Its a new TH-cam feature. It simply shows up the first three hashtags in the description box, as you can check I’ve put hashtags at the bottom of my description
@@TheLokCheung thank you for the reply, my use case goes beyond supplying power for video camera. The power buddys best feature is you can attach it to a camera and still have a good chance of mounting the camera balanced on a gimbal. However there are other mounting plates of similar size that are cheaper. You can also get usb powered charging plates for the sony npf batteries so the main advantage of the powerbuddy is not needing to carry an npf charging solution in your bag as well and not having to swop batteries. I'm very much in favour of carrying of less gear. So far i have found one device that charges and discharges at the same time and thats a battery base for a google home mini for about 20 euro. this has micro usb in (for the original charger and micro usb out ( designed for the mini) but that micro usb port can plug into the power port of a usb3 hub. Giving both a smart hub and a power source for say a 2.5" Hdd and a card reader. used with an ipad / iphone you can dump a card to the hdd /ssd in the field without having wall power. While you can make it work it is using a proprietary battery, that you can't use for anything else. This essentially is a power bank that supports charging in use and a smart powered hub. A typical Powerbank works similarly but most don't support charging and use at the same time and none of them use their usb ports for data. If you have 2 powerbanks you can be charging one while using the other. But again it's more stuff to carry. A field monitor can work quite well, I've mounted mine to my cage handle which connects to a nato rail on either of my camera's cages. It's not exactly gimbal friendly. However it does work quite well with the dummy battery option for my panasonic. The dummy battery kit has a wall charger outputting 5v via a usb A port a cable which converts 5volt to 8volt which connects a 8volt cable with a dummy battery at one end and a barrel jack at the other. The wall charger can be replaced with a powerbank and the 5volt to 8 volt cable can be replaced with a cable from my monitor. to the dummy battery. I don't have a V mount battery system but they can supply multiple devices at several voltages but they are heavy and expensive. I will look into them. I have seen a usb hub which uses a 12volt psu (that could be powered from my npf plate with the 12 volt output). for a few hours any way maybe that's the way to go if I have to swop batteries.
@@blackestknights I've seen some power banks that could take in power while supply power at the same time, recently I learnt about Zendure power banks that do what they call pass through charging, and I must had seen one that also works as a USB hub for data transfer, but I can't remember the name and I can't find it now
@@TheLokCheung I got a reply from Powerbuddy you can use the 2 USB ports while charging (pass through). on another subject entirely have you seen this techartpro.com/?product=techart-pro-leica-m-sony-e-autofocus-adapter
Yes I'm exactly using that with my MBP 13" 2017 and it's brilliant! Even fully loaded: all USB ports being used, MBP doing video editing with iPad connected as 2nd screen plus 2 external hard drive, the charger still manage to CHARGE the MBP. EXTREMELY handy!
@@TheLokCheung that's what I need, I don't want to bring separate charger anywhere. Lok, i forgot to ask the Brand Name and Type? May I know? Is it Anker or Aukey?
There are some NP-F batteries that have an additional USB and DC output build in. So you could use the NP-F with the Atomos and use the USB or DC output to power your camera.
NP-F960 in fact has almost double the capacity of a 10,000 mAh (and weight too!). You see, most power banks rate their mAh at 3.6V compare to L batteries at 7.4V; when you rate it at lower voltage, it would appear to run for longer thus higher mAh. It's better to compare in Wh (you can also find Wh on some batteries as long as mAh). A power bank at 10,000mAh convert to 10Ah x 3.6V = 36Wh. Even a NP-F750 at, let's say 4500mAh, convert to 4.5Ah x 7.2V = 32Wh. That's why in the video I said a "middle size" L-battery has roughly the same capacity of a 10,000mAh power bank. This is also why you'll find tiny rechargeable AA batteries with 2000mAh or more, since they were rated at 1.2V; when a NP-F550 also has "only" 2000mAh!
Sony NP-F960 - yes, it has 1.5х times more power, but cost 8х times more. May be there is non-brand NP-F960 which has capacity almost like original for the price of power bank, but I couldn't find it up to now. Good concept, but a little bit too late. Most of the new mirrorless cameras are charging via USB-C port and everybody has power banks :)
NP-F750 would be more comparable in capacity, in stead of NP-F770. You do can find sub $20 NP-F750, but yea I'm agree with you that if you want a reputational branded L-battery, it's gonna be much more expensive
If you go to Amazon and search for "NP-F970," you will find multiple third-party options available for about $35 for a 2-pack of 8800 mAh (65Wh) batteries. That is only a little more expensive than a 10,000 mAh USB power bank. The USB power bank is a pretty decent option if you're shooting Sony (I think the only major vendor allowing USB to power their cameras) and don't mind having the door open with a cable sticking out of the left side of the camera body (not a big deal on a rig, but pretty non-ergonomic without one).. I've used products like this one (just without the USB charger built-in) before with dummy batteries for Panasonic cameras (no USB power input) as well as Sony (the dummy battery fits in the battery compartment which can still close and the cable comes out of the right side of the camera which is nicer for running it down a sleeve to the battery adapter in my inner jacket pocket. I was shooting in the cold and it also helped battery life, in theory, to have the battery in my inside jacket pocket where my body heat was keeping it warm.
Sorry Lok but you should really work with a speech therapist to improve your English pronunciation. I bet in 3 or 4 sessions with a few exercises you would really improve your pronunciation, these people work miracles. Thanks for the video.
Just keep watching eventually you'll get it, i had the same problem with British accent, couldn't understand anything until my gf made me watch Dr who and other British shows and movies lol
@@mystupidfacebook for American(which basically almost have no accent) or British accent like Kai's I can still understand most of it, but Lok's accent is super special.. Hehe
I backed their kickstarter because the product looked neat for travel with L series batteries, but they kept publishing "updates" asking all of their backers to spam their social media with links to it so I pulled my support. And now, in addition, it seems like they are sponsoring you to shill for them, but you're not really forthright about the sponsorship. I can't see any way, outside of being sponsored, that you would be this excited about a product which is only an evolutionary change from existing products. There are plenty of existing products that let you power your camera from these batteries. I have some. The only thing this one adds is the built-in USB charger, which is nice if one is trying to travel light, but totally unnecessary otherwise. Boo, Lok. You can do better.
I was not sponsored by them, the Kickstarter link I put in description is not an affiliate link. All I earn was TH-cam ad revenue and those Amazon and B&H affiliate links. They've never mentioned sending me a free one to keep. Simple as that. I’m not going to destroy my reputation that was built on 8 years of work just on a few sponsored video. I’m not that stupid.
We’re a tiny start-up comprising of a close-knit team of creatives. The films industry has long been dominated by a handful of companies and a raft of cheap, low-quality options, making the landscape difficult for smaller professional brands like Blind Spot to thrive in. Launching a campaign on Kickstarter allows us to bring products to life and harness the power of an amazing community to help spread the word of our product. It's one of the only ways a small brand like ours can punch above our weight.
Lok - It's hard to imagine this much enthusiasm for an upcoming product which is basically "the same as some existing products that you can buy and use right now, but it adds a fairly slow charger" is sincere, but if you say that you're genuine, I'll take you at your word and apologize. I'm sorry to have suggested that there was some form of compensation offered for positive words about this product.
Blind Spot Gear - I've backed a bunch of kickstarter campaigns and you're the first one which was so dedicated to sending repeated "updates" asking the backers to become your marketing department for you. As a rule, the purpose of kickstarter updates is to tell people about the progress you're making in delivering the product that they invested in - not in asking them to help you line your pockets with additional pledges. I get that there are a number of established players in the industry and as a startup, it's hard to get your name out there - but let's also not fool ourselves. It's a little unrealistic to suggest that a "community" is going to form around a product that lets you plug batteries into your camera and also charge those batteries. You are a company trying to sell products to people and make money. There's nothing at all wrong with that and I hope you are successful in your endeavors. Do you and your employees all actively promote other people's kickstarters on your social media channels? I just checked your twitter feed - 0 links to anybody else's kickstarter projects. If you're going to use phrases like "amazing community," don't you think you should actually take part in it in an at least somewhat altruistic way and not a fully selfish one?
Yes the idea is simple, but it is like "FINALLY someone make this happen!". All those 3rd party battery chargers, adapters manufacturers had failed to put their mind to actually invent something. There are loads of adapters, chargers out there which just get one job done, but not enough care on how people use it, nobody take one step more to make people's life easier. To me it is the true meaning of "design", to offer an elegant solution, that answer people's real problem. And that I think this product had done beautifully.
You and Kai need to get back together for an episode of something ridiculous :P
You're going to see that in a few weeks on th-cam.com/users/BokeBros as we're going to meet for Photokina!
Lok Cheung Thanks! Love your content boet :)
Great news, looking forward to that!
I mounted a battery power bank to my tripod using a bicycle clamp with a wire to my a7iii... worked a treat.
This is triggering my gear acquisition syndrome. 😂
GAS? lol I feel like there is a video to go with that one, this is the first time I hear it.
Wow... That's reeeeeaaaaalllly versatile!
Looks very handy :) Might want to give it a try when it actually will be available.
power everything from one kind of battery, eh? sounds great!
Lok & Kai are the best Camera 📷 🎥 reviewer in the world 🗺 🌍
*drops that thing*
Lok is the new Kai
I was thinking the same thing. Oh, the bloke brothers xD
someone i know actually thought of this idea. and its great to see it come to life. but there is one major thing this device doesn't charge ( yet so far ) and hopefully i can show this to my friend and he can see now that he has to get the ball rolling, because this device is actually one major very very necessary device to charge away from becoming an even bigger super hit.... shhhhhhh if i told you, you would agree 100%.....
This does charge the L battery from USB power, is that what you mean?
Yes! This one is really an all-round solution with the different ports. Watched a video from Levi Allen a few week back - I might have to back this one. 👍🏻
I have a Sony M series battery (NP-QM91D) from a Handycam camcorder from the 2000s. Do you think I can use this M series battery in the SmallHD focus 5 monitor which seems like the one you showed in the video?
I cannot find an answer to this on Google. Do you have any experience using the m series battery on those monitors or led lights?
4:25 I would cut out me dropping the product if I ever hope to get a sponsorship lol
Sony does have something, but instead of L batteries it takes up to four Z batteries. It can charge them, as well as power a camera (with a dummy Z/W battery) or power a USB device. It's the NPA-MQZ1K.
It's huge though, and cost $398
I got one of these a few months ago. I'm trying to charge my batteries with it but it won't charge them all. Does anyone have this problem?
I made something like that a few years ago for my 5D2
It will be compatible with First Sony a7?
3:25 lol
Atomos did this already with the POWER STATION with dual swoppable L-mount batteries - but this is way smaller!
Yes the great thing about the Power Station is it charge L battery faster with its own AC adapter, and it take two L battery providing non-stop power with hot swap; but it doesn’t take USB power input and most of all, it’s 10 times the price!
This is great!
1:40 is a perfect example of what the millennium bug does.
Great video Lok! But how do you get those hashtags above your video?
Its a new TH-cam feature. It simply shows up the first three hashtags in the description box, as you can check I’ve put hashtags at the bottom of my description
Holy crap man! You replied to me!! Haha im so hype to actually have you respond. Ur one of myyoytube idols bro. Keep up the good work and #hashtags
Thumbs up is you guys wanna see Lok & Kai back together for new uideoss !!
hello from Italy
the mavic air flymore has something comparable. I can use the mavic battery for charging my phone
When you say Sony L batteries are cheap ... and cheaper then a power bank ... £70 for a battery ...
maybe they have but didnt take the idea any further due to dev costs etc
I have one question can you charge it while you are using it?
It had been a while since I tested this and I don’t have one; but I think I remember they’ve mentioned to me that it would work, but not recommended
@@TheLokCheung thank you for the reply, my use case goes beyond supplying power for video camera. The power buddys best feature is you can attach it to a camera and still have a good chance of mounting the camera balanced on a gimbal. However there are other mounting plates of similar size that are cheaper. You can also get usb powered charging plates for the sony npf batteries so the main advantage of the powerbuddy is not needing to carry an npf charging solution in your bag as well and not having to swop batteries.
I'm very much in favour of carrying of less gear.
So far i have found one device that charges and discharges at the same time and thats a battery base for a google home mini for about 20 euro. this has micro usb in (for the original charger and micro usb out ( designed for the mini) but that micro usb port can plug into the power port of a usb3 hub. Giving both a smart hub and a power source for say a 2.5" Hdd and a card reader. used with an ipad / iphone you can dump a card to the hdd /ssd in the field without having wall power. While you can make it work it is using a proprietary battery, that you can't use for anything else.
This essentially is a power bank that supports charging in use and a smart powered hub. A typical Powerbank works similarly but most don't support charging and use at the same time and none of them use their usb ports for data. If you have 2 powerbanks you can be charging one while using the other. But again it's more stuff to carry.
A field monitor can work quite well, I've mounted mine to my cage handle which connects to a nato rail on either of my camera's cages. It's not exactly gimbal friendly.
However it does work quite well with the dummy battery option for my panasonic. The dummy battery kit has a wall charger outputting 5v via a usb A port a cable which converts 5volt to 8volt which connects a 8volt cable with a dummy battery at one end and a barrel jack at the other. The wall charger can be replaced with a powerbank and the 5volt to 8 volt cable can be replaced with a cable from my monitor. to the dummy battery.
I don't have a V mount battery system but they can supply multiple devices at several voltages but they are heavy and expensive. I will look into them. I have seen a usb hub which uses a 12volt psu (that could be powered from my npf plate with the 12 volt output). for a few hours any way maybe that's the way to go if I have to swop batteries.
@@blackestknights I've seen some power banks that could take in power while supply power at the same time, recently I learnt about Zendure power banks that do what they call pass through charging, and I must had seen one that also works as a USB hub for data transfer, but I can't remember the name and I can't find it now
@@TheLokCheung I got a reply from Powerbuddy you can use the 2 USB ports while charging (pass through). on another subject entirely have you seen this techartpro.com/?product=techart-pro-leica-m-sony-e-autofocus-adapter
Cool.
Lok, I want to ask, that charger you are using can be charged for MBP 13 2017?
Yes I'm exactly using that with my MBP 13" 2017 and it's brilliant! Even fully loaded: all USB ports being used, MBP doing video editing with iPad connected as 2nd screen plus 2 external hard drive, the charger still manage to CHARGE the MBP. EXTREMELY handy!
Does it get hot? I do own one but I've never pushed it that far.
It gets warm, a normal level of warm just like any AC adapters
@@TheLokCheung that's what I need, I don't want to bring separate charger anywhere. Lok, i forgot to ask the Brand Name and Type? May I know? Is it Anker or Aukey?
It’s this one: amzn.to/2OJdUVD
Oh dear, so many batteries to charge, charge n charge.
Can it power the Atomos Ninja V whilst powering the camera somehow though?
There are some NP-F batteries that have an additional USB and DC output build in. So you could use the NP-F with the Atomos and use the USB or DC output to power your camera.
like first, see later, then share and leave comments, :P
What a good idea - and you're so lokable ;)
Xiaomi 10000mah power bank cost ~15-18$ and non-brand NP-F960 cost about the same with 2 times less capacity.
NP-F960 in fact has almost double the capacity of a 10,000 mAh (and weight too!). You see, most power banks rate their mAh at 3.6V compare to L batteries at 7.4V; when you rate it at lower voltage, it would appear to run for longer thus higher mAh.
It's better to compare in Wh (you can also find Wh on some batteries as long as mAh). A power bank at 10,000mAh convert to 10Ah x 3.6V = 36Wh. Even a NP-F750 at, let's say 4500mAh, convert to 4.5Ah x 7.2V = 32Wh. That's why in the video I said a "middle size" L-battery has roughly the same capacity of a 10,000mAh power bank.
This is also why you'll find tiny rechargeable AA batteries with 2000mAh or more, since they were rated at 1.2V; when a NP-F550 also has "only" 2000mAh!
You will find a lot of detail explanations on the web on this topic ;-)
Sony NP-F960 - yes, it has 1.5х times more power, but cost 8х times more. May be there is non-brand NP-F960 which has capacity almost like original for the price of power bank, but I couldn't find it up to now. Good concept, but a little bit too late. Most of the new mirrorless cameras are charging via USB-C port and everybody has power banks :)
NP-F750 would be more comparable in capacity, in stead of NP-F770. You do can find sub $20 NP-F750, but yea I'm agree with you that if you want a reputational branded L-battery, it's gonna be much more expensive
If you go to Amazon and search for "NP-F970," you will find multiple third-party options available for about $35 for a 2-pack of 8800 mAh (65Wh) batteries. That is only a little more expensive than a 10,000 mAh USB power bank. The USB power bank is a pretty decent option if you're shooting Sony (I think the only major vendor allowing USB to power their cameras) and don't mind having the door open with a cable sticking out of the left side of the camera body (not a big deal on a rig, but pretty non-ergonomic without one)..
I've used products like this one (just without the USB charger built-in) before with dummy batteries for Panasonic cameras (no USB power input) as well as Sony (the dummy battery fits in the battery compartment which can still close and the cable comes out of the right side of the camera which is nicer for running it down a sleeve to the battery adapter in my inner jacket pocket. I was shooting in the cold and it also helped battery life, in theory, to have the battery in my inside jacket pocket where my body heat was keeping it warm.
Whoahhh!!
Will it fit in A7 II?
Yes
Yep. You just need to select the correct dummy battery from them
Lok, video on your cat when?!
*Why has nobody thought of this before?
I was trying to keep the title as short as possible. Should I use “Nobody thought of this before?”
@@TheLokCheung Ohh I see. Maybe "How has no one thought of this?" would work. It has more words but looks shorter.
So fricken handy!!
ofc Lok is charging via the micro USB port instead of the Type C lol
Well that USB-C port on my charger is usually reserved for my MacBook, just a habit~ You can charge with the micro-USB or the USB-C
hah, first Lok... get it?!?!??!?!??!
almost dropped the product
*shit*
Sorry Lok but you should really work with a speech therapist to improve your English pronunciation. I bet in 3 or 4 sessions with a few exercises you would really improve your pronunciation, these people work miracles. Thanks for the video.
I'll wait for the subtitles.. Even for normal English I still need subtitle to understand some words so there is no offense to your accent Lok..
Just keep watching eventually you'll get it, i had the same problem with British accent, couldn't understand anything until my gf made me watch Dr who and other British shows and movies lol
@@mystupidfacebook
for American(which basically almost have no accent) or British accent like Kai's I can still understand most of it, but Lok's accent is super special.. Hehe
What the hell is he saying??
I backed their kickstarter because the product looked neat for travel with L series batteries, but they kept publishing "updates" asking all of their backers to spam their social media with links to it so I pulled my support.
And now, in addition, it seems like they are sponsoring you to shill for them, but you're not really forthright about the sponsorship. I can't see any way, outside of being sponsored, that you would be this excited about a product which is only an evolutionary change from existing products.
There are plenty of existing products that let you power your camera from these batteries. I have some. The only thing this one adds is the built-in USB charger, which is nice if one is trying to travel light, but totally unnecessary otherwise.
Boo, Lok. You can do better.
I was not sponsored by them, the Kickstarter link I put in description is not an affiliate link. All I earn was TH-cam ad revenue and those Amazon and B&H affiliate links. They've never mentioned sending me a free one to keep. Simple as that.
I’m not going to destroy my reputation that was built on 8 years of work just on a few sponsored video. I’m not that stupid.
We’re a tiny start-up comprising of a close-knit team of creatives. The films industry has long been dominated by a handful of companies and a raft of cheap, low-quality options, making the landscape difficult for smaller professional brands like Blind Spot to thrive in.
Launching a campaign on Kickstarter allows us to bring products to life and harness the power of an amazing community to help spread the word of our product. It's one of the only ways a small brand like ours can punch above our weight.
Lok - It's hard to imagine this much enthusiasm for an upcoming product which is basically "the same as some existing products that you can buy and use right now, but it adds a fairly slow charger" is sincere, but if you say that you're genuine, I'll take you at your word and apologize. I'm sorry to have suggested that there was some form of compensation offered for positive words about this product.
Blind Spot Gear - I've backed a bunch of kickstarter campaigns and you're the first one which was so dedicated to sending repeated "updates" asking the backers to become your marketing department for you. As a rule, the purpose of kickstarter updates is to tell people about the progress you're making in delivering the product that they invested in - not in asking them to help you line your pockets with additional pledges. I get that there are a number of established players in the industry and as a startup, it's hard to get your name out there - but let's also not fool ourselves. It's a little unrealistic to suggest that a "community" is going to form around a product that lets you plug batteries into your camera and also charge those batteries.
You are a company trying to sell products to people and make money. There's nothing at all wrong with that and I hope you are successful in your endeavors. Do you and your employees all actively promote other people's kickstarters on your social media channels? I just checked your twitter feed - 0 links to anybody else's kickstarter projects. If you're going to use phrases like "amazing community," don't you think you should actually take part in it in an at least somewhat altruistic way and not a fully selfish one?
Yes the idea is simple, but it is like "FINALLY someone make this happen!". All those 3rd party battery chargers, adapters manufacturers had failed to put their mind to actually invent something. There are loads of adapters, chargers out there which just get one job done, but not enough care on how people use it, nobody take one step more to make people's life easier. To me it is the true meaning of "design", to offer an elegant solution, that answer people's real problem. And that I think this product had done beautifully.
What the f are you talking about , I have no clue