The best thing about the Sony FS5 is its small, ergonomically balanced design. It’s a lightweight camera that begs to be hand held. So why would you want to screw that up by adding a big battery?
Well, actually, there are some good reasons. I’ve recently discovered the magic of using a Teradek ServPro so clients can follow along during a shoot. And, I almost always use an external monitor. If you’re powering those things independently, you begin to spend a lot of time changing batteries instead of making pictures.
So I picked up an adapter cable on ebay for $26, bought a Redrock micro cheese plate, and started cobbling building a solution that could give me three or four hours between battery changes.
But when I plugged in one of my four v-lock batteries, the camera gave me an error (right):
Hmm. So what the heck? I tried another (also fully charged) battery. Same error. Then I tried a bunch of other more expensive things, like buying a battery plate from Wooden Camera. Same problem! Then I accidentally grabbed a battery that was partially discharged already, and boom! It fired up just fine.
After a little testing, it turns out that you have to discharge your battery for just a couple minutes, for the FS5 to recognize it. Don’t ask me why this is a thing, but it is.
To power your FS5 with an v-mount battery, buy an adapter, and a battery plate. And then, prime your batteries by discharging them for a few minutes by firing up the monitor and other devices, before turning the camera on. Good to go!
A better (albeit more expensive) solution
I purchased a Wooden Camera V-Mount Battery Plate for Sony PXW-FS5/FS7, to see if that would fix the battery priming issue. It costs $195. The first one I purchased didn’t work at all. The helpful staff at Wooden Camera arranged a quick return. After the repair, the unit works flawlessly – without requiring battery priming. But you do have to purchase a Wooden Camera battery slide, for $193.03. So by the time you get done paying the bill, this proper solution adds up to $388.03. The Wooden Camera battery slide is also a pound lighter than the Redrock Micro cheese plate.
Footnote: It turns out that the way I’ve powered the camera in these photos is actually quite dangerous. As I discovered later, if the brick battery dies while you are rolling, your clips won’t be saved to disk, and you’ll lose the shot. Luckily, there’s a simple solution.
After having the same problem with a power distribution block and my v-mount batteries, this post got me steered in the right direction. It does leave the solution up in the air though. Slightly discharging the battery is a work around, but not a solution. The problem is that a fully charged battery delivers more power than the FS5 will allow. The solution is to use a regulated AC adapter like this: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1380911-REG/shape_evapc_panasonic_au_eva1_sony_fs7.html
Adam is correct The sony FS5 needs regulated 12v power not 14v variant.
the Dtap to yellow sony will fix OR
I bought a Blueshape MV-EX3 v-mount adapter which did not work I then fit a 12v regulator inside it and its perfect.
It still runs an fs7 if it 12v regulated so thats great.
I have 2 SWIT bpu 63 batteries which are causing the same issue, they run every other camera or light but not fs5 that shape cable will sort out any issues
Hi,
Very interesting article.
I have an FS7 which is replacing a JVC GY HM850 which has a v-lock adapter plate on the back. I’ve managed to successfully remove the adapter plate and wondered if I could use this to power the FS7 with my existing v-lock batteries.
I was planing on going from the black and red power output cables to the DC power in via the correct sized plug. But I’m now thinking it would be best to place a regulator in the middle of the cable.
Thabks!
Hi, I bought a 12v regulator for my FS7 when I attached my IDX vlock battery via dtap/power in I get a low battery voltage error
Any ideas?