Extend your camera’s battery life 9 times for only $40

A while ago, we shared a practical solution for extending a Sony camera battery life with a power bank. If this is something you care about, the guys from The Film Look bring you an even cheaper way of doing it with big NPF Sony batteries. If you shoot film with a DSLR or a mirrorless camera, you should definitely have a look.

Robert and Richard use a Sony NP-FW50 battery as an example. It is a 1020mA battery that can give you about 40 minutes of shooting. When you have a whole day of filming ahead of you, this is not very convenient. One solution is to bring extra batteries, and a single one can cost from $15 to $50, depending on the camera and the battery type. Again, if you have a whole day of shooting ahead of you, this may not be the best solution, since it’s quite pricey.

But a more affordable and more practical solution is using a stronger battery as an external source of power for your camera. For this purpose, the guys use Sony NP-F750 battery, which they generally use to power their LEDs and camera monitors.

First, they bought a dummy battery for a Sony Alpha A7s, which costs about $40. It enables you to plug in external power source into your camera by using the dummy battery on one end, and a female power jack on the other.

Second, they used a battery plate adapter for the Sony NP-F750. They connected all the parts together, put the original battery in the camera and the NP-F750 in the battery plate – and that’s it.

What you need to do next is figure out how to mount this construction to the rig. Since Robert and Richard use Sony A7s cage, they adapted it for the purpose with a 50 mm rod, a cheese plate and some Velcro.

They have also tried this solution with larger NP-F970 batteries. It works too, but it happens that the camera stays idle from time to time. So, if you choose to try it yourself, make sure to use smaller F750 batteries. This solution should enable you about 6 hours of filming, which is more than great compared to 40 minutes with an original battery alone. So, it will give you not only a lot more filming time, but also the time to concentrate on the filming itself and not think about the batteries and how long it will last.

Have you used this hack before? What’s your favorite battery saving solution? Share your thoughts and experience in the comments.

[Upgrade Your Camera Battery | The Film Look via No Film School]