I have been using my Anker power bank as a battery solution for BMPCC for some time now but I started looking into some alternatives. Especially after noticing that Anker Astro Pro2 is no longer available in stores. On top of that, I wanted something smaller to be able to grab my pocket camera without the baseplate and rods. After doing some research I found out that there are not that many options and the solution that looks the most promising is the one that probably most of you already use.
I decided to get the battery plate for the Sony NPF battery. I chose SmallRig Battery Plate Adapter which comes with a dedicated cable for BMPCC, BMCC and BMPC.
The battery plate has one 1/4” hole at the bottom which makes it easy to mount it to the cage or even to the top of the BMPCC itself. The easiest way is to use the 1/4” Male to 1/4” Male screw adapter visible above. It is not included with the battery plate but you can get it on amazon or eBay.
The plate accepts any NP-F battery and I tested it with three options: NP-F970, NP-F750 and NP-F550. The middle one is a nice solution for a compact size kit and I will probably use it for my personal stuff when I want to travel light (no rig, no FF, etc).
Recording times
I tested three NPF battery types and this is what I got:
- Sony NP-F970 8600mAh – around 3h of continuous recording
- Sony NP-F750 3500mAh – around 1:48h of cont. recording
- Sony NP-F550 2200mAh – around 50min of cont. recording
Keep in mind that I used some cheaper battery replacements, not the original ones from Sony – they would probably last a bit longer.
AA Battery Case
If you have some spare AA batteries you can use a Battery Case Pack which acts like NP-F970:
I tested it with fully charged Eneloop batteries and the Pocket lasted a little bit less than 3h.
Summary
My Anker solution still beats the NPF battery plate in terms of working time but taking into consideration the weight and form factor SmallRig battery plate is the way to go. It makes the camera usable for longer periods of time as well as keeps the form factor relatively small. Also, NPF batteries are pretty cheap and in general it’s a really low-budget solution.
