Mark de Vries

After finding myself without power too much, too fast, I bought myself a few Anton Bauer HC's. But when placing two batteries my built-in diodes still took 0,7 volt off. That's a lot! I had a call with technician Robert Ploeg from Anton Bauer Netherlands. He advised me to use a accesoire called a hot swap from Anton Bauer instead of diodes. E.g. http://www.adorama.com/ABQRHSGM.html It is using some kind of electrical gimmick so it only 'eats' 0,1 V. This means that my rig will fly way longer with same batts! WOW. Better even: he send me one to dissasemble the electrical components so I could mod my steadicam. This seems to me like heaven on earth for the power consumption problem! Thanks guys from Anton Bauer Netherlands! There might be a downside with other brands: it only works with AB's because of the 'intelligence' inside. Will mod this week and will post details later. Regards, Mark de Vries

A few months ago I wrote a post about GlobalMediaPro batteries. It looked as if they were very bad, but: After buying Anton Bauer Dionics HC, I've found out my steadicam is leaking power. Thats why the Global Media Pro's were down so fast! So, in the end there was nothing wrong with the batteries from GMP. I'm very sorry (and embarressed) for blaming the batts. My colleague runs a few disks on one GMP battery and is really satisfied. Having bought AB's, my sled is now a little lighter, but my wallet too... Sorry guys at GMP, hope this makes it up a little. Regards, Mark, Netherlands.

UPDATE! After buying Anton Bauer batteries Dionics HC, I've found out my steadicam is leaking power. Thats why the Global Media Pro's were down so fast! So, in the end there was nothing wrong with the batteries from GMP. I'm very sorry for blaming the batts. My colleague runs a few disks on one GMP battery and is very satisfied. Having bought AB's, my sled is now a little lighter, but my wallet too... Sorry guys at GMP, hope this makes it up a little. Regards, Mark, Netherlands.

I have sold the batteries to a camera colleague. He is very satisfied with them. He uses them on a XD cam and has no complaints. So, do not use them the way I did, use them as intented. Mark.

I recently purchased 5 Globalmediapro GMP Li160A batteries. They where to replace my Phylion AN-2000A (=140A) I was hoping with the 160A, I had a little more juice. To my big surprise these batteries where not able to power my steadicam for more than 10 minutes! I use a steadicam master, wireless thomson with LDK200, transvideo monitor and bartech focus assist. One phylion powered this for around 25 minutes. My phylion batts kept on warning me (voltage warning in transvideo) upon the 11.7V point where the camera would stop. The GMP's suddenly die at 12.6 V !!! No warning whatsoever. They turned out to be completely unreliable. Also I tried them on an Sony XDHD, same thing. The batts only lasted 5 minutes. I was lucky to have some AB's from the rental companie as a backup. Now, I have 5 useless batts. I hoped to spend less, ended up paying way more! Hopefully this will help others. *********** GMP's response: You use the battery incorrectly. The maximum power draw for the battery is 79W. You draw 23W for camera plus 58W for adapter plus 10W for monitor plus lens (?W) You need at least 100W draw. Even then you come very close to the limit of on-camera batteries available on the market. So we recommend you use external power rather than on-camera battery. For example, Globalmediapro Li422 Lithium ion Battery System 422WH, or a similar Anton Bauer external power system. It has nothing to do with Globalmediapro battery quality. Please use our batteries according to their specifications. ************* Note that the much smaller Phylions had no problem!!! I don't see myself running around with a external power cable... So Anton Bauer Dionic HC, her I come. Regards, Mark de Vries Operator, Netherlands.