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Alternative Brands, thoughts?


Brett Manyluk

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So... the time is coming for me once again to replace a round of batteries. I've always used Anton Bauers and have enjoyed their performance. Buuuutttttt... It's worth opening a dialogue up to see what else is on the market, who's using it and what they think. In a world of big capacity needs and falling budgets, it's worth having a look around at the other options. I fully recognize that IDX and Pag build great battery systems as well and are comparable in price/performance (if not superior in some cases), but I'm mostly interested in hearing about the other brands. You know, the Swits, and Varizooms, and Switronix, and generic rebrand #42 etc, etc, etc. Who's using them, how have they been, how are the chargers, charging time, flakiness factor, capacity, price, performance, lifespan, did it burn your house down, are you on a no-fly list for too many made in china products in your possession, etc, etc, etc...

 

Thoughts?

 

Again, this thread already recognizes that Pag, Anton Bauer, and IDX/Tiffen are the cream of crop. Moving on to the wallmart section of B&H...

 

Thanks!

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Brett,

I switched over to the China Made Lithium batteries from Video Tech supply, http://www.videotechsupply.com/

I fly the A/B Mount 190s and I some times double it up with a 190 and a 90, still less weight than an A/B 140 and half the price with double the run time.

 

Bad news is you have to use their charger, the dual travel charger is pretty cool but the quad charger is kinda cheaply made.

 

Overall very happy

 

PS: if you end up ordering from them ask for Mike Kirchner and tell him I recommended you, it never hurts to do a little PR once in awhile, he was very cool and on top of it, when I needed something.

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I used the chinese crap for a few years and the are ok. Only when you use a power hungry camera then you are gonne see the difference with the ab batterys and the chinese stuff. The dont hold it as long as a ab battery das. Also, the seems to get worser after a few high amp sessions. So, it might be cheaper at the beginning, but i hope the ab will be cheaper on the long run. I changed over to the AB HC's and it feels more solid in preformance.

 

J

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I used the chinese crap for a few years and the are ok. Only when you use a power hungry camera then you are gonne see the difference with the ab batterys and the chinese stuff. The dont hold it as long as a ab battery das. Also, the seems to get worser after a few high amp sessions. So, it might be cheaper at the beginning, but i hope the ab will be cheaper on the long run. I changed over to the AB HC's and it feels more solid in preformance.

 

J

I owned four AB Dionic 90 HC batteries, but after changing to the VLock system we have used china batteries. Some were crap, but the ones we use now are great.

We use 190's and 160's from Global Media Pro.

They have never failed me, and they have been beaten and used alot.

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So... the time is coming for me once again to replace a round of batteries. I've always used Anton Bauers and have enjoyed their performance. Buuuutttttt... It's worth opening a dialogue up to see what else is on the market, who's using it and what they think. In a world of big capacity needs and falling budgets, it's worth having a look around at the other options. I fully recognize that IDX and Pag build great battery systems as well and are comparable in price/performance (if not superior in some cases), but I'm mostly interested in hearing about the other brands. You know, the Swits, and Varizooms, and Switronix, and generic rebrand #42 etc, etc, etc. Who's using them, how have they been, how are the chargers, charging time, flakiness factor, capacity, price, performance, lifespan, did it burn your house down, are you on a no-fly list for too many made in china products in your possession, etc, etc, etc...

 

Thoughts?

 

Again, this thread already recognizes that Pag, Anton Bauer, and IDX/Tiffen are the cream of crop. Moving on to the wallmart section of B&H...

 

Thanks!

 

I quit buying new batts and began getting them recelled. I am deep into AB batts/chargers so I'm very happy with recells by third party at half price of new. They come back stronger and lighter.

 

John A

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So... the time is coming for me once again to replace a round of batteries. I've always used Anton Bauers and have enjoyed their performance. Buuuutttttt... It's worth opening a dialogue up to see what else is on the market, who's using it and what they think. In a world of big capacity needs and falling budgets, it's worth having a look around at the other options. I fully recognize that IDX and Pag build great battery systems as well and are comparable in price/performance (if not superior in some cases), but I'm mostly interested in hearing about the other brands. You know, the Swits, and Varizooms, and Switronix, and generic rebrand #42 etc, etc, etc. Who's using them, how have they been, how are the chargers, charging time, flakiness factor, capacity, price, performance, lifespan, did it burn your house down, are you on a no-fly list for too many made in china products in your possession, etc, etc, etc...

 

Thoughts?

 

Again, this thread already recognizes that Pag, Anton Bauer, and IDX/Tiffen are the cream of crop. Moving on to the wallmart section of B&H...

 

Thanks!

 

I quit buying new batts and began getting them recelled. I am deep into AB batts/chargers so I'm very happy with recells by third party at half price of new. They come back stronger and lighter.

 

John A

 

 

What third party does the recelling on the ABs?

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Hi Tom,

 

There is a fellow who posts up in the "Steadicam-Marketplace" forum here. He has an eBay storefront as well. A quick peruse through "Marketplace" and you will find it. He posted, I believe, about a month ago.

 

I have spent some time poking around locally and have found one that will do it. There are several that come up in Google as well. If they recell NiCads, they should be able to recell them. Things like TrimPacs and Hytrons are candidates for recelling.

 

There appear to be quite a few veteran ops that recell their Hytrons and such. Hopefully they will chime in with some of their experiences particularly with the problems some of the recellers may have with some of A/B proprietary "Logic Series" stuff they have in the batts.

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Hi Tom,

 

There is a fellow who posts up in the "Steadicam-Marketplace" forum here. He has an eBay storefront as well. A quick peruse through "Marketplace" and you will find it. He posted, I believe, about a month ago.

 

I have spent some time poking around locally and have found one that will do it. There are several that come up in Google as well. If they recell NiCads, they should be able to recell them. Things like TrimPacs and Hytrons are candidates for recelling.

 

There appear to be quite a few veteran ops that recell their Hytrons and such. Hopefully they will chime in with some of their experiences particularly with the problems some of the recellers may have with some of A/B proprietary "Logic Series" stuff they have in the batts.

 

Thanks Andrew. Do you know if Dionic 90s can be recelled?

Edited by Tom Daigon
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Do you know if Dionic 90s can be recelled?

 

I can't definitively answer that. Seen a lot of conflicting info on that question. However, things do point towards "no".

 

 

EDIT:

 

The fellow who does recelling, the one who posted up recently, his name is John Ritter.

Edited by Andrew Stone
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Found a place that has the required "bench gear" to recell Dionics. You can find it here.

Thanks Andrew. I did some extensive research at Resellerratings.com and it appears that this company has a lot of people who are dissatisfied with their service. It seems that buying a new battery in the long run is a safer bet.

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