Whenever I make my rig-building videos,
I usually receive quite a few comments about my advice
to use V-Mount batteries, either complaining that they're
too big or asking for specific battery recommendations.
Well, today, we're gonna deal with both of
those comments with these small, smartly designed batteries
from Bebob and Fxlion that I highly recommend.
Let's get Undone. [offbeat music]
♪ Gerald Undone ♪ ♪ He's crazy ♪
What's happening, everybody? I'm Gerald Undone,
and negative, I am a meat popsicle.
So just over a month ago, I made that video on
the Aputure 300d II, and in that video, I proposed a new series
where we focus on smart design or clever features
of products that wouldn't typically warrant a full review,
with that 300d II video being the first in the series,
but I asked for your help in coming up with a name for it.
And after reviewing all of your suggestions-- for which there
are quite a few terrific ones, by the way, thank you for that--
I finally settled on my favourite one,
and it's from Doug Clark, and it's
"Design Done Right," or "DDR" for short.
So I'd like to welcome you all to episode number two
of Design Done Right with Bebob and Fxlion batteries.
And just like with the previous episode,
this video is not sponsored. What I like most about these
batteries is that they demonstrate innovation
in a category that's stagnated
and is otherwise usually pretty uninteresting.
And considering how many of you are building compact,
hybrid rigs, these offer a smaller,
lighter option with modern features that are more in
line with the cameras you'll be pairing them with.
So let's start with the Fxlion Nano One.
This is a 50 watt-hour lithium-ion V-Mount battery
that has five different connection ports.
It has your typical V-lock pin so that you can use it like
any other V-Mount battery, and it also comes with D-Tap
on the side underneath this sleek rubber cover,
but it also has USB-A, USB-B, and USB-C on the top.
The USB-A is only for output for charging or powering
a USB Type-A device, but the USB Micro B is only
for input, which you use for charging this battery.
But then the USB-C can go either direction.
You can either charge out to a USB-C device,
or you can charge this battery over USB-C,
in which it offers up to 20 volts at 2.2 amps.
The battery itself is only 300 grams and comes with
a nice display for showing the remaining battery life
as well as relevant voltages.
But what's genius about this battery is, thanks to its
input and output options, it now becomes automatically
better value and more than just a V-Mount battery
because it can be used as a USB power bank for travelling,
or even for an all-in-one solution for your rigs
with cameras that take USB charging, etc.,
without needing a whole bunch of adapters.
The contouring of the sides makes it very comfortable
in the hand, and it has a nice weight in the palm,
and the symmetrical design and blue accents made it one
of the most visually pleasing batteries I've worked with.
It's absolutely outstanding, and I only have one small issue
with it, and it has to do with the looseness of the top cover.
While I appreciate that all three USB ports have a cover,
it's a single cover, and it's a bit too flappy, in my opinion.
It doesn't take a lot for it to come loose,
and it requires pressing it down in a specific way
in order for it to stay down and cover the ports.
It's a pretty minor issue, and that's truly the only thing
I could think of that could be improved on this battery.
Now, this is the Nano One, which, like I said,
is 50 watt-hours. But if you need a larger capacity,
they do have the Nano Two, which is 100 watt-hours.
And then they also have a wonderful selection
of accessories, which we'll get into in a moment.
But if you prefer a simpler battery which
has more options for capacity or related
accessories, that's where Bebob comes in.
And shout-out to Tommy Callaway for recommending
Bebob batteries to me because they're great.
This is the Bebob V45MICRO, which is pretty much
the same size and weight as the Fxlion,
but it focuses less on USB and more on ergonomics.
It still has a battery life indicator,
but it's just a simple LED-type.
It only has USB-A, but the cover is this nice
sliding design that doesn't require any fussing with rubber.
But what really sets it apart is this brilliant D-Tap port.
You'll notice that it's three pins instead of two and has
a parallelogram-esque shape to it.
This allows you to plug into D-Tap in either direction,
so you don't have to waste time trying to discern which
direction the contours go on a black-on-black port in the dark.
And for better cable control, this allows you to decide
which way you want your leads to run out of the battery.
Cosmetically, maybe the Bebob batteries don't look quite
as nice as the Fxlion, and they're not as smooth
in the hand, but there's still a step up from the clunky
batteries from the past, and do achieve the clean lines
and elegant engineering you'd expect from something
made in Germany. The Bebob line extends further than Fxlion
when it comes to capacities, though, with a 98 watt-hour
and a 150 watt-hour version, which cleverly keep the same
base form factor while only extending outward from the lock.
This allows for a more versatile accessory
design that can be used throughout their range.
The three main accessories I want to focus on
from Bebob are these: when it comes to rig building,
usually I put a V-Mount plate on 15mm rods and then put
the battery on there, and you guys have complained that that's
quite a bit of bulk and weight to your camera rigs.
Well, check out this little guy. This is their 15mm rod adapter
with plate, and if you pair this with the 45 watt-hour battery...
This is a really compact solution in order to extend
the battery life. And it comes with a D-Tap port on each side
of the plate, as well as the one on the top of the battery,
so you can have plenty of options for configuring
your rig. But if size isn't a concern, then you can put
your typical full-size V-Mount plate to better use
by using their two-in-one adapter.
So this takes two V-Mount batteries that are sized
for those smaller Bebob batteries, and then on the back,
this is your typical V-Mount plate design.
Now, this will work on this smaller 15mm rod attachment
I just showed you, but I think it's better
design to be putting on the full plates, and that will give you
two batteries. Now, what you can do with these is you can
actually hot-swap them, so you can load two batteries in here.
The only limitation here is that you need to use batteries
that are thin enough in order to fit between them, which both
the Fxlion and the Bebob are, but some of your older, chunkier
batteries may not be able to fit on some of these accessories.
But other than that, everything is interchangeable, including
the new 3-pin D-Tap ports and the smaller V-Mount plates.
They will work on your older gear,
and your older cables will plug in here, and the new cables will
plug into your old ports, etc. It's completely backwards
compatible, you just have to make sure that your batteries
are thin enough for the accessories. But anyway, what's
great about this is that there's a button on the side
you can press, and it will show you the remaining battery
for both batteries on this side as well as this side, so you can
view it regardless of what side of the camera that you're on,
and it's hot-swappable. So, if one of the batteries--
say this battery was lower than that one--
you can take this one out, and it will still
keep running, the system won't die or anything like that.
You can go get a fresh battery and then place
that back in, and you've extended your run time,
and then you can swap out the next one.
You can keep this going pretty much indefinitely.
And their charger has similar functionality as well,
but you can get a single, a dual,
a quad, or even an eight-channel charger.
Now, I have the dual-channel charger here, which has a port
on this side and then an output port on the other side.
And it can take two batteries, just like I showed you.
So here's the 150-watt version. And it goes in on this side
and one on the other, you can check the battery
level for both. And what's great is that it comes with this
really awesome coiled cable. And I like this cable a lot;
I like the blue head and the coiled cord,
and this is a perfect test case for the advantage of Bebob's
reversible D-Tap design, letting you choose which direction
the right angle goes and how the heavy cable falls.
Now, Fxlion has a nice set of accessories as well,
and most of them are designed for different mounting options.
You've got this one here, for example, that's basically
a cheese plate with the V-lock on it so
that you can bolt that to the side of your rig.
And then you've also got this one, which has a clamp on it,
which you could use to attach the V-Mount to the light stand,
or something with a similar diameter.
And then you've even got this one, which has a belt clip
on it, which kind of fits into that category...
Remember I was talking about with the Blackmagic Pocket 4K,
that you could just run a cable and then still use it handheld,
'cause all it really needs is some extra juice?
Well, you could use this belt clip and then, I guess,
attach a V-Mount to your hip, and then run one of those
12-volt two-pin connectors into the Blackmagic and then use
it handheld like that, so that's pretty cool.
But my favourite accessory from Fxlion
is this one here, which converts a typical
Sony L/NP-F-style battery to accept V-Mount.
So you could take any device that you have
that requires a Sony L battery, clip this in,
and now, basically, it's a V-Mount device.
I think this is really clever, and the construction
is quite solid. So that's pretty much it.
I'm excited by these products and thought
that they deserve their own video because these companies
are doing important work. They're taking an otherwise
boring and clunky range of products and making
them cleaner, more useful, and more practical to the hybrid
shooter, and in my opinion, that's Design Done Right.
See-- see what I did there? I...
made the series name, the... closing catchphrase.
Oh! And I almost forgot to mention my favourite
accessories of all. The Bebob batteries inexplicably
came with these gummy, chewy fruit candies and one of these
miniature VW buses, which can do this:
[intense music]
♪
But that's gonna be it for me.
I hope you found this video helpful,
or at least entertaining. And if you did,
make sure you leave it the old thumbs up and consider
subscribing if you haven't already. But if you did not find
this video helpful or entertaining,
feel free to hit the "dislike" button twice.
Alright... I'm done.
♪