Help with external battery solution for H4D-50

[torger]

That's a real shame to hear about the Silvestri battery. I still have dreams where I buy an H4D-50 instead of the new CFV-50c back – as I'd like to use an auto-focus SLR body occasionally – for use with my Techno, but the external power problem you're having certainly gives me pause for thought.

I don't think it's too much of a worry. A bit boring that I don't have a working untethered solution right now as I hoped to shoot some under my Christmas holiday. There are batteries out there that work, had I listened to the recommendations in this thread I would have had it :-). I'm probably going to give Silvestri another chance though, and I'm using an excellent dealer (Linhof Studio) so it will be resolved in one way or another.

I've made some brief tests of the H4D-50 screen by the way and I think it's good enough for focus check. It's certainly not as good as it could have been (there's an odd subpixel layout so pixels are not square which make image sharpness harder to judge), but good enough to reassure that an f/11 shot is adequately focused. I'll know more when I've used it in the field.

[Dustbak]

Why messing around with these options instead of getting an Imagebank II for your H4D50? The H4D60 can use (finally) the clip-on solution (not the Imagebank II) but AFAIK the H4D50 can use the Imagebank II. Procentre has them for sale second hand for around 300GBP. A bit more expensive than the cheap alternatives but a much nicer solution. I used to own an Imagebank II and these things are quite small and handy (sold mine after I got the H4D60).

[Joe Towner]

Imagebank II's currently on eBay are ~$900 to $1,200 USD, with an old model for the Ixpress 16/22 at $350 and climbing.  Battery technology to put a consistent current out over firewire 800 isn't new, special, or expensive, so why jack everyone around.

-Joe

[tjv]

If you use the ImageBank II, can you also save images to the CF card? If not, I'd be terrified using one as they don't sell them new anymore, do they?

[Dustbak]

No, you cannot.

The Imagebank II has a 2.5" HDD in it that you can replace (with an SSD for instance) with some work if you would like. I have used both Imagebank I as well as Imagebank II, these things are much more reliable and sturdy than one might expect. Having said that, any electronic piece of equipment can fail however chances are the other pieces in this chain will probably go much sooner. Instead of screwing around with other solutions I would go the IB route without thinking twice (heck, I have worked with Ixpress and imagebanks for years).

[Dustbak]

Imagebank II's currently on eBay are ~$900 to $1,200 USD, with an old model for the Ixpress 16/22 at $350 and climbing.  Battery technology to put a consistent current out over firewire 800 isn't new, special, or expensive, so why jack everyone around.

-Joe

Procentre has (at least) one for 295GBP at this moment for sale. Which is about half of the price you mention.

[tjv]

Didn't know you could replace the HDD unit. If one wanted to replace it with a SSD, is that a straight forward swap?

[Enda Cavanagh]

Why messing around with these options instead of getting an Imagebank II for your H4D50? The H4D60 can use (finally) the clip-on solution (not the Imagebank II) but AFAIK the H4D50 can use the Imagebank II. Procentre has them for sale second hand for around 300GBP. A bit more expensive than the cheap alternatives but a much nicer solution. I used to own an Imagebank II and these things are quite small and handy (sold mine after I got the H4D60).

When I got my Hasselblad system an image bank was part of the system. The first one I got just didn't work from the Fargo. The second one I got was used for the first time on an architectural shoot for a client. I spent about 12 hours on a beautiful days shooting. ALL the images on the imagebank were corrupted and lost. The cost to recover the images meant I had to go to my client looking like an amateur and had to get into to shoot the entire project again. Never have and never will again use that piece of overpriced crap!

[torger]

A quick report;

I got a cheap ebay battery of the same type as the Silvestri:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12V-3800mah-5V-USB-5800mah-DC-Rechargeable-Li-ion-Battery-Pack-with-EU-charger-/171631199531

although not the exact same model the charger looks exactly the same etc, and the finish is about as bad, this is a cheap china product for sure. It's surely less messy to just get that Quantum Turbo SC quality product, but I like this smaller 185 gram package better in terms of size.

Anyway I did a test run inside and it keeps the back running for almost a full five hours. To compare against something my old Aptus 75 back runs for 2 hours with a new Leaf-branded 100 gram battery, so more than twice the time for less than twice the weight seems like ok. The Aptus probably draws a bit more power though due to its fan, but the Hassy surely draws power too, as it becomes rather warm when kept on for lengthy times.

I now think I know why the Silvestri battery I got was so bad, my ebay battery manual clearly states that the battery cannot be left unused for over a year as the capacity will then drop, and my Silvestri battery date sticker was June 2011 and it has probably not seen a charger since. No wonder it's down at 30-40 minutes capacity. My ebay battery date sticker is at November 2014, a bit more recent...

If getting this type of battery I would surely recommend that you test its capacity before getting out in the field. If you get a good copy it seems to be a perfectly okay product despite its rough edges, and this version has an USB port so you can load your mobile phone too, and a battery life indicator which is great as you don't get it on the back.

I'll report back when I've actually used it out in the field for a while. It's not going to well to get out in the field for me though, only have time in daylight during weekends, and this weekend other things is happening during the days... but in a month or two...! :-)

[torger]

First day out today. I used the ebay battery and the silvestri firewire cable and silvestri bag and hanger, so you hang the battery in the tripod hook.

Conclusion: I really don't like to have one extra ting to mess around with when setting up the camera, especially now in the winter when shooting is already more difficult with the low temperatures, snow shoes on my feet, harder to move the tripod around etc. The Silvestri cable is super-stiff and it gets worse in -13C (8F) like it was today. It easily pops out from the battery when handling it, which perhaps is good for safety but frustrating when you're in a hurry setting up things. I also have a neck pouch with the loupe, dof table, lcc card etc, and having another pouch with the battery and one more cable attachment just becomes a little bit too much.

Now when home again I've looked at making a custom solution where I attach velcro to the battery and to the base plate of the back, ie I attach the battery at the same position as it sits on my Leaf Aptus back. I made a quick test with tape and it seems to work out fine, despite the larger battery it will be no trouble mounting the back both in landscape and portrait position. I also need to make a custom very short cable, but that should not be rocket science. I've ordered Leaf's L-plug so maybe I'll use that as inbetweener and only make a short DC to DC cable which should be easier to find parts and solder.

This way I don't need to care about the battery just as before, up with the camera, up with the sliding back, attach the synch cable to the lens - shoot.

I'll post an image when I have something working.

(The ebay battery itself worked just fine, I wasn't out too long though so really no tough challenge for that.)

[tjv]

Thanks for the update, I look forward to hearing how you get on with your experiment.

[torger]

Here's my hack! I bought a Duotec band (a form of hook-and-loop, stiffer), Leaf firewire L-plug and then the ebay battery discussed above. The DC-to-DC cable came with the ebay battery, here I've been lazy and not shortened it just folded it up. I was expecting the Leaf plug to point down rather than up, but as Hassy has the port on the opposite side as Leaf (I think) it pointed up, but I guess it's sort of better otherwise it would have been in the way of the battery power button.

The Duotec band is very strong, so I had to use very narrow strips to not have it sit too tight. Not too professional looking mounting, but it works. The battery had a sticker at the point I put one of the strips, you could remove it and put the strip against the plastic directly but as the battery weighs only 180 grams and it was a well-fastened plastic label I let it be.

As seen in the attached picture you can mount the back in both horizontal and vertical orientation, and the sliding back fits down into my backpack as before.

Haven't used it in the field yet, but should work fine. You don't need to worry about the Duotec glue either, you will be able to remove the strips from the back without leaving marks.

So now you don't need to spend $20k extra to get a new H5D-50 with battery adapter, when you can get a second hand H4D-50 and, an ebay battery and a strip of Duotec instead! The battery holds power for almost five hours, so it seems fine.

The weather proofing is obviously not great, but I can live with that, and with hacks you could improve that aspect too of course.