18 Jul 2018

Primed and Ready


Are your camera batteries air transport compliant?

If you’re a travelling camera operator, you’ll know all too well the rules and regulations of flying with Lithium batteries. But if you don’t, you’ve got a whole lot of reading to do…

If you have an afternoon to spare, you can get full details on the IATA website and here’s a 15 page document on UN/DOT 38.3 battery testing. However, if you don’t, here’s a diet version that should be enough to get you through security:

Any rechargeable Lithium batteries that are loose (camera batteries, etc) can be brought onto a plane, as carry-on only, providing that they are less than 100Wh capacity, with no more than 30% charge and are in good condition (some airlines will also allow you to carry 2 batteries up to 160Wh, but it is purely at their discretion). For many handheld camera owners, there probably isn’t much issue to take with this. But, if you’ve got a Cine or ENG camera, with V-Mount or Gold Mount battery requirements, you’re pretty much restricted to the lowest capacity batteries available (most being around 90Wh).

With most cine cameras drawing 60-80W on average (90W+ including accessories), those batteries are going to last you a little over an hour each and, depending on the job, all that battery swapping is going to increase downtime. It could even cost you an important, once in a lifetime shot!

So, how can you increase that run time and get around the 100Wh limit without being at the behest of the airline?

Core SWX can help with that…

With their Hypercore Prime range, you’ll get double the capacity and still be able to fly with them. How? Because these batteries split in half!

2-part system to provide a higher capacity, air travel friendly battery solution
Hypercore PRIME Gold Mount
Hypercore PRIME V-Mount

Essentially, it’s two 98Wh batteries that lock together to make one 190Wh battery.
Available in both V-Mount and Gold Mount, they will power even the more power hungry cameras (VariCam 35, Venice, Amira, etc…) for a considerably longer time. On top of this, they also have D-Tap and USB connections for you to power your accessories too. Pair these with their dual or quad mount rapid Digital Fleet Chargers and, not only will you be able to have them fully charged in under 6 hours, but you can also drain them for flight safety (30% charge) as well.

19 Dec 2023

Expanding the possibilities of your Mac with Sonnet

Find out more...


27 Nov 2023

The Power of NDI: BirdDog Converters and the Need for 10G AV Networks in Professional Video Production

Find out more...


24 Nov 2023

Datavideo Plug & Play Bundle Systems

Find out more...


27 Oct 2023

Revolutionising NDI Control and Monitoring: Introducing Two New Software Products from BirdDog

Find out more...


Back to all news

Back to Top

Cookies

We use cookies to help us offer you the best online experience. By continuing to use our website/or clicking Accept, you consent to the use of cookies in accordance with our privacy policy.