Vmount batteries have been around since Before I could say my first word and Really to this day they are used Extensively by all sorts of people Building out Rigs and really Professionally if you're working at a New station if you're doing any sort of Production work for concerts and indeed If you look on Amazon right now you can Scroll through listings of different Vmount batteries really hundreds of Options that range from $100 to over $200 if you're looking for a vmount Battery that has a crazy amount of Connections and features though this is Probably one of the best ones out there On the market and in this video I'm Going to be checking it out this is the Small rig VB 99 Pro and let's get into It so this VB 99 Pro is simply a battery But there is so much packed into this Battery that I have to give you a tour Around it now compared to a regular Vmount battery this one is about 70% of The size and it's lighter the front Features this glossy scratch resistant Coding that displays a small rig logo 99 Which indicates 99 W hours and a colored TFT display this display is awesome Because it will show you battery level With nothing plugged into the battery And when you do have a bunch of stuff Plugged in it will even show you the Discharge currents and which ports are
Being used and how many hours it can go Before it runs out there is a single Button on the side that activates this Color screen but when it's in use it's Always on around the bottom there are Normal vmount connect if you are using It the traditional way and on the top Under a rubber flap there are five ports A DC 12vt out a dc8 volt out a usba a And two USBC ports one of which supports Quick charging of the battery and then On the other side there is another flap That reveals the daap so in theory you Could plug in seven devices and power Them all the build of this battery is Excellent the frame and most of the Exterior is aluminum and fireproof Polycarbonate now I use a bunch of Batteries for this a-roll shot in my Office and I was wondering could I power Everything off of one single Battery Source and I guess we should just find That out so all right I'm going to go Handheld here in my office now this is My normal setup I have a clip here for An overhead camera um ninja 5 my camera And key light and then audio recorder With a microphone and so these are the Batteries that I'm replacing this is the FZ for the camera nice big old battery This is uh for the atos ninja and then Those batteries and I'm also replacing The wall power for this light now in Order to do this with this small rig I
Do need a couple of accessories and These are just cables so I bought these On Amazon they were expensive Unfortunately they're like $40 a piece And then I have a simple USB C to usba A and actually I'm taking this a step Further I bought this little uh arm that Attaches it's just a vmount bracket that Can attach to my post this is my gear Tree post so I can mount my battery here On the post and then rout all the wires That Way all right so all of that's plugged In now what's left is to power on the Light now I'm going to use the DTaP for That here it is it's a DTaP on one end And then my small rig light connector on The Other all right so here is the setup and You can see there's a lot of stuff going In here so again I have my camera my Adamos ninja those two cables I guess They have some cool green LEDs this Cable is going to power my audio Recorder the zoom F3 and then the daap Is going to the light now you can see The screen here it's showing 88% battery Right now there's really no draw on it But as soon as I turn everything on We'll see if this little thing can power Everything so let's start with something Small here is my zoom recorder power is On let's see the Camera it's on I can hear it yep then
Atos ninja 5 it's on okay so we got three devices Working And I think the one that's going to draw The most power is probably this light But let's flip that On and that is powering on and this is Incredible so now I have my entire YouTube Studio set up camera monitor Recorder audio and key light including The microphone all being powered off of A single vmount battery so it's showing Me all of the draw right now and based On this usage we have another 2 hours And 57 minutes of battery if all of this Is running 3 hours plus worth of battery On a full charge powering four devices All at once this VB 99 supports 100 W Fast charge and discharge which means That you can charge it for 10 minutes And turn around and run a camera such as My Sony a7c for almost 2 and 1/2 hours And a full charge of this thing takes Only 2 and 1/2 hours at 100 WS in 30 Minutes it can typically charge a MacBook to over 50% inside it features High energy density cells 3,500 milliamp Hours in each cell everything is managed With an intelligent battery control System and there are eight yes eight Built-in protections such as overd Discharge over current and short circuit Protection so yes this is a very techr Battery but by far the thing that
Separates it from the rest is all of the Connectivity that you get with it and Also that color display it's really hard To go back to a regular vmount battery One that has a single button with let's Say four or five LED indicator lights That give you an approximate value of Where the level is at here you push one Button on the side and it shows you this Batter is at 95% charge and because of The connectivity this battery can serve The dual purpose of also just being a Very capable power bank you can pack This easily with you and use it to Recharge the devices that you use every Day and quite quickly it can also Recharge a camera battery via USBC if You run low so it makes for a great Backup now these sorts of batteries as I Mentioned in the beginning of this video Typically run from about $100 to $200 us This small rig is a bit more at $279 it's currently on pre-order and as Of the date of this video small rig's Website has over 400 pre-orders done and Although you could replicate something Like this by buying a separate vmount Plate for let's say $118 and attaching a Regular vmount battery to it the result Would be a bulkier heavier less durable Setup with no screen and it won't have Nearly the smart charge and discharge Features and it's also not going to look So great so in my mind at least there is
Some value here at $279 us if you don't need one that's so Large there's also more compact versions That are less expensive and there's also Larger ones that are more expensive than This if you want all of that but when You consider all of the things that this Battery can do be a backup for you a Power bank power all your devices have All the connections and if you want that Ease of use and really the build and the Design and the color Screen I mean I think the price is Justifiable but let me know what your Thoughts are down in the comments Section do you guys use vmount batteries Would you buy something like this over a Regular V Mount I'm curious if anyone Uses these on a regular basis with a Camera rig thank you guys so much for Watching this video and all of your Likes and your comments and your support Over the years stay tuned for more have A nice day bye-bye
