Benjamin Carter

When I packed for my first documentary shoot in the Arizona desert, I brought four V-mount batteries, two inverters, and a gas generator I had to bribe my sound mixer to carry. Halfway through day two, the generator drowned out every interview and the V-mounts died before golden hour. I drove back to Phoenix that … Read more

If you have ever wrapped a 3-hour interview, a 6-hour live stream, or a full day of time-lapse shooting only to watch your camera die mid-take, you already know why a dummy battery belongs in every studio kit. A dummy battery is a battery-shaped adapter that fits into your camera’s battery compartment and routes continuous … Read more

I have lost count of the times a single dead battery killed a take. On a recent short film in a remote cabin, my Sony FX3 died mid-monologue because the only spare NP-FZ100 had been charging off a sketchy 5V/1A wall brick that could barely push half a charge in two hours. I learned that … Read more

I learned this the hard way on a short film set two years ago. We had beautiful LED strip lights rigged across the set, but the power supply kept overheating and causing flicker right before the climax scene. The lights looked great in the camera test, then went dim every 12 minutes like clockwork. The … Read more

I still remember the first time I ran out of battery halfway through a sunset interview in Joshua Tree. My Aputure 120D had died, my Atomos recorder was at 12 percent, and the only outlet was a 20-minute hike back at the trailhead. That afternoon cost me the shot, and it taught me a hard … Read more

I’ve been shooting with Nikon cameras for over a decade, and nothing kills a session faster than a dead battery at the wrong moment. After testing dozens of options, I can tell you the best camera batteries for Nikon cameras are not always the most expensive ones. Our team spent the last 90 days cycling … Read more

Running a cinema camera through a full shooting day can drain internal batteries in under 90 minutes. That is the exact problem the best battery plates for cinema cameras solve. Over the past year, our team mounted, swapped, and stress-tested more than two dozen V-Mount, Gold Mount, and B-Mount plates across RED Komodo, Blackmagic Pocket … Read more

If you have ever lost a stream at the worst possible moment because a battery died or a power outlet was nowhere to be found, you already know why portable power for streaming setups matters. I have been there. I had a sponsor read at a 6-hour gaming marathon end mid-sentence because my power bank … Read more

When I started shooting short films on a Blackmagic Pocket 6K, I burned through three internal batteries on a single interview day. The frustration pushed me into the world of high-capacity V-mount batteries, and I have not looked back since. A solid V-mount setup turns a frantic on-set experience into something calm: one battery, one … Read more

Last wedding season, I watched a colleague swap three camera batteries in a single reception because he trusted the wrong power source. That was the day I started testing power banks seriously. The best USB-C power banks for cameras in deliver enough wattage to keep a mirrorless body recording for hours, and they fit in … Read more