Seven NPF battery adapter plates Compared (overview) 

I needed to see this review. Thank you, Spark!

Excellent overview! Thanks for making this, really helped me decide what to get

Thanks for the video. There is another Smallrig model that I have been using for 2 years. Smallrig 3168, I use it for both Black Magic 6K pro and Zoom f8n pro recoder. No problems. It has power button and charge indicator. Greetings from spain

I saw your review of NP-F battery plates, as I've been searching for a new plate, but I have some rather specific options. Note, I don't do video, but I'm more into powering cameras because I have them encased in art installations (specifically a steampunk camera) and it can take 10-15 minutes to take apart the camera to change the battery. I use external powering in several contexts, depending on the camera and usage: 1: The standard usage is 7.2-8.4 volts output feed into a dummy battery. There the camera battery monitor in the camera, because the NP-F are 2 cell batteries like the camera batteries. But I don't like dummy batteries as much because they break the weather sealing (I shoot OM and Olympus cameras, with splash resistant bodis and lenses), and are awkward to use, particularly on OM/Olympus bodies that don't have a door on the battery door to allow feeding out the cable. 2: One of my cameras (Olympus E-m1 mark II) has a battery grip that has an external power port. When Olympus released the E-m1 mark II, the new grip now takes a more or less standard 5.5mm x 2.5mm port, and it is easy to find an adapter from the more common 5.5mm x 2.1mm port. In addition, I can run the camera with both batteries installed plus the cable from the NP-F plate, so if the cord gets yanked out from the external power supply, the camera is still powered. 3: One of my cameras (OM-1 mark I) does not have an external power port like the E-m1 mark II + grip had, but it can be powered by USB C-PD. When I have a USB C-PD connection, the OM-1 will be powered by the connection, and re-charge the batteries in the background. So in general, if the cable gets yanked out, it can still work (depending on how charged the 1-2 batteries in the camera/grip are). However, we get down to details of USB C-PD. According to the documentation, the OM-1 requires a USB C-PD connection that provides 9 volts and 3 amps (i.e. 27 watts). Most USB C-PD power sources out there (i.e. wall warts, power banks, and some of the NP-F plates that produce USB C-PD) will limit their 9 volt output to 2 amps. Now, it turns out the documentation lies (yeah, horrors), and the camera will actually run fine on 2 amps. However previous Olympus cameras that supported USB C-PD (E-m1 mark III and E-m1x) were strict in that they required the USB C-PD power source to provide at least 3 amps. I don't have those cameras, but the BCX-1 battery charger for the OM-1 does require 9 volts and 3 amps to do fast charging. So if I wanted to toss a depleted BLX-1 battery into my camera bag with the BCX-1 charger and either the NP-F plate or power bank, it most likely will not do fast charging. Finding an appropriate NP-F replacement charger that provides both 7.2-8.4 volts via 5.5mm x 2.1mm plug and USB C-PD that cn provide 9 volts and 3 amps is challenging. I have the Smallrig 'Advanced' NP-F plate that can provide USB C-PD support, but it limits the output to 2 amps. Smallrig has revised the Advanced plate, and the new plate claims to produce 36 watts (i.e. in theory 9 volts and 4 amps providing you have the right USB cable with an e-mark chip, but I suspect it more likely is 9 volts/3 amps, and maybe 18 volts/2 amps. It would be nice if smallrig provided the precise voltage/amp combinations that it provides. Of course if you go buying it from the store, the store may still have the older plate that is limited to 20 watt output. In looking around, I see a FOMITO NP-F plate that has 2 separate 7.2-8.4 volt 5.5mm x 2.1mm power ports, a 12 volt port, and a 30 watt USB C-PD output port. Like smallrig, they don't bother listing the precise volt/amp combinations. One thing I like is that it has 2 ports for 7.2-8.4 volts. When I'm using a dummy battery, I can use the 2nd port to attach a digital monitor that I can turn on to see what the battery level is. To me, seeing that the battery having 8% remaining capacity is a lot better than having 4 LEDs that may tell you the power remaining is under 25%. On my current Smallrig plate, I would need to use a Y cable to power both the dummy battery and meter. I actually found your review when I was looking for more reviews of the FOMITO plate. There is a Toprig plate that also claims to produce USB C-PD, but one of the comments says that it doesn't provide the desired voltage. You mentioned about using a power bank with USB C-PD to power your main camera. I wasn't sure if the camera takes USB C-PD input, or if you are feeding a dummy battery with a 9 volt trigger. If you are using the 9 volt trigger, I've been wondering whether some camera in the world might get damaged. The 2 cell camera batteries deliver 8.4 volts when the battery is freshly charged, and 9 volts is more than 8.4 volts. In the cameras I've tried, it seems to work, but maybe I've been living on borrowed time, and soon the magic smoke may be released. I've moved to the NP-F plates, because the 7.2-8.4 volt port is straight from the NP-F battery, and it isn't more than the camera expects. A nice extra is the camera battery meter works fine, and it measures the NP-F capacity. I've been playing around with writing programs to measure the exact volt/amp combinations on USB C-PD power devices. Without doing the programming, you can use a FNIRSI FNB58 to probe the capabilities of USB C-PD. You hook it up, and DON'T connect a device. There is a menu item to allow you to set the USB C-PD trigger voltage/amps. You can go through the voltages, and once you select the voltage, you can then select the AMPs and the values it provides are the amps the USB C-PD power source provides. It is kind of awkward (which is why I wanted to have something that just plugs in and it tells me the capabilities). I want to combine it with stuff to monitor voltage/amp/watts to probe what in my cameras uses the juice (I have an earlier version of that, but I want to combine it with the USB C-PD status). Talking about battery meters, I really, really wish the NP-F plates had a digital display instead of 4 LEDs. On ebay, I got a "Mini Round Voltage Power Meter Colour 2-wires LED Display Voltmeter" and I selected the 2S version. Using a 5.5mm x 2.1mm power jack with a terminal block (or soldering the wires), I now have a meter that tells me the battery percentage. Now, OM-1 will also now tell me the power in digital, but a lot of the older cameras go back to 3-4 blocks. One minor note in your review, please say the name (or least spell it) when you pick up the NP-F plates. The link for the Amazon page was fast enough that I had to reset the video to stop it at the exact point I could read the brand.

any issues with ground loop? seems ppl on the internet freak out when ppl use one battery for monitor and camera

nice video, did you loose your footage or missed it out cause lack of power?

There are many things lacking on this review, I would say this is more like an overview !

Any tests for low discharge protection? Smallrig broke 2 npf batteries of mine due to lack of it.

One idea for a potential future video would be NPF battery chargers. Your style of video would be excellent, and there's very little content already out. Something to consider, and I know I would watch it! _Either way thanks again, I picked up the plate you recommended and its been fantastic!

Hi! I purchased the ulanzi npf battery plate for my lumix S5 II I also got a dtap to blk22 dummy battery . I have a problem, the camera only turns on if I detach either the npf970 battery or the dtap connector and attach it again , then i have 5-10 seconds to turn on the camera. So it only works if the power is recently plugged in. This concerns me with the npf or dtap pins wearing and getting loose. Do you maybe have any suggestions how i could use it without detaching anything ? Thank you in advance !

Great comparison, but I am still in 2 minds about going this route. My monitor has 2 MP-F battery slots, I use the slim ones that seemingly last forever, makes it clean with just a single Micro HDMI cable to the camera. For the camera (ZV-E1) the small rig battery has a USB-C input right on the battery, just opening the battery door and plugging in a standard USB-C battery bank also powers it pretty much indefinitely (or you can connect USB-C to the camera, but this can cause thermal issues). Once the battery bank is depleted, it still has 95 minutes or so on the built in battery, it's a shame you lose that backup with a dummy battery.

Ulanzi EA702403 npf plate is what I use

A bolt, not a screw.Simple English: Knee/were, NOT knew/were

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