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Making a Compact Sony a7S II Rig with Hawk Woods Mini V-Lock Batteries

This is a guest review by director of photography and cinema5D reader Scott Leslie who tried to find a way to make his Sony a7S II rig more efficient and compact by adding a power-solution from Hawk-Woods. Let’s take a look. When I saw Olaf von Voss’s cinema5D news post of the Hawk-Woods Mini V-Lok batteries, I was excited by the possibility of shrinking down my Sony a7S II rig.  As many of you know, the Sony a7S II is an amazing low light camera that delivers really nice images, especially for its price range.  I’ve owned one for a couple of years now and I’ve shot a ton of commercial, industrials and I’m about to shoot my second feature on it.  But, in order to use the Sony a7S II as a proper cinema camera, you need to Frankenstein a large rig around it.  While the body of the a7S II is only 1 pound, once built up, my rig came in at 20 pounds!  So, I was interested in a solution that could both lighten up my rig and make it more compact. How to Shrink and Lighten Your Rig with the Hawk-Woods Mini V-Lok Batteries and V-Lok Mini Adaptor Plate Hawk-Woods sent me a couple of their mini M100HP batteries along with their V-Lok mini adaptor plate (VLM-DC6) that comes with 4 D-Tap outs as well as USB charger connection.  They also sent me cabling needed to connect everything: A D-Tap to Sony a7S II battery dummy...

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Published By: CineD - Monday, 18 June, 2018

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