Tag: Atomos

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How to charge multiple batteries at once.

It makes no sense to have a super light laptop and/or camera system and having to carry a heavy bag full of chargers, adapters, and cords.

Also, I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who has forgotten expensive chargers at hotels (Buenos AIres, Casablanca and Houston) and airports (Porto and Barcelona to name a few), or who has lost a cable that could NOT be replaced (try finding USB-C cables in Myanmar).

And what about spending 14 hours shooting on location, getting late at night to your hotel to dump the day’s footage, and not being able to go to bed because you have to make sure all the batteries are fully charged for the following day? It simply sucks.

So my goal was to find a simple way to charge multiple batteries at once, minimize the amount of chargers and cables, and make everything fit into the most compact package. Ah, and also super important, be able to use this setup anywhere in the world.

Let me introduce you to “the Octopus” a gadget I’ve been using (and fine-tuning) for quite a while. Right now I can charge seventeen (17) batteries and/or devices, with a system that weights only 2.12 pounds (or 0.96 kilos). And the best part, I only need ONE international adapter.

Let’s see what I have on my current setup:

Here’s what you’ll need to build a similar “Octopus”:

One last thing. I don’t know why, but sometimes a “brand name” battery costs more than two third-party batteries, sometimes even including the charger! I’ve using Wasabi batteries and Watson batteries for a long time and never noticed a performance difference against the “original” brand. I don’t know about other brands, but Wasabi and Watson work fine.

Check this out, ONE Sony NP-F970 costs $125.99. You can get the same battery under the “Watson” brand for almost half the price, $69.99. But for only $49.99 you can get TWO “Wasabi” batteries, with an adapter, plus a car charger AND a European plug. Wow!

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1 Minute Tutorials – How to wirelessly record audio to an external monitor/recorder.

In this 1 Minute Tutorial you will learn how to quickly record audio from a wireless system like Rode’s RODELink Filmmaker Kit to an external monitor/recorder like the Atomos Ninja Inferno.

As an example I’ll be using a Panasonic Lumix GH5, but the steps apply to virtually any camera, wireless system, monitor.

Key Steps

1. Make sure the Transmitter and Receiver have been paired.
Just in case, here are the instructions to do just that.

2. Connect the camera to the external monitor/recorder via HDMI cable.

3. Connect the RECEIVER (RX) via a “3.5mm male to 3.5mm male” cable to the camera. This cable should be included with your RODELink Filmmaker Kit.

4. CRITICAL STEP: In The Atomos Ninja Inferno turn the volume ON and enable the RECORD buttons on the LEFT. Then make sure to turn OFF the volume and the record buttons on the RIGHT.

5. CRITICAL STEP: Under “Audio Options/Audio Delay” select ZERO (0) frames. This is the case when working with the Panasonic Lumix GH5, but you might need to adjust the Audio Delay settings for other cameras.

And that’s that.

But, why to get into all this to begin with? Because now we can have very long recording times AND embed high-quality audio to our high-quality footage. There’s no need to transcode nor sync anything in post saving lots of time. That’s why.