CEDAR CITY, UTAH—As a long-time professional executive producer, director, DP, and cinematographer for international and nationally airing mobile television programs, documentaries, and commercials, my crews and I have used camera batteries and chargers from every manufacturer.
Gibby uses the IDX Endura Duo bricks for mobile production in all different kinds of environments. Our style of production can best be described as “mobile hybrid” EFP/Cine, owning and/or using digital cinema camera systems primarily from Red, AJA, Sony, and Panasonic. My core genres of production include adventure travel, wildlife, music, action sports, nature, cultures, and lifestyle.
This past year when I acquired a new AJA CION camera system, I knew I needed relatively small, but powerful bricks. They needed to be around 90 Wh, so we could meet the regulations for hand carrying lithium-ion batteries on the plane to production locales worldwide. We had used IDX batteries— both NP and bricks—for years with excellent field results, so for the CION I chose four of the IDX Endura Duo, 91Wh bricks, and an IDX VL-2S Plus charger. In recent years I had shot extensively in the field with the IDX Endura Duo bricks on a Sony F55, and they performed perfectly.
PERFORMING IN EXTREME CONDITIONS
For the past 10 months we’ve used the IDX Endura Duo bricks continually on my AJA CION camera system for production —in freezing snow conditions high in the mountains, scorching hot deserts, humid tropics, and every climate in between—and I’m happy to report the Endura Duo bricks performed perfectly in every environment.
We loved having the D-TAP 2 bus on the bricks to power accessories, and the charge check button and lights to quickly check how much juice was left in the brick. The small IDX VL-2S Plus charger also performed perfectly, charging the bricks quickly, with the bonus of being small enough for carry-on.
ON THE MOVE
For real mobile production, our cameras are accessorized only with what absolutely needs to be on the camera to get the shot sequences we need. Having the medium weight of the Endura Duo bricks on the back of the CION camera effectively counterbalanced our streamlined lens setups, really helping in handheld and shoulder-held shot sequences.
My business generally entails moderate budgets, small mobile crews, and travel to remote locations. It’s absolutely critical that our field equipment is dependable. Based on the past performance we’ve received from IDX batteries, I felt at the outset that the IDX Endura Duo bricks would be a solid choice for our work, and I’m happy to report that we received absolute dependability from the Endura Duo bricks in the most demanding production conditions. That dependability kept us from losing time in the field, and enabled us to concentrate on our work. The initial outlay for the bricks and charger was quite reasonable too, so that, combined with field dependability, really helped us stay on budget.
Steve Gibby is a contributor to more than 900 TV programs that aired internationally and nationally on 19 different broadcast and cable newtorks. He can be contacted atsteve@gr8v.com.
For more information, please contact IDX atwww.idxtek.comor call 310-328-2850.
