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BMD Cinema Camera Battery Exploded


Tim Tyler

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L-Ion batteries occasionally catch fire or explode. It happens, but very rarely. It can happen in laptop computers or any device, or any battery sitting in an external charger, or just sitting on a shelf. Do you think airlines have restrictions on L-Ion batteries for no reason? Failures can happen, and it has nothing to do with the battery being built-into a device.

 

There are likely thousands of Blackmagic Design cameras out in customers' hands. This one incident likely doesn't say anything about BMD camera quality. It's an isolated incident. If it weren't, the online forums would be full of stories of exploding/burning BMD cameras. This "report" is the only one.

 

This report has not been verified. We haven't heard from BMD about what happened here. And, since it may just be a "routine" (but rare) L-Ion battery failure, we may never hear from BMD about this incident.

 

IMHO, the built-in uninterruptible power supply/battery in BMD products is a wonderful feature. It's super useful in actual practice: You can connect & disconnect the camera from external power (battery or AC) at any point while the camera is in operation without it skipping a beat -- even while recording. I believe there are high-end cinema cameras that offer a similar feature as an expensive, extra-cost option. In the short time I've owned a BMPC-4K I've benefited from having this great feature many times.

 

Quite a few people who actually own BMD cameras are able to create great-looking video with them and are very happy with the cameras, myself included.

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Personally I would prefer that it were possible to quickly remove batteries, for this and other reasons.

 

In the main, though, Peter is right - this is rare, even if you're talking about very cheap batteries where the QC may be dubious. Which, in a camera at that price, frankly, you are, even if the Blackmagic camera makes quite nice pictures. Which it does.

 

I guess we should stop complaining about the fact that upscale camera batteries are so swingeingly expensive.

 

P

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Batteries being built-into a device or not doesn't appear to have any bearing on their safety.

 

True, if the battery weren't inside the camera, then the camera wouldn't be destroyed when a battery fails. But given how rare battery failures are, it hardly seems worth it, given the very real benefits of having the battery built-in.

 

In addition to the obvious benefit of having a built-in uninterruptible power supply/battery in the camera, the current design can also be said to help reduce the camera's cost, size and weight.

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It's a personal preference thing. Some people strongly dislike non-removeable batteries, others strongly like them. I'm one of the latter.

 

In addition to using (and quite enjoying) a MacBook Pro and its non-removeable battery daily for 4 years, and a iPod Touch for 2 years, and recently an iPad, I now use a Hyperdeck Shuttle and a BMPC-4K camera. All with non-removeable batteries, all wonderful, reliable devices.

 

I also use expensive, external pro batteries with video cameras, including with my BMPC-4K. Specifically my Anton-Bauer batteries were expensive when I bought them >8 years ago, and I've had them re-celled relatively inexpensively and they continue to work great.

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I was actually looking at things from Blackmagics perspective. Having a non removable internal battery that ships with the camera means having a certain amount of responsibility for it. If you have removable batteries and a battery goes bad for whatever reason, then you had a bad battery not a bad camera.

 

Freya

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IMHO, the built-in uninterruptible power supply/battery in BMD products is a wonderful feature. It's super useful in actual practice: You can connect & disconnect the camera from external power (battery or AC) at any point while the camera is in operation without it skipping a beat -- even while recording. I believe there are high-end cinema cameras that offer a similar feature as an expensive, extra-cost option. In the short time I've owned a BMPC-4K I've benefited from having this great feature many times.

 

To be fair I can do all that on my laptop and that has removable batteries.

 

Freya

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A "removable battery" as a product feature either increases a product's cost or reduces its profitability. Assuming one factors-in the price of the device plus its removable battery. This is true even if implemented inexpensively.

 

There's no free lunch (or free removable battery feature).

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I was actually looking at things from Blackmagics perspective. Having a non removable internal battery that ships with the camera means having a certain amount of responsibility for it. If you have removable batteries and a battery goes bad for whatever reason, then you had a bad battery not a bad camera.

 

Same responsibility as with any other part, in any camera, from any manufacturer.

 

Exploding batteries are extremely rare events. The camera owner should contact the camera manufacturer directly and have them evaluate it, and repair/replace the camera under warranty if it's determined the owner didn't cause the failure due to misuse. End of story. Pretty simple, basic stuff.

 

Nothing to see here, move along ...

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Same responsibility as with any other part, in any camera, from any manufacturer.

 

Exactly. By not having the battery be a part of the camera, then you are not responsible for that part.

Like on the pocket cinema camera.

 

It could still explode but then they won't be pointing the finger at blackmagic.

 

Freya

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  • 4 weeks later...
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Nothing to see here, move along ...

 

Peter, that statement is disrespectful to BMs customers, potential customers, and Tim Tyler who runs this site and opened this thread. If Tim thought there was "nothing to see here" he wouldn't have posted it.

 

You have been a cool guy around here and have had interesting things to say. You shouldn't damage your rep to defend this situation, which was clearly Bm's fault.

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I'd imagine the chain of responsibly is the same as with laptops. The camera should be sent to BM for inspection by them and the battery manufacturer, in the worst case scenario there could be a recall of units to have batteries replaced.

 

That would be a "worse case scenario" for the camera or battery manufacturer if they are found at fault. Another "worse case scenario" is that the camera owner (the person who posted the video on YouTube) is sued for fraud/libel by the cam or battery maker.

 

We don't know yet who is responsible for this isolated "incident", or what the resolution will be.

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Damnit. Now as I know potentially it might explode I'll be more careful with this camera.

Can happen on ANY camera using LiON batteries. Also can happen to this macbook pro on my lap (and happens more often with laptops than anything else).

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That would be a "worse case scenario" for the camera or battery manufacturer if they are found at fault. Another "worse case scenario" is that the camera owner (the person who posted the video on YouTube) is sued for fraud/libel by the cam or battery maker.

 

We don't know yet who is responsible for this isolated "incident", or what the resolution will be.

 

LiON batteries do occasionally have incidents, when they occur they could be inspected to ensure that there is no manufacturing flaw in a particular batch. This happens with well known high end manufacturers and I'm assuming that BM are across this to avoid possible repeats. Battery fires are not unusual on YouTube, this one seems less spectacular than some I've seen.

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Can happen on ANY camera using LiON batteries. Also can happen to this macbook pro on my lap (and happens more often with laptops than anything else).

Is it possible to remove internal battery of the camera? Why simply not use external batteries like REDs and others do.

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