How light can we make the Ninja V?

[FHDcrew]

Any ideas on making the ninja v as utterly light as possible?  Lightest I can achieve is using the smaller NPF-550 batteries, along with the Andycine lunchbox, a DIY half-SSD for the ninja v. Are there any even smaller lighter batteries?  I don’t care if the battery life is not very good. Basically, any ideas as to how we can achieve maximum lightness with this setup?  While maintaining record capability?

[kye]

Helium balloons? 

[eatstoomuchjam]

I haven't weighed it, but I suspect that my 3d printed SSD holder with half of a Sandisk Ultra 3D 500GB in it weighs a little bit less than the Andycine thing, given that the Andycine one is metal and has multiple screws to hold everything in place.  But the Andycine is already only 55g - so the weight savings would be extremely minimal (if they even exist)... and given that mine relies on holes for ventilation, I suspect that the Andycine will be more robust in light rain, etc.  Anyway, if every single milligram counts, you could use mine as a start and modify it to be even smaller and lighter - I think the end away from the SATA interface could be about 3mm closer to the SSD and the ventilation holes could be made a bit bigger, at the cost of structural stability.  In addition, instead of using the tiny screws to hold the SSD in place, you could use a few dabs of superglue.  Overall, you might be able to drop the weight of my thing by around 20% with all those changes (but it already weighs almost nothing).
To make it even lighter YET, you could probably just take the bare circuit board and use some sort of small shim to hold it the right distance from the inner shell and use a piece of tape to keep it from falling out.

I feel like there used to be NP-F330's, but I can't remember if they were smaller (and if so, by how much) than an NP-F550.  One thought is that there are different capacities of NP-F550 when I look on Amazon.  Some of the lower-capacity ones might weight less (less lithium inside them) - as long as the manufacturers don't put some lead or similar in them to make them feel more "professional."
Can you relocate some of the weight elsewhere?  You could use a dummy NP-F with the Ninja and connect it to a V mount in a backpack or on your belt.

Are you willing to modify the Ninja V itself and probably void your warranty and/or increase overheating risk?  A simple first thing might be to remove as many screws as possible (if there are 4, usually two diagonal screws are enough to hold things in place, for example).  In this YouTube video, the guy disassembles his to fix it.  There are multiple sets of screws inside where you could almost certainly remove a few.  Maybe there's a lighter version of the fan in a similar form factor.  If you were going to mount it on a drone or similar, you could experiment with removing the cooling fan.  If you're flying it around on a drone, there might be enough natural airflow to keep it from overheating.  If you're handy enough, you could probably even run it completely without the backplate and just wire in some other battery to the contact points for the rear battery shield.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18hMNzn34R8

 

 

[FHDcrew]

On 7/18/2022 at 7:15 PM, eatstoomuchjam said:

I haven't weighed it, but I suspect that my 3d printed SSD holder with half of a Sandisk Ultra 3D 500GB in it weighs a little bit less than the Andycine thing, given that the Andycine one is metal and has multiple screws to hold everything in place.  But the Andycine is already only 55g - so the weight savings would be extremely minimal (if they even exist)... and given that mine relies on holes for ventilation, I suspect that the Andycine will be more robust in light rain, etc.  Anyway, if every single milligram counts, you could use mine as a start and modify it to be even smaller and lighter - I think the end away from the SATA interface could be about 3mm closer to the SSD and the ventilation holes could be made a bit bigger, at the cost of structural stability.  In addition, instead of using the tiny screws to hold the SSD in place, you could use a few dabs of superglue.  Overall, you might be able to drop the weight of my thing by around 20% with all those changes (but it already weighs almost nothing).
To make it even lighter YET, you could probably just take the bare circuit board and use some sort of small shim to hold it the right distance from the inner shell and use a piece of tape to keep it from falling out.

I feel like there used to be NP-F330's, but I can't remember if they were smaller (and if so, by how much) than an NP-F550.  One thought is that there are different capacities of NP-F550 when I look on Amazon.  Some of the lower-capacity ones might weight less (less lithium inside them) - as long as the manufacturers don't put some lead or similar in them to make them feel more "professional."
Can you relocate some of the weight elsewhere?  You could use a dummy NP-F with the Ninja and connect it to a V mount in a backpack or on your belt.

Are you willing to modify the Ninja V itself and probably void your warranty and/or increase overheating risk?  A simple first thing might be to remove as many screws as possible (if there are 4, usually two diagonal screws are enough to hold things in place, for example).  In this YouTube video, the guy disassembles his to fix it.  There are multiple sets of screws inside where you could almost certainly remove a few.  Maybe there's a lighter version of the fan in a similar form factor.  If you were going to mount it on a drone or similar, you could experiment with removing the cooling fan.  If you're flying it around on a drone, there might be enough natural airflow to keep it from overheating.  If you're handy enough, you could probably even run it completely without the backplate and just wire in some other battery to the contact points for the rear battery shield.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18hMNzn34R8

 

 

Good idea. I don’t see any NPF330 batteries. Any tiny batteries that might work?  Smaller than the NPF 550?  Could it be possible to power the monitor with the camera battery?  I know battery life would be poor, but things would be light. 

[Avenger 2.0]

6 hours ago, FHDcrew said:

Good idea. I don’t see any NPF330 batteries. Any tiny batteries that might work?  Smaller than the NPF 550?  Could it be possible to power the monitor with the camera battery?  I know battery life would be poor, but things would be light. 

I have some old Sony NP-F to LP-E6 battery adaptors (from my Atomos Ninja 2) to use Canon batteries on the Atomos (and they also fit the Ninja V), but I'm unable to find them on Aliexpress at the moment.

[BTM_Pix]

1 hour ago, Avenger 2.0 said:

I have some old Sony NP-F to LP-E6 battery adaptors (from my Atomos Ninja 2) to use Canon batteries on the Atomos (and they also fit the Ninja V), but I'm unable to find them on Aliexpress at the moment.

There are some here.

Can't vouch for them if they are any good but the reviews look OK

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32662428205.html

 

[FHDcrew]

6 hours ago, Avenger 2.0 said:

I have some old Sony NP-F to LP-E6 battery adaptors (from my Atomos Ninja 2) to use Canon batteries on the Atomos (and they also fit the Ninja V), but I'm unable to find them on Aliexpress at the moment.

Did they make any weight difference?

[MrSMW]

What is the aim here as in how much lighter do you want to get the thing?

Other than a smaller/lighter battery, there isn't anything even remotely worthwhile.

Perhaps a better weight saving solution would be a smaller/lighter lens?

[FHDcrew]

4 minutes ago, MrSMW said:

What is the aim here as in how much lighter do you want to get the thing?

Other than a smaller/lighter battery, there isn't anything even remotely worthwhile.

Perhaps a better weight saving solution would be a smaller/lighter lens?

Good point, I could get a small pancake prime like the Nikon 4mm F2

[FHDcrew]

*40mm

 

4mm doesn’t exist for FF…lol

[eatstoomuchjam]

To go a different way with this, if you have some budget, why even do anything with the Ninja V?  A used Sigma FP will let you record uncompress 8-bit raw internally or 12-bit raw to a very small USB-C SSD (the Sabrent Nano works well - or get the Dark Power Lab one that fits on the side).  A barebones FP setup is likely to be smaller and lighter than your Nikon even before you add the Ninja to it.

[FHDcrew]

Good point, “side grading” to a camera like that is a good idea. Or even a Panasonic s5 if I still want goodies like IBIS. 

I guess I wanted to see what I can do with what I already have, instead of have to sell a lot of my gear and go through that hassle.