Fxlion Nano Two review
Nowadays, almost all tools we use in our photography or cinematography require electricity. They often have a built-in battery, other tools use replaceable batteries or external power sources.
No doubt we've all had moments when our equipment was without power. Now that is not that big of a problem for a studio photographer, just plug it in and you can continue working straight away.
The real problems arise when, like me, you spend a long time in the interior of Africa. A week without power is the rule rather than the exception. There are now solutions for charging equipment in the car, but given the number of "power guzzlers", this is becoming an increasing challenge.
In addition, in the Netherlands I like to work with continuous light in nature and in the average forest there is of course no electricity available.
When I now look around my office, I see a range of power guzzlers; a Xiaomi Mi9 phone, the Pentax K-1 and Pentax 645Z, an Apple macbook pro, a Garmin 66i, the Sony AX53 video camera, a Nanlite Forza 60, Nanlite Pavotubes, the DJI Mavic Pro and a MustHD field monitor.
No wonder that power supply in the field has been a puzzle for me for quite some time…
Battery capacity
As an introduction, a short note about current and capacity of a battery. The capacity of a battery is often expressed in mAh. That stands for Milliampere-hour. This number expresses how long (in hours) the battery can supply a certain current (mA) (hx mA). Therefore, if more power is required from the battery, the battery will be empty sooner.
Example: We take our 10,000 mAh power bank and connect it to an iPhone that requires 1A (1000mA per hour). In that case, the battery is completely empty after 10 hours.
How often can you charge another battery with one battery?
If you want to know how often you can charge your Macbook with a full external battery, it is necessary to know the capacity of the built-in battery. For example, a Macbook pro 16 inch has an 8000 mAh battery. In theory, we can charge the MacBook Pro 1.2 times with a 10,000 mAh battery.
The examples above are based on pure theory without energy loss. If you charge the iPhone with an external battery, energy loss will occur in the form of heat. You will notice that the battery and phone become warm. That obviously costs energy. So you will not achieve this theoretical value.
Convert Ah to Wh
The unit Watt hours (Wh) indicates how much energy the battery can supply in total. For us end users, the energy supplied is the most important. You can choose different batteries based on their Wh values compare well. A 180 Wh battery is half of a 360 Wh battery and therefore discharges twice as quickly.
If you want to convert the Ah value, you must find out the voltage of the battery. However, the manufacturer does not always specify this. Suppose you have found that the voltage of a battery is 14.8 Volt and it has 3,378 Ah (This corresponds to the Fxlion Nano One). If you multiply the voltage by the Ah value you automatically get the Wh value. In this example, the capacity of the battery is 14.8 Volt x 3,378 Ah = 50 Wh.
This corresponds to the manufacturer's stated value, but in my test it will appear that the actual behavior in practice can differ considerably between manufacturers.
Test of the Fxlion Nano Two in practice
After a night session in a Dutch forest where I connected the Nanlite Forza 60 to two NP-F960 batteries, it was empty after just 15 minutes. My backup set gave a significantly better result and lasted no less than an hour with comparable light intensity. So there is indeed a difference in apparently the same energy carriers. Time for a real test!
In 2017 I got one Hyper Juice AC Battery pack purchased. An immense power bank with a built-in socket in addition to the usual USB-A connections! Until now, that has been my backup power supply during my safari trips.
When purchasing the Nanlite Forza 60 I bought the Nanlite Battery Holder for Forza 60. This makes it possible to use the Forza 60 at any desired location with 2 NP-F batteries. You attach the Forza 60 to the battery holder.
But at the end of 2020, Fxlion launched a Nano Two battery on the market. As soon as it was released, it caught my attention because of its versatility.
The Fxlion ano Two 14.8V/98WH V-Lock is a li-ion battery with V-mount and has a capacity of 98Wh. This battery has both D-tap and USB outputs that you use to both charge and discharge. It is the world's smallest V-lock battery and therefore easy to take with you on a trip. It is unique in its kind due to its USB-C input and output.
Information such as charging or discharging time is displayed on the blue LCD screen. The battery has a USB A and USB C output and a USB C and micro USB input. In addition, it is compatible with a V-lock charger and a USB charger for your phone.
Battery |
Voltage |
Ah |
Wh |
Particularities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2xNP-F960 (white mark) | 7.2V | 6600mAh | 27.52Wh | 270 grams each excl. holder |
| 2 x Fxlion DF-248 NP-F960 | 7.4V | 6600mAh | 48Wh | 270 grams each excl. holder |
| Hyper Juice AC | 220V max | 26800mAh | 100Wh | 790 grams excl. charger |
| Fxlion Nano Two | 14.8V | 6800mAh | 98Wh | 520 grams |
Test results Fxlion Nano Two
For the test I set the Nanlite Forza 60 to 75% power. The temperature in the room was the same in all tests and all batteries were fully charged just before use. The time measurement stopped when the light of the Forza 60 went out.
Burn time Forza 60 on 75% |
|
|---|---|
| 2 x NP-F960 (white brand) | 50 minutes |
| Fxlion DF-248 2 x NP-F960 | 1 hour 54 minutes |
| Hyper Juice AC | 46 minutes |
| Fxlion Nano Two | 1 hour 51 minutes |
Conclusion
The first thing you'll notice is that the Hyper Juice AC has the worst performance despite its stated large charge of 26800mAh. This may be because there is an adapter between the battery and the lamp, but it was not a top performer during my travels either. Normally I can charge my MacBook Pro 13 inch with it just twice. Theoretically this should be possible at least 3 times.
The double NP-F960 solution provides a comparable performance, but this is also a relatively heavy set to take with you when traveling. And we haven't even mentioned the versatility of the Nano Two's.
Both the Fxlion NP-F solution and the Fxlion Nano Two stand head and shoulders above the rest with their performance. Now the NP-F set remains a large set to take with you, but the Fxlion Nano Two gives me 1 hour and 51 minutes in a compact and very versatile housing! An extra energy yield of no less than 122% compared to my previous set; the white brand NP-Fs
Traveling with the Fxlion Nano Two (or One)
Always check the regulations of your airline, but in general you will not encounter any problems when traveling with Li-ion batteries of less than 100Wh. Under current TSA regulations, there is no limit on the number of batteries under 100Wh, as long as they are for personal use and not for commercial use.
Do you need more power at the location? There are several solutions on the market to run two V-mount batteries simultaneously.
Fxlion makes its own double battery plate where the batteries discharge at the same time.
Another travel advantage is the option to charge your laptop with USB-C connection directly from the battery. The Nano One gives most laptops a few hours of extra runtime, the Nano Two stretches it to a full working day.
Power or charge (system) cameras with the Nano Two's USB-C.
Almost all of the latest mirrorless cameras now have USB-C ports for power or charging. The latest Sony cameras, such as the a9 II and the a7S III, can all be powered via USB-C while in use, as can many Fuji and Nikon cameras. Connecting the camera to a Nano Two battery will greatly increase your working time. Also extremely useful if you use it continuously for video or time-lapse recordings, for example. If you want to charge the camera between shots, you can simply keep the camera in your camera bag and connect it if necessary via the USB-C connection.
The 98Wh Nano Two battery has a capacity roughly 6 times that of the normal batteries in our cameras. The ability to charge your camera 6 times with such a small battery is of course fantastic. Do you need less capacity? Then there is the Nano One. The Nano Two has already earned its place in my camera bag and will be used for multi-day off-grid camping trips.
Charging the Nano Two
The Nano Two (and Nano One) batteries can be charged in four different ways:
- Micro USB input: 5V / 3A
- USB-C input: Supports power supply and drain
- V-Lock charger
- D-tap input
While many v-mount batteries have multiple charging options, the Fxlion Nano batteries have the most I've ever seen. The ability to charge them with USB-C chargers is especially useful since most people already have a compatible smartphone charger that can now do double duty. Anyone who uses a newer Apple laptop can also use these batteries to use their USB-C charger. However, charging via USB is not very fast - keep in mind that a full charge takes more than 10 hours - but it is very convenient and you can always top up.
D-tap on v-lock chargers
The ability to charge these batteries via USB is great, but using the D-tap or v-lock connections will be significantly faster. Think of a speed gain of about 5x! My completely empty Nano Two charges fully again within two hours via D-tap.
summarizing
The Fxlion Nano Two is an impressive battery that would be an extremely useful addition to almost any filmmaker or photographer's bag. No other V-mount battery on the market has such a complete range of input and output options, and the Nano Two can easily slip into your pocket.
With its range of different USB ports + d-tap, it can not only power a video rig with various connected accessories, but also modern mirrorless photo cameras can get their required power here using the USB-C output. You can even use it to power your laptop if you need extra work time in the field.
My webshop only contains products that I use myself and that I 100% support. The Fxlion Nano Two (and One) therefore certainly belong in this store.
