PAG Mini PAGlink V-Mount Batteries and New Products (IBC 2022) Smart stackable V-Mount batteries with interchangable connectors

During IBC 2022 we had a chance to talk to Matthew Field from the London-based manufacturer PAG who demonstrated to us the PAG Mini PAGlink V-Mount stackable batteries as well as some innovative new products in this line coming to the market in the very near future.

A little History

PAG is one of the oldest battery equipment manufacturers for the film industry going back over 5 decades.

Talking to the PAG team at IBC we had a chance to learn a great deal of history related to the way the video industry used to operate in the past when dealing with power requirements on set going back to belt packs, the original Anton Bour Gold mount and followed in the 1990s by the development of the V-mount batteries by Sony.

Since the 1990s V-mount batteries became the most widespread type of professional batteries in film, and video industries, and while Gold mount is still popular (especially in certain regions of the U.S.), globally V-mount is still the leading standard by a large margin.

Stackable V-mount batteries

The first innovation Field showed us was the concept of the stackable Mini PAGlink V-Mount batteries. While this concept has been around for some time now it has some real advantages for users.

The idea is pretty simple. Each battery has a male V-mount on one side and a female one on the other side and you can connect several of them one after the other and they will communicate with each other and transfer power and charge.

This way you can use a charger to charge many batteries at once (we saw a series of 6 or 7 batteries on a single charger plate) and you can do the same for a camera connecting several batteries in a row (although this will put a lot of extra weight on the back of the camera so don’t overdo this).

PAG dual charger with multiple V-mount batteries

PAG-batteries-charging-IBC-2022

One cool product that Field showed us was the PAGlink V-Mount Micro Charger – this tiny charger connects to one battery and can easily charge several other connected batteries (although it could take quite a few hours so this is more of an overnight type charger). The PAGlink V-Mount Micro charger can be a great option for smaller productions when you need to charge a number of batteries in a hotel for example and not take a large charger with you.

Last year PAG introduced its latest V-mount batteries, the MPL50 V-Mount Battery (a 50Wh, Li-Ion battery) and the MPL99 V-Mount Battery (a 99Wh, Li-Ion battery). Both have built-in D-Tap (one for the 50Wh and two for the 99Wh) output and a single 5V USB (2A) module which can be swapped by the user for a different connector (Lemo, USB-C, USB-A or D-tap). We love the idea of being able to change the connectors on a battery – this gives the user total flexibility on which type of connection he or she needs at any given moment.

The 3 Mini-PAGLink-V-mount-batteries

Mini-PAGLink-V-mount-batteries

The latest innovation from PAG at IBC was the MPL USB-C Adaptor. This small adaptor ads both USB-C PD and USB A to either of the two batteries. This adaptor plugs into the D-Tap output situated on top of the Mini PAGlink battery and enables a total of 83W to be drawn for powering a laptop, such as a MacBook Pro for example, as well as a phone.

Finally, we were given a sneak peek at the next battery in this series that will come later in 2022 or in early 2023 and will provide 150Wh and have one extra addition – a USB-C PD input (the other batteries have USB-C as output only). This new addition will allow users to charge the battery using a USB-C PD charger/cable and even more interestingly – you will be able to stack other mini PAGlink V-Mount batteries to that battery and charge them as well.

Pricing and availability

Below you can find the pricing for the PAG products (the 150Wh battery is not available yet as we mentioned):

  • PAGlink V-Mount Micro Charger – $203.
  • MPL50 V-Mount Battery – $253.
  • MPL99 V-Mount Battery – $530.
  • MPL USB-C Adaptor – TBD.

For more of our coverage on LensVid from IBC 2022 – please visit the following link.

Iddo Genuth
Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.

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