First draft of external ML battery power -

Bob Tullis wrote:

Tethertools offers two kinds of stretch velcro wraps to secure a battery and it's Case Relay adapter together on a tripod. (The Relay device allows uninterrupted changes of external battery, I went that route for a less involved but more expensive external power supply [g])

That is to suggest - a 4" or 6" cold shoe adapter and a velcro wrap might just complete your rig.

Roger that Bob. I actually started my research with the tether tools version, saw them first then kept looking at other options. I did buy my shoe plate with that setup in mind, which would be easy to turn into a velcro setup but the issue is the same, balance.

I already have a pair of 16kmAh power banks and they are fairly solid, similar in weight to one of my flashes with batteries installed. My plan is to go even bigger (maybe a 25kmAh to 50kmAh model) when i decide the final design but that weight isn't something i want on top causing so much imbalance.

So my idea is to figure out a cheese plate rig that can attach to the tripod mount to keep the center of gravity low. The total weight isn't an issue, i just want it to be better balanced for comfort. Im imagining something like a power bank sandwiched between two cheese plates, attached to the tripod mount of my battery grip.

If this idea works out well i'd buy two of everything, including the battery grip, and just swap out the entire grip+plates whenever i needed fresh power bank. A 50kmAh power bank is somewhere near 30k when output at 7-9v, which is something like 15 of my OEM G9 batteries. So it's like having an extended battery grip rig that carries 15 batteries instead of 1. I like it.