K&F Concept has produced another fine product, to compliment several others that they currently produce.
This is pretty simple NP-F battery charger, but with a total of four charging bays - that's excellent! If you have a number of NP batteries, it's great to be able to load up this charger and not have to worry about swapping out charged batteries every few hours. After a shoot, just collect all your batteries, put them in the charger and walk away. Come back in the morning, everything is up and ready to go. Nice!
The bottom of the charger is just one big, flat surface - save for the slight rings around the four screw holes that hold the unit together. Four silicone "stick-on feet" do wonders in terms of keeping the unit on a table. The charger uses a standard AC cord that attaches to one side of the charger. It's a decent flat, electrical cord, 18AWG and with a standard two-prong plug. That end plug has a very good strain relief and is very easy to grab and pull out of an outlet. At slightly over three feet, it could use a longer cable, in my opinion. I am tired of short electrical cords.
The display is clear and displays in green. It can also show 1. Charge, 2. Error, 3. Discharge, as well as showing the amount of charge in the battery. I would prefer a 4 bar graph, but this displays in a 3 segment bar.
I did not disassemble the unit to check on this, but I have had chargers where the input power connector is directly soldered to the motherboard. The problem with that, is that after a lot of putting the cable and then taking the cable out, the motherboard can break. This has happened to me on more than one occasion. The only solution I can offer, is to keep the cable attached to the charger as much as you can. Unplug the unit from the mains when not in use, but leave the other connection attached to the charger.
Bottom Line - A decent charger, that offers 4 independent and separate slots for charging up NP batteries, at 1000mA, 8.4volts. Also makes an excellent back-up battery charger, too!
This is pretty simple NP-F battery charger, but with a total of four charging bays - that's excellent! If you have a number of NP batteries, it's great to be able to load up this charger and not have to worry about swapping out charged batteries every few hours. After a shoot, just collect all your batteries, put them in the charger and walk away. Come back in the morning, everything is up and ready to go. Nice!
The bottom of the charger is just one big, flat surface - save for the slight rings around the four screw holes that hold the unit together. Four silicone "stick-on feet" do wonders in terms of keeping the unit on a table. The charger uses a standard AC cord that attaches to one side of the charger. It's a decent flat, electrical cord, 18AWG and with a standard two-prong plug. That end plug has a very good strain relief and is very easy to grab and pull out of an outlet. At slightly over three feet, it could use a longer cable, in my opinion. I am tired of short electrical cords.
The display is clear and displays in green. It can also show 1. Charge, 2. Error, 3. Discharge, as well as showing the amount of charge in the battery. I would prefer a 4 bar graph, but this displays in a 3 segment bar.
I did not disassemble the unit to check on this, but I have had chargers where the input power connector is directly soldered to the motherboard. The problem with that, is that after a lot of putting the cable and then taking the cable out, the motherboard can break. This has happened to me on more than one occasion. The only solution I can offer, is to keep the cable attached to the charger as much as you can. Unplug the unit from the mains when not in use, but leave the other connection attached to the charger.
Bottom Line - A decent charger, that offers 4 independent and separate slots for charging up NP batteries, at 1000mA, 8.4volts. Also makes an excellent back-up battery charger, too!
31/01/2025
I have several NP-F batteries, 550s, 750s and 970s and they all work fine with this charger. I've had no issues connecting them or the batteries themselves loosing charge. So the charger is doing what its supposed to do. The only annoying thing is the placement of the AC port. If the cable sticks out 2 or 3 inches and makes it hard to place in a corner to the right. Maybe a 90 degree angle cable would be better to get it closer to a wall and out of the way. Other than that issue, it works well and does what its supposed to.
30/01/2025
Basic 4-bay NPF charger and works as expected.
Its lightweight and charges 4 batteries at once, no issues.
Its lightweight and charges 4 batteries at once, no issues.
28/01/2025
These are perfect on monitors or transmitters/receivers; whenever weight or bulkiness is a big concern.
They obviously have a smaller capacity than most NPFs but they work great with all my compatible gear.
The charger has USB C, which is a major plus for universal charging, I will never not be able to power the station.
Overall a really nice set of NPFs for all your power needs.
They obviously have a smaller capacity than most NPFs but they work great with all my compatible gear.
The charger has USB C, which is a major plus for universal charging, I will never not be able to power the station.
Overall a really nice set of NPFs for all your power needs.
27/01/2025
With a 700mA discharge current, the battery tested at 2140, which is in line with the advertised capacity. Usually, we see a larger gap than this. The NP-F970s from K&F were also very good.
The charger consumes 5W for each battery, or 7W for a single battery, the charge is on the slow side. For 15Wh batteries, this is a reasonable speed. Charging LED's are inverted compared to battery position. This is not the best charger, but this is accurately what is described.
The charger consumes 5W for each battery, or 7W for a single battery, the charge is on the slow side. For 15Wh batteries, this is a reasonable speed. Charging LED's are inverted compared to battery position. This is not the best charger, but this is accurately what is described.
26/01/2025
My intention is to use the K&F Concept NP-F550 Battery and Charger Kit to provide a higher capacity battery for my camera monitor, without adding any noticeable weight increase to the whole package.
But, for fun, I connected both batteries to one of my 45w LED panel lights, and ran it at 30% output to see how long these small batteries might last, slightly under 2 hours later, I found out!
The batteries were slightly warm from that load, but charged up normally afterward, so no damage done. They should run my monitor for over 2 hours continuous, so the pair, with the original battery, should set me up for my next weekend away with camera quite nicely.
The charger unit doesn't show the state of charge of the batteries, showing a red LED when charging, changing to a green one when charging is complete. It is not a particularly fast charger, so several hours are needed to go from exhausted to full.
No complaints from me, they will power my monitor beautifully, and I know I can drive a LED panel, at a push, if needed.
But, for fun, I connected both batteries to one of my 45w LED panel lights, and ran it at 30% output to see how long these small batteries might last, slightly under 2 hours later, I found out!
The batteries were slightly warm from that load, but charged up normally afterward, so no damage done. They should run my monitor for over 2 hours continuous, so the pair, with the original battery, should set me up for my next weekend away with camera quite nicely.
The charger unit doesn't show the state of charge of the batteries, showing a red LED when charging, changing to a green one when charging is complete. It is not a particularly fast charger, so several hours are needed to go from exhausted to full.
No complaints from me, they will power my monitor beautifully, and I know I can drive a LED panel, at a push, if needed.
24/01/2025