Powering Phase One 645 DF

My Phase One is from 2008. Essentially a dinosaur by tech standards. I can tell you that powering this thing has been a learning curve and a little eye-opening. Firstly, the 645 DF comes with an AA battery tray.

Initially I thought this sucked in comparison to the 645 DF+ and its lithium-ion battery. But think about it.. I can use brand new batteries with the battery tray.. The lithium-ion battery is 18 years old.. That thing cannot be healthy! Restored versions, IF you can find them, are around £400 to £600. Also, you can’t actually find them anywhere. The charger alone is £154 including VAT.

My AA battery tray has a little chip missing from it, and being anal I thought I’d just pick up another and replace it. How wrong was I.. Just like the lithium-ion batteries, these AA battery trays are impossible to find. They are super rare. In the past 6 years there have been a few listed online. All around the £200 mark. For an AA battery holder!

Seeing the rarity, I thought I needed a backup just in case mine decided to die on me. I found external battery packs  on eBay for the Mamiya 645 DF for £59! The "offical name" is Mamiya PE401 extrenal battery case. (Mamiya 645 DF bits fit the Phase One 645 DF as they are the same camera with the same mount, just rebranded). This essentially uses AA batteries with the small external battery port at the base of the camera. This also uses 6 AA batteries to power the Phase and takes a little weight away from the body, keeps batteries slightly cooler being away from the body, but really throws the weight off in my opinion. No batteries in the camera makes it feel weird and I’m not a fan. Nor can you place the camera flat without constantly unplugging the battery pack. There are a decent supply of these online though. I’ve seen a seller in the US listing them for $80 and he had about 60 listed! However, looking today, I can only see one, in Japan for £156. This is my backup in case my battery holder decides to give out.

The fourth option, and my most recent purchase (and also item up for sale), is the V Grip Air. This is a battery grip for the Phase One with a combination of an AA battery slot that slides into the body and a separate standard Phase One lithium-ion battery slot (the same that powers the bodies), with a switch allowing you to choose which power source you want to use. I hate battery grips as it is and got this because it came up cheap and I was potentially grabbing another backup body which didn’t have the AA battery holder. You’ll often see 645 bodies without battery holders as they can be sold separately for similar prices to the bodies. Cheeky. So I bought it pre-emptively in case I got the body (I didn’t). The V Grip Air also has a built-in Profoto trigger too which is cool, but I just hate battery grips. A Phase One with a battery grip just looks ridiculous in my opinion. I also hate the feeling and build quality of it. But that can be for another post.

One huge thing I found is my Phase doesn’t like rechargeable batteries. I have Eneloop Pros for triggers etc and my Phase was being temperamental using them. Sometimes it wouldn’t turn on, the mirror would lock up (a sign of low or no power. When powered properly, the mirror flips down and works perfectly again). Basically the Phase likes 1.5V disposables. I now grab 24 or 40 packs of Energizers when I find them on sale and I have no issues anymore. Essentially, decent rechargeable batteries don't have enough power to run the camera properly. Having the mirror lock up on a shoot with nearly fully charged batteries and having to walk back to the car to pick up my Z7 II was a little embarrassing but a great learning curve.

• A quick note here, the manual states: “NiCd or NiMH batteries should only be used in the camera body if CF04 is set on rechargeable.” I haven’t changed my settings. When I was using Eneloops I found I was having to use tweezers to pry the batteries out of the compartment. The Energizers had no issues. I felt like every Eneloop I used was slightly too big and it was damaging the battery cases and terminals and I didn’t want to risk damaging the AA battery holder. Energizers I have no issue at all with.

Modern cameras and pretty much throw in a decent (ideally first-party branded) battery and there will be no issues. Having to learn there are 4 ways to power my Phase with batteries you would have thought would make it super easy with plentiful options. Apparently not. If I was a studio-only shooter there is a fifth option: a mains power supply that also plugs into the DC port at the bottom of the camera. The same port as the Mamiya external battery compartment.

I’ll quickly touch on weight again here. The standard AA battery compartment filled with 6 AA batteries makes the camera feel balanced. It’s heavy, but balanced. A whole 2.2kg with digital back and the standard Schneider 80mm 2.8 lens. Using the external battery pack, you lose the weight from the right-hand side and it makes the camera feel off. With the V Grip Air, I’m not a fan of the added bulk. I didn’t fill both battery compartments, rather just stuck to the AA compartment. This still comes in at about 2.7kg. The camera is big enough and heavy enough as it is.

Getting to grips with the quirks of older tech has been an amusing and eye-opening experience so far. Just powering the thing has been shocking. The prices and unavailability of powering the things is quite mind-blowing.

Phse one battery

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