Tips from a D&O Lighting customer that travels frequently between California and Thailand!

We have had the pleasure of getting in touch with our users about their experience using our batteries, lights etc. This January, we would like to highlight one of our customers for being an invaluable asset to D&O Lighting. He has given us numerous tips in how professional photographers, film-guys use our batteries, so we would like to share with you his experience, and even boast our product’s quality for the this blog. We will not share anyone’s name as to respect everyone’s privacy.

Customer’s D&O Battery Experiences: “Hi guys! I am a Steadicam operator based in San Francisco and Thailand. I have been using D&O “Comer” batteries for a couple of years now. So far so good. Had few issues with it though, the charging terminal (positive pin) came off so I had to screw them back, no biggie. In addition, one of my 130Wh batteries died due to a sudden heavy draw from an Alexa XT camera. That is my fault too; I did not keep tracking the voltage.

So now, I know how the battery behaves so I avoid not fully discharging it / using it with any high current draw device. Since this adjustment, I am all-good now. I wish it had an LCD screen to display the duration and cycles. For what it does at this price point, it is absolutely worth my money. Super happy with the battery so far.

Regarding why I started using D&O Batteries: Though I had some issues with Comer brand batteries in the past, I am still going to give it five stars. I work in the film industry, professionally as a Steadicam operator. To be honest, I rather hesitated to use D&O batteries at first because I had been an avid Anton Bauer fan. However just for the heck of it, I gave D&O a shot. Surprise! It works great! For what it is at this price tag, it is a great battery. Of course, D&O Comer batteries are not smart batteries like Anton Bauer, which have a logic board. A logic board protects the circuit and counts the cycle. However, I have been using this for a couple of years. So far so good as long as you know how to work with it.

• Do not fully discharge the battery (use all the capacity in one single charge). Otherwise the lifespan of each cell will decrease drastically and might permanently damage the cell. Basic rule of thumb is stop using it when the voltage drops to ~13V

• Lithium-ion battery hates direct sun and heat! Keep away from that.

• For long-term storage more than 3 months, discharge the capacity to 20-40% and keep it in a cool dry environment.