Month: February 2022

Review: XTAR GoPro battery charger on-the-move

Charging out and about

The XTAR GP2 is designed to give you extra power for your GoPro 5/6/7/8/9/10 while you are out and about. It works very much like the cradle for my iPods – it is a storage case and a power bank at the same time.

My iPods next to the XTAR GP2. They solve much the same need: A carry case and a power bank at the same time.

At home

You simply charge the GP2 while at home, and then the extra battery in the GP2 will enable you to charge 2 GoPro batteries when on the move.  Notice that when the GP2 is unplugged, i.e. out and about, it only charges one battery at a time, but it automatically starts charging the second battery as soon as it is done charging the first one. When powered via the USB-C connector, it charges both itself and docked batteries at the same time.

The XTAR GP2 itself is charging here. There is a small USB-C connector on the rear to feed the power to the GP2. Notice the little rubberized door that can seal off the connector from dust and moist.
My copy came with a wall charger (rightmost) and a cable to fit into the USB-C socket on the rear of the GP2 dock, but if you already have a USB-C charger, you may not need this.

The indicators are easy to learn: The GoPro batteries show red for charging and green when fully charged. The XTAR GP2 itself has a 4 bar indicator all with white LED’s – 25% for each step. In the example below the GP2 is fully charged, as is the battery to the right, whereas the battery to the left is charging.

Battery to the left is charging (red). The GP2 is fully charged (4 bars). The battery to the right is fully charged.

Older batteries

To work with the older and smaller batteries for the GoPro 5/6/7/8, you have to buy an additional battery holder that makes the smaller batteries fit snugly into the same space as the batteries for the 9 and 10.

Battery for the GoPro 5/6/7/8 mounted in the holder, so the battery gets the same size as the battery for the GoPro 9 and 10.

There is a little hole in the holder, so you can keep the smaller battery and the holder together as one unit, this is especially useful when you pull the battery out of the charger.

The GoPro 7 battery to the right and the battery holder to the left. Notice the hole in the battery holder that fits the handle on the battery, so that you can pull holder and battery out of the charger as one unit.

Memory

Another nice feature is the ability to store 2 memory cards inside the XTAR GP2, so you have a carry case for both power and memory.

As a nice touch, the XTAR GP2 also takes 2 memory cards for the GoPro and enable you to store them together with the battery. In this way you have backup for power and memory in the same place.
The XTAR GP2 charger right, my battery for the GoPro 8/9/10 to the left.

Use

The lid on the case closes using magnetism, and it works really well. In order to fit into my messy camera bag, I close the lid with a rubber band so I am sure the lid stays closed during transport. I would hate to start searching for micro SD-cards in my not-too-orderly camera bag!

Price and place

Here early March 2022 the product has not yet been launched, but it will happen very soon. The retail price is expected to be around US$40, but if you are one of the first to buy, you may find that it comes with a nice discount. XTAR plan to sell the product via Kickstarter first, then on XTARdirect (XTARS homepage where you can make purchases),  then Amazon store and finally Aliexpress store is planned.

Conclusion

This product quickly made its way to my camera bag. I can now have one battery in my GoPro 10, and 2 ready in the GP2, and then I can do a round robin to continue to have power in the GoPro. The manual says that the GP2 gives 12 hours running time for the GoPro camera – I have not tested it, but it is also far beyond my needs.

I find the XTART GP2 to be a relatively small and light product that fits into my camera bag with no problem. It solves my worry to run out of both power and memory, and as such I can really recommend this product if you find yourself in the same situation.  I also like that the design enables you to use this product with the smaller batteries for the GoPro 5/6/7.

The only improvement I can think of is that it would be nice to be able to lock the lid, but for now a rubber band takes care of that.

All in all I can recommend this product.

Find more information about this product via this link.

 

 

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Review: WD My Passport external HDD 4TB

Review: WD My Passport external HDD 4TB

Important

This is not a product designated to photographers. I know. But backups of your photography data is so important working as a photographer, that I take the liberty to review this product in that context.

I have several of these drives. I do backups at least every month and as part of my year end procedure. And do I then store it in a drawer? No, not immediately. I drive the backup far away from where I live and store it in my summer house (swapping backups with a friend also works).  That way I am safe in case of fire or theft.

You may think that no one breaks into your house or that a fire is unlikely, but recently we have had a client where half of their house burned to the ground, and this was the part of the house where the pictures they had bought from us were located. The first thing they asked us was if we could reproduce the images – and I was happy to say yes, knowing that I had several digital copies of the images in several locations.

The tin

WD My Passport external HDD 4TB
WD My Passport external HDD 4TB

This little 4TB drive weighs around 200 grams (a little less if you go for the 2TB or 1TB versions). I find the price around 130 EUR here in Denmark very fair, but in the US and UK they can be bought for less than that. 4TB is a massive amount of data, and I manage to put several years of data on a single drive.

Content

WD My Passport external HDD 4TB
In the box: The drive itself (blue), a short guide that is more security details than anything else and the USB cable.

There is not much to say about the content of the box: A drive, a little guide and a USB cable. That’s it. What you cannot see is that the drive is pre-formatted – you can get versions for both Windows and IOS. I got the Windows version.

There is also pre-installed software on the drive that allows you to encrypt the data and facilitate the backup process. I have not used this part – I simply use the Lightroom facility “export this folder as a catalogue”; then I know I can import it again and get all the edits etc maintained. Probably also possible with the backup software provided by Western Digital, but I prefer a process that is simple and low-tech.

Operation

WD My Passport external HDD 4TB
The drive in use. The mouse top left and the keyboard illustrates how small the drive is. The little light on the side flashes when the hard drive is working.

The drive is quiet. If you lift it while it is working, you can feel the gyro effect of the hard disk drive spinning fast, but you can hardly hear it. The little light on the side of the drive flashes when the drive is working and is steady when not. If the drive is working, then it is vulnerable to say being dropped or bumping into something. The head of the drive will potentially touch the drive with severe consequences. So only move the drive when it is not at work.

There is no on/off switch. In the beginning I found that a bit odd. But the drive can sense the power disappearing and manages to park the head before the power runs out. It took me a little while to get used to.

I backup using Lightroom as I previously stated, and the combination of Lightroom and this drive is no speedy Gonzales. It takes time. But as it says very little, you can have the backup running while you are working in Lightroom; it seems to me the backup process takes very little energy from Lightroom, and as such the time required to do the backup is not issue for me.

Verdict

You may have guessed that I really like this product, as I have several of them. It provides an astonishing amount of room for data (4TB) at a reasonable price of 130 EUR, the operation is silent and the drive is only 18mm thick, and 7,5 x 10,5 cm in size. The USB connector is not USB-C, but it still manages to get the data safely across and power the drive at the same time. HDD may not be the latest and most fancy technology, but for backups I prefer proven technology, and that it certainly is. I can recommend this product.

Video link

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