Category: Gear_Batteries_Chargers

Review of batteries and chargers and the like for photography

Review: GoPro Dual Charger with Enduro Batteries

Time to upgrade

My trusty regular GoPro batteries started to act funny here in January 2025. One simply grew fat (!) and would no longer fit into my GoPro HERO10 Black, and the other one told me there was 85% capacity left and two seconds later the GoPro would shut down with a message that there was no more battery! This happened on a cold and windy afternoon in Denmark, so maybe this is what is to be expected, but I had greater hopes for my less-than-two-years-old original GoPro batteries.

So, replacement batteries needed! Just to clarify: I prefer to buy batteries from GoPro rather than a 3rd party vendor. You probably can save a decent amount of money this way, but as operational stability and a minimum of surprises is important to me and my video production, I happily pay the premium buying original batteries. Your mileage may vary of course.

Package solution

A bit by chance, I came across this package from GoPro with a charger and two Enduro batteries. Enduro apparently works better in cold weather and they are only a few bucks / Euros more expensive than the light blue regular GoPro batteries.

GoPro Dual Charger with Enduro Batteries
Before the unboxing this is what the tin looks like. The Enduro batteries are white where the normal ones are light blue.

Also, I have so far been happy with (only) two batteries. My videos are mostly less than 10 minutes a piece and hence I shoot in relatively short bursts of 1-2 minutes at 4K and 25-30 FPS. So two batteries covers my needs, but you may find that for longer productions you need more than two.

GoPro Dual Charger with Enduro Batteries
In the box: Two batteries, a USB -> USB-C cable, safety instructions, tips for working with the batteries in the cold and an illustration of how to use the charger.

I was happy to find that the new batteries looks a lot like the old ones other than the colouring. They fit nicely into my GoPro HERO10 Black. The tin promises compatibility with HERO9 Black, HERO11 Black and HERO12 Black, but I have not tried these combinations.

Charging, first time

GoPro Dual Charger with Enduro Batteries
The charger at work. Amber means charging. Green means fully charged. The charger prioritizes one battery over the other to complete one as fast a possible.

Charging the batteries for the first time took several hours, so I left it alone overnight and the next morning the two LEDs had changed from amber to green. I noticed that one battery completed charging faster than the other and apparently the charger gives priority to the battery with the most capacity, so you get one fully charged battery asap! Smart!

I used my Apple charger which yields 15-20 Watts and it worked well with the GoPro dual charger.

First use

Reading the specs, I was a bit surprised to find that the capacity of the two batteries is exactly the same, so how can one be more “Enduro” than the other, especially in cold weather?

GoPro Dual Charger with Enduro Batteries
The “usual” light blue battery and the Enduro above. I was surprised to find that they hold the same capacity, but the 1720mAh is the same for both of them.

I have no answer to this good question, but using the batteries at winter I can confirm that the Enduro batteries seem to last longer. And they have a very different “curve” in terms of remaining battery: My regular ones seem to drop very fast in the beginning of use and then have a more flat curve towards running flat. The Enduro ones seems to be more linear, i.e. they are much better at delivering a steady decline in remaining capacity than the regular light blue ones.

If you read the 2021 review by DCRainmaker, it seems to confirm that systematic measurements show a much improved performance by the Enduro batteries over the regular ones. I have not been able to compare the regular ones with Endurance, as both my regular batteries are broken. However, although I cannot provide evidence, I have a pretty good feeling that the difference is solid.

Conclusion

For me and my use of the GoPro HERO10, this package is just right. It may not be the cheapest option out there, but my philosophy is that it is better to be safe than sorry, also when you pay a little premium. If you work in cold conditions like me (= Winter in Denmark) and struggle to make the regular light blue batteries perform in the cold, then the Endurance batteries may be just what you have been looking for.

Further reading

Review: Laowa FF 15mm F5.0 Cookie Lens (Nikon Z mount)

Review: Oral-B IO series 8

 

 

 

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: XTAR Camera Battery Charger

I must admit that I did not know of the company XTAR until they reached out to me and asked me to review the XTAR Camera Battery Charger. Apparently XTAR was Founded in 2006 as an electronic technology company in Shenzhen that specializes in development and manufacture of Li-ion batteries, smart chargers, and LED flashlights. Always good to have a product from a true specialist, so I happily accepted to review the product.

I did not know the city Shenzhen either, but apparently the city is located in the Guangdong Province, China, and according to google is a modern metropolis that links Hong Kong to China’s mainland. The 600m tall skyscraper Ping An certainly gives the city skyline a distinctive look.

Chargers, chargers and chargers

Some of the chargers that came with my cameras… All different in size, shape and how they work…

If you like me have a few cameras, then you also know that each of them comes with a separate charger, and even if you stay with the same camera brand, they tend to change the battery type and format over time, as the batteries get more and more powerful (and the cameras more and more power demanding). So it is a mess. And you have to remember the right charger(s) for your camera(s) when you travel and it all takes up space in your backpack.

I believe EU is working on legislation to make USB-C the common standard for chargers, and I really welcome this initiative, but when you like to buy cameras that are a bit dated (like the Nikon D750), then short term this is not much help. This is where the charger from XTAR can help you out.

XTAR solution

The XTAR charger is named SN4 and is in the bottom center of the image below. This is the backbone in the solution. A bit like Lego, you can click different types of so called charger plates onto the SN4. Each charger plate takes 2 batteries of the same kind, and the SN4 can take either 1 or 2 charger plates.

In the example below I have disassembled the SN4 from the charger plates, so you have a charger plate that fits Sony batteries (NP-FW50) bottom left, and a charger plate for Nikon batteries (EN-EL15) bottom right.

The XTAR SN4 is in the center bottom. The 35mm film top right (Ilford) is just to give you a feel for the size of the charger.

The SN4 takes a USB-C cable as input (yay!) and can be charged via the power supply from XTAR, named C45IC. It will give you a whopping 45 watts (!). In the image above it is show in the middle, just below the USB cable in the top.

Charging using a power bank as power source.

You don’t necessarily need the charger – you can use any USB-C capable power supply to feed the charger, but be aware that it may not give it all the juice it needs to charge the batteries as fast as it would with the XTAR power supply. In the image above I use a power bank to feed the charger.

If you look carefully, you can see the words NP-FW50 in the empty battery dock, so this one takes batteries for Sony cameras (I have the A7Rii). Also notice that I have only used half of the SN4 potential, as the right hand side has the plastic blind mounted.

When charger plates are mounted on both sides, it looks like the image below. Here I have Sony batteries left and Nikon right.

3 batteries almost fully charged. The fourth one is filled up (lights out).

Most of my chargers simply has a single LED that tells me if the charging is ongoing or complete. The XTAR is more advanced to say the least. For each of the 4 batteries there are 4 bars showing how the charging progresses. A solid light means the level is done, a flashing light means work in progress. When the battery is almost charged all 4 bars light up as in the image above, and once the charge is complete, all bars are turned of as shown leftmost.

In addition there is indicators below the bars showing how much current the battery gets (2A and 3A), albeit turned off when current is low.

XTAR claims that their charger is both faster and more gentle to the batteries relative to the chargers that comes with the batteries. This should give you less wait time and prolong the battery life time. I have not tested this as I normally put my batteries to charge over the night and hence the speed is of less importance to me. What is much more important to me is the ability to charge several batteries in parallel, and here I can charge 4 Sony batteries at the same time, provided I have the right charger plates.

Charger plates

XTAR currently deliver charger plates for Sony, Nikon and Canon.  You can find the full list of available options here if you scroll down to the bottom of the page to see if your specific battery is supported.

There are plans to develop charger plates for Fuji, GoPro, Olympus, Panasonic and more. I will be waiting for the Fuji charger plates, as my beloved X-T20 is very happy to consume batteries at a fast pace!

Prices

You can find the current prices available directly from XTAR here. Here in October 2021 you can get the SN4 plus 1 charger plates (2 battery slots) and a USB cable for 39 USD. If you add a charger plate, it is an addition 10 USD, but then you have 2 charger plates (4 battery slots for 2 different batteries). If you want the power supply on top, it is an additional 20 USD.

If you want to go all in and have both a carry bag, SN4, power supply, 3 charger plates and a Sony charger plate F970, then the total will set you back 89 USD.

You can buy directly from XTAR as per the link above, but there are also many retailers that sell the XTAR products if that is to your liking.

Conclusion

While we wait for USB-C to become the standard way to charge a battery or charge a camera, the solution from XTAR certainly takes a good step in the right direction. It is a very compact and flexible solution, that will enable you to travel with a much smaller setup when it comes to chargers. And then it gives you better information as the charging progresses, plus you can charge up to 4 batteries in parallel.

In addition you can do without the power supply, as XTAR gave the SN4 a USB-C interface. This is where I find the solution changes from good to great. Provided you have a power bank or any other device that yields power via a USB-C interface, you can leave the power supply at home as well.

Prices seems fair. You are up and running for less than 50 USD with a 4 battery charge solution. I will happily pay that for a solution that makes my photography life more simple. And this one does. My only gripe is that I really hope XTAR come with a solution for Fuji batteries very soon! Other than that, I can recommend this solution if your pile of chargers is a nuisance to you.

 

Related reading

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