Up next in 10
Photographer Dustin Abbott tests and reviews the Jackery Explorer 300 remote power source and SolarSaga 100 portable solar panel combination. | Visit https://bit.ly/lethelightinTV for the new channel | This video is sponsored by Fantom Wallet. Visit https://fantomwallet.com/ and use code DUSTIN15 to get 15% off | Read the Text Review: https://bit.ly/JackE300SS100 | Purchase Jackery Portable Power and Solar Panels @ B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/3HxhPQr | Amazon https://amzn.to/34hnfRn| Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/3GxJ24e | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/3AXTJfk | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/3rrKgtr
Check out the DA Merch here: https://bit.ly/TWIMerch | Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/dustinabbott | On the Web: http://dustinabbott.net/ | Sign up for my Newsletter: http://bit.ly/1RHvUNp | Instagram: http://bit.ly/DLAinsta | Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1nuUUeH | Flickr: http://bit.ly/1UcnC0B | 500px: http://bit.ly/1Sy2Ngu Follow Craig @ https://www.instagram.com/craigstoffersen/
Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at:
B&H Photo: http://bhpho.to/1TA0Xge
Camera Canada: http://bit.ly/DLACameraCan
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HrY64d
Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/3qG1p18
Ebay: http://bit.ly/DustineBay
Make a donation via Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/dustinTWI
=============================
Table of Contents:
=============================
0:00 - Intro
2:00 - Features and Design
5:00 - Tests of Performance
8:00 - Conclusion and Pricing
---------------------------------------------------------
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott, and I'm here today to give you a little bit different, a kind of review
0:15
This is from the company Jackery, and this is their Explorer 300 portable power supply
0:22
and then also this Solar Saga 100-100-Watt solar panel that can come together as a kit
0:29
or you can buy them individually. When Jackery reached out to me at the beginning of 2022
0:35
I get pitched a lot of ideas from a lot of companies all the time
0:39
Most of them I reject because they're not necessarily in my mind applicable to the audience here
0:44
But when I thought about this portable power source and solar panel
0:49
I thought, well, here is something that I think could be appealing to myself
0:54
but if it's appealing to me as a photographer, then I could certainly see it being appealing to some of you in the audience
0:59
So I said yes, and I've spent some time with it, and I'm really glad that I have because I find this to be a well-thought-out, well-executed package that has, I think, a lot of different applications for us as photographers
1:13
Today's episode is brought to you by Phantom Wallet, the minimalist, modern wallet that sets you free from a bulky traditional wallet while also making it easy to access your cards and money when you need them, thanks to their unique fanning mechanism
1:27
Visit phantom wallet.com to check out their unique sizes, styles, and finishes that span from aluminum to wood to carbon fiber
1:36
You can even customize your wallet with new accessories like a money clip, cash holder, ID display, and even the Jopolo tracking integration if you're the kind of person who loses their wallet
1:51
Use code Dustin 15 for 15% off when you're ready to check out
1:55
So let's start by taking a closer look at what you actually get here, starting with the Explorer 300
2:02
It has 210 watt AC outputs that are really clean, you know, pure, they call it pure sign wave output
2:11
And so what that translates to is that it's going to be very clean power for your, you know, various electronics that you're wanting to, you know, protect and not have some kind of dirty power running to it
2:21
And so obviously that's going to be very useful. But beyond that, there's also a full range of various USB source type power outputs, including, you know, a power delivery rated USBC and a couple of other USB ports
2:36
And so out of those, you have a lot of flexibility on the kind of devices that you can charge and the flexibility
2:42
You know when it comes to for example modern cameras I found that you know those cameras that do rely on the power delivery output it could be a little bit picky And so for example there some power sources that work for my Canon EOS R5 but don work for my Sony Alpha 1 and vice versa
3:00
The good news is here is that this can power both of those
3:04
And so it does have flexibility in its power output. And so obviously that is a good thing
3:09
The overall weight is lightweight. And I did note that this is a nice, sturdy construction
3:15
It is made out of, you know, hard plastics on the outside, but it feels more like the plastics used in my construction tools, for example
3:22
It feels tough and durable. And I like the fact that it's got the rubberized feet
3:25
And so it sits without clunking down on things as more of a gentle transition
3:31
Also interesting is the fact that you have three different ways where you can actually recharge the battery in the Explorer 300
3:39
So first of all, the most obvious is the included AC adapter, which takes about three and a half hours to fully charge the battery
3:46
You can also charge it from the solar panel and assuming optimal conditions with solar
3:51
Obviously, solar is, there's a lot more factors than just plugging something into the wall
3:57
But you can charge it in optimal conditions in about three and a half hours as well
4:02
More on that in just a moment. And then you also have the option of using a DC adapter and, you know, coming out of your vehicle
4:10
Maybe you're on the way to, you know, the site that you're going to be working from or you're going camping
4:14
whatever the case may be, you can charge it along the way, and it takes about 3.6 to 3.7 hours to
4:21
through that means. So obviously some interesting things, and also interesting to me is that you can
4:26
actually do a dual charging situation where you can have the AC power coming in. You could also
4:32
input power coming into one of the USB slots for power here, and between those, you can actually
4:39
achieve kind of like fast charging for an electric powered vehicle. You can actually do like
4:44
like a rapid charge. If you use two sources, you can get to about an 80% charge in roughly two hours
4:51
And so if you're in a bit of a pinch and you need to charge it more quickly, you can have
4:55
multiple power sources coming into it to achieve a faster charge. I also found the design of the solar panel itself to be very, very useful
5:04
It has, I believe, around a 23 to 25% conversion rate, which is pretty good, tells you it's a
5:10
good quality actual solar panel. It has a really cool design where it
5:14
It's got these kind of built-in arms that come down, that you can prop it up to get it as an optimal position for getting the sun rays
5:22
There's also a pouch there in the back where you can not only store things, but it also holds the cables where you can charge it, you know, charge this from it
5:30
but also you can plug directly into some USB ports that are there
5:34
and more on that in just a moment as well. I also like the fact that as you fold it up
5:39
it actually got a magnet panel on each side So as you close it up It stays nice and well closed without any kind of clasp or anything You just grab it by the handle and the way you go with it And it also
5:51
fairly lightweight. It's about nine pounds. So, you know, some are right under four kilos and so it's
5:57
not onerous to carry into the field. Neither is this as well. So what are some of the applications
6:03
and how is the actual power delivery? We're going to dive in and look at a couple of those things together
6:08
I constructed a test of the battery life from the Explorer 300 by running a Godox
6:13
SL 150 Mark 2 video light constantly. This is a 58,000 luck spotlight that can draw up to 150 watts
6:22
I started with a 100% charge on the Explorer 300 at 8.57 a.m
6:27
and ran the spotlight at 100% throughout the day. I checked on it periodically and found that it was registering a draw from between 49 to 54 watts
6:36
though I suspect the draw would have been a little 100% of the day. higher during the times when the cooling fan kicked on. I was down to a 1% charge registering by
6:44
2.10 p.m. and I finally turned it off at 2.15 p.m. as I had to leave. The light maintained 100
6:51
output during that time and I got nearly 5.5 hours out of that charge. I appreciated both the
6:57
long battery life and the intelligent readout that gave real-time feedback on both the draw
7:02
and the remaining battery life. This is a real-world kind of application that I could see myself actually
7:08
using in the future. Due to extreme cold, about minus 30 degrees Celsius during my testing period
7:14
I first wanted to see how much thermal energy I could draw from the solar panel indoors
7:18
I didn't want to expose everything to the extreme cold. Modern windows are designed to block
7:23
thermal energy, however, and despite Loki and I's best efforts, I saw a highest reading of about
7:28
34 watts of charging energy coming back into the battery from the panel. I moved things outdoors
7:34
and wrapped a thermal blanket around the Explorer 300 to try to minimize
7:38
minimize an efficiency due to the extreme cold. I saw as high as 60 watts of charging was able to get back about 34% of the charge to the battery, even in these extreme conditions in about an hour and a half, which leads me to believe that you should be able to achieve the three and a half hour recharge from the panel in optimal conditions
7:56
Even using the panel indoors, however, I was able to easily recharge the battery on my camera right from the panel. I also charged the battery on the camera from the Explorer 300. The camera battery should be able to easily recharge the battery on my camera right from the panel. The camera battery should
8:08
showed a 47% charge when I started, and the Explorer showed a charge of 100%
8:13
It registered a 97% charge after fully charging the camera, which indicates I should be able
8:18
to get close to 20 full camera battery charges before the battery is exhausted in the Explorer
8:24
So those are a few of the kind of direct photography-related applications that I thought about
8:30
I also thought a little bit more selfishly in the fact that as you can see behind me
8:34
I live out on the outskirts of town and so I on a well here And so when power goes out I lose Internet I also lose water as a part of that the ability to pump water
8:47
So things really go south really quickly. And so while this one isn't necessarily powerful enough to power my well pump
8:54
and I may go back and get an additional unit from Jackery that would allow me to do that
8:59
which would be certainly very helpful. But what this will allow me to do is that for a long period of
9:04
time. It'll be no problem for it to run my, you know, my router coming into it and also my
9:11
Wi-Fi connection. And it seems like with my kids that if they have Wi-Fi and they have, you know
9:17
a battery-powered light near them, they're happy. They're good to go. And so anyway, it's going to
9:21
provide some versatility in those, you know, times when we lose power and make those moments a little
9:27
bit more bearable. So a lot of different applications, you know, if you're thinking about doing
9:31
photography while camping or going out in the field or just the idea of having a solar panel
9:36
to charge in this era. I like the idea even though when I've had power of hooking things up to the solar panel
9:43
Just the idea of getting that free energy is something that can be very appealing
9:48
So let's talk about price as we wrap things up here. For the individual, this unit right here, it runs around 300 bucks, a little under $600
9:57
for the combination of the package, U.S. and I'll throw a link to where you can purchase those in the description down below
10:05
But I think some solid value if it's something that you need in terms of having power supply on site
10:13
And this is just a really, as noted in the beginning, a really well-executed package
10:17
It's got sufficient power that you can charge a lot of different things from it
10:22
And so, you know, for example, from this guy right here, you could recharge your laptop four or five times, you know
10:28
various other applications that could give you some real, field power and of course the fact that you've got the solar panel if you buy that combination
10:35
it means that you might be able to maintain charge for the various electronics you would bring
10:39
along with you indefinitely that could be very useful you know the on-site lighting for video
10:45
things like that all of those things could obviously be a great application for this so i think that
10:50
for some of you this may be something that's appealing for others it may not be but that's the beauty
10:54
of today's market we have a lot of great products to choose from and i so far i've been impressed with
11:00
what I've seen from Jackery and the execution of their components. I'm Dustin Abbott
11:05
and if you'll look in the description down below, you can find that linkage to purchase
11:09
also linkage to follow myself or Craig on social media, become a patron, purchase channel
11:14
merchandise, and of course, if you haven't already, please click that subscribe button right
11:18
here on YouTube. Thanks for watching. Have a great day and let the light in
#Online Video
#Camera & Photo Equipment
#Electronics & Electrical
#Power Supplies