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hi I'm Dustin Abbott about a year ago I
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did a review of the Lano dual bay
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battery charger concluding that it was a
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clever way to charge your camera's
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battery batteries but also if you bought
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it with the batteries with it it was a
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good way to get discounted batteries
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backup batteries for your camera since
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that point I've actually used those LONO
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batteries a fair bit in about three
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different camera systems and I have used
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them thus far without any kind of issue
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which is pretty fantastic lono is back
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with an expanded concept here it gives
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you that dual bay battery charger like
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we had before but what if you could have
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that dual bay charger but now be
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completely off-grid it gives you also
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the ability to not only charge your
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camera batteries but also your phone or
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tablet or anything similar small device
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like that and you can do it all off-grid
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they've done that by incorporated the
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battery charger but then into a package
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12,400 mAh power bank that's implemented
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into it so it can output power at a
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power delivery standard of 20 watts it
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can charge your camera battery faster
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than what you can charge either in
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camera or in your uh your your camera's
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native charger and it only cost around
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80 bucks for it sound interesting well
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let's dive in let's see what's good and
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what's bad about the Lono 2in-1 dual
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battery charger so here's a quick look
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at what you're going to get when you
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start to unpack what comes in the
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charger and so as I began to go through
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the packaging I found that it included
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the charger it includes a pouch it
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includes a charging cable and then also
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the manual itself as before I really
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like the nice soft touch materials on
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the exterior of this it does have a very
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pleasant feel in the hand and if you're
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someone that cares about kind of the
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tactile sense of thing I suspect that
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you'll really like the way that this
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feels in terms of its materials as noted
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the power bank portion is
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44.64 W hours if you're more accustomed
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to measuring in that standard so uh not
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like an amazing amount of of power but
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certainly when you consider that a lot
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of power banks you can buy will be about
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10,000 mAh it's a little bit larger than
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what those tend to be now you can use
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this as just a just in the same way you
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would have used this charger to where
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you're plugged through the USBC port
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into say an AC adapter and so you're
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just charging it normally and so you can
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get the same functionality as you did
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before that of course is useful because
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you can do pass through charging with
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both charging in and out however what's
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interesting here is that we actually
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have two USB C ports on the side and
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both of those are in and out and so that
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provides you a couple of extra
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functionalities that we'll get to in
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just a moment now when you insert your
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battery or batteries into it what it
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will do at first is that the LCD screen
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on the front will come out and it will
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show you the current state of charge now
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unfortunately that is not in a
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percentage but it is in just four bars
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100% if you want to actually charge you
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click the power button here to start
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charging the batteries if you're in this
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remote you know unplugged mode and so
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that means that you can if you're just
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wanting to use this to to store
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additional batteries maybe if you're
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packing for a trip or for a shoot and
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you're bringing along extra batteries
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you can put them in there without it you
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know kind of constantly running and
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running down the battery but when you
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click this button on the front it will
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start the charge process you click it
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again and it will actually stop that
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charge process if you're not looking to
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recharge the batteries at that moment
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and so that is I like having some
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control over it means that it's you know
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you can control when it's charging and
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when it's not charging if you're just
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wanting to use it for transport as well
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now as far as the actual charging
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process I found that it charging one
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battery so you can see here it wasn't
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100% depleted it was showing at about 9%
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in camera but I put that in the the
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built-in battery is at 100% state of
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charge after it charged that single
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battery to completion it was at about it
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used about 306% of the overall capacity
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and so that tells me you should be able
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to completely charge two batteries plus
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probably get one full 100% charge of
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your phone at the same time or you know
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maybe some other device but using I use
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the the standard of an iPhone 15 and I
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calculated that you should be able to
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charge all three of those devices from
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zero to 100% without exhausting the
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built-in battery now that charge time if
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you're charging multi multiple batteries
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will take you about two and a half hours
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to charge from zero to 100% obviously
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lower times if you don't have to charge
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as much in testing uh just the charge
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rate compared to my dedicated Sony
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charger I found that it took only
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slightly char longer to charge two
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batteries in the Lano charger than it
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did to charge a a battery a single
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battery in the Sony charger so really
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there's not a whole lot more to explain
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about the concept there it's pretty
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straightforward pretty plugandplay so
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let's talk about some things that I like
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having used it well the first thing I do
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want to say because I don't often have a
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chance when I'm doing third-party
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battery type reviews to give you a
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long-term opinion but now having used
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the Lano branded batteries for about a
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year I've had good success with them so
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far no issues along the way and so
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that's certainly something that I
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continue to like even though this
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doesn't come with batteries you
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certainly can get the inexpensive Lono
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batteries and I have found that they've
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held up fine for me so far and I've had
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no compatibility issues with them the
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previous version required you to be
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tethered to some kind of charging source
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while the new version can function 100%
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independently and so that's great for
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example if you're out in the you know
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for example if you're camping or if
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you're in some place remote where you
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don't have access to charging you can
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just charge through that and I will
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further note as someone who's done a lot
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of solar reviews that there are a number
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of solar panels that actually happen to
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have a USBC output and so even without
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any kind of other charge station you
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could attach this to a solar panel and
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charge it independently through that
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means which you know could be a way of
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sustaining if you're off-rid for an
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extended period of time there's also the
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versatility that comes through this the
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ability to potentially have one device
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to charge your phone multiple batteries
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your earbuds etc could be convenient if
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you're trying to simplify for packing as
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with the previous version I feel like
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the pricing is very very com competitive
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on that it feels like a good value to be
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able to get this charger for your actual
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camera batteries and the built-in uh
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power bank and to get all of that for
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less than what you would pay for a
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single firstparty charger i also
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appreciate the fact that it's
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plugandplay there's really not nothing
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to figure out other than knowing that
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you need to click this if you want to
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turn on the charging that's really about
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all you need to know and so it's a
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really really straightforward process i
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also appreciate the fact that both of
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these USBC ports they're both in and out
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and so what that means is you don't have
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to worry about if you're wanting to
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charge this for example you don't have
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to worry about getting it in the right
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port and if you've done that wrong this
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is not going to charge you can plug into
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either one and you can get a charge out
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of there how about some things that I am
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less happy about well I will say that
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when I took it out of the box it was
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larger than what I anticipated and in
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these days obviously where your goal is
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very often to travel as small and light
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as possible this is a little bit bigger
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of a footprint than what I had hoped for
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now I do recognize you've got to take up
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a pretty significant amount of space to
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get two batteries in there and you know
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and and to have the the place to charge
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those you've got to have some space to
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put the actual power bank in and so it
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it the reality is is that yes it it that
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is going to take some internal space
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however the footprint is just as I said
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just a little bit bigger than what I
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would like the other thing that I also
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would prefer is that I don't love the
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fact that we don't have a more precise
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uh percentage-based output for the state
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of charge for the batteries um I find
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that that 25% in uh intervals is just
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it's too big of a chunk to be able to
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really look at that and have a a very
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accurate estimate of how far you have to
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get to 100% state of charge and having a
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percentage on there would have been nice
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both a percentage to tell you what
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percentage your battery is at and then
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the percentage it has to go to charge
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and I think feel like that is a change
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that they probably could make relatively
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simply in the future that could further
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the functionality of this so my
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conclusion is this i'm always glad to
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see innovation when it comes to the
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practical side of photography these
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devices that innovate that process and
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and hopefully simplify the process even
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though they may not be as sexy as some
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of the other new gear they certainly add
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a lot of practical value to your process
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at the same time I don't feel like the
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Lono 2in-1 battery charger is
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necessarily for everyone here's who I
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think it's for if you're a heavy user
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that often you know needs to charge
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multiple batteries and maybe multiple
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batteries at once or you need to be
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charging batteries while you continue to
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shoot I think that this could make sense
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for you um it's something that you could
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literally be popping the batteries just
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into your bag and charging it in here
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even if you're off- grid and that could
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be very very useful if you're someone
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who uses you know you're not a power
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user and you tend to maybe go through
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one battery a day in your camera I think
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that probably just getting an ordinary
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power delivery power bank that's going
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to have a much smaller footprint and
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just running a USBC cable to your camera
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probably makes more sense for you but if
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you're that power user I think this
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could make a lot of sense and that's
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probably particularly true if you're
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more of a video user as the fastest way
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to burn through batteries in modern
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cameras is really by shooting video and
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so if you're a videographer this might
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make more sense for you than if you're
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just a photographer now I've tested in
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the Sony version but there is also
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versions for Canon there's two different
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uh types for Fuji for the two different
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battery standards that are used there
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and then also for Nikon as well and so
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for the most part you should be able to
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get one that accommodates your camera
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system if you're using you know one of
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the major systems if you want more
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information you can look in the
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description down below and I will link
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to with some buying links where else you
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can go and get more information as
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always thanks for watching have a great
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day and let the light in
