Hi everyone,

Regular visitors to my blog will know that every once in a while I publish an article on equipment and what works well for me. This isn’t so much about camera equipment but more about the equipment that I take with me for USB charging/powering my various pieces of photographic and other kit like my mobile phone, Holux GPS bluetooth data logger etc. when travelling. I’m heavily in to USB charging. 🙂

Some while ago I came across a very nice  “waterproof?” zip-up transport case for my chargers and cables etc.. The case has a lot of handy compartments.

Bottom compartments.

1. Small wireless keyboard, micro USB charging cable and OTG micro USB adaptor + USB receiver. Works nicely with my mobile phone and makes typing a lot easier.
2. 4 x AA USB battery charger for my Garmin GPS batteries.
3. Anker 8 Amp, 5 port USB charger which charges 5 device simultaneously.
4. Olympus battery charger as a mains-powered backup or to charge another battery at the same time (If I’m ever lucky enough to have a room with more than one accessible mains socket) 🙂 , accepts same figure of eight mains cable as Anker charger.
5. USB battery charger for Olympus BLN-1 batteries, really useful bit of kit.
6. Additional waterproof camera battery storage boxes.
7. UK figure of 8 mains lead and continental 2 pin adaptor.
8. USB-charging Bluetooth headphone (I like my music when I’m travelling 🙂 )
9. Backup mains-powered USB charger, just in case 🙂
10. Spare lens wipes.

Top compartments.

1. Figure of eight European mains cables for Anker and Olympus chargers.
2. USB volt/amp meter, quite useful for checking charging.
3. Wireless camera remote control transmitter.
4. Small flash gun as I very rarely use flash.
5. Wireless remote control receiver.
6. Cable for wireless remote control.
7. USB LED torch, surprising how often this little fella comes in handy when used with one of my various USB powerbanks.
8. Micro USB charging cables, I always carry lots of these 🙂
9. Multi-port USB/SD/Micro SD card reader/Hub and USB power cable.
10. OTG 128 GB Sandisk micro USB/USB drive, 64 GB Flash drive and backup SD card reader. I sometimes swap these for a 1TB portable USB hard disk but I like the option to have multiple storage backup solutions.

This case works well and stops all my gear rattling around in transit. I never carry my rechargeable camera batteries and powerbanks in hold baggage as they’re not allowed. They travel in my hand luggage in a multi- compartment, flame-retardant LIPO-safe bag which makes it much easier to explain at airport security scans.

BATTERY SAFETY TIPS.

Nearly all my rechargeable batteries including my small USB powerbanks are of the Lithium Iron type,  only my phone has a Lithium Polymer type battery. I feel it makes perfect sense to transport them as safely and securely as possible paying particular attention to preventing shorting of battery terminals. Which is why I always carry my spare camera batteries in small waterproof latching plastic boxes when out and about and not loose in my pocket rattling around un-protected with a bunch of keys or other metallic objects.

If anyone wants to view a very sobering demonstration of what happens when one short circuits a lithium battery then watch this video https://youtu.be/HCGtRgBUHX8 and water does not extinguish these battery fires, Co2 type extinguishers do. I guess the take home message is “stay safe and look after your batteries and they’ll look after you”. I never leave battery charging un-attended and that’s another reason why I like being able to use USB charging of  multiple batteries at the same time as it minimises one’s turn around time. I’d rather be out and about taking pictures than waiting for batteries to charge up when one’s time is limited. 🙂

Noticed and corrected an amusing typo: I put “carb” reader, must be my conscience kicking in 🙂

PS. Anker USB charger hooked up for simultaneously charging mobile phone, Holux GPS data logger, Olympus camera battery, rechargeable AA batteries and Anker Astro 6700 mAh powerbank. I’ve got to work on my cable management. 🙂

Kind regards

Hi everyone,

Some while back I realised that USB battery charging is the definitely the way to go when travelling with my cameras and other gear. Apart from my camera equipment there are several other devices which I like to take with me such as my small GPS unit (used mostly for geotagging and time synchronisation), my mobile phone, my VX-7 amateur radio transceiver and various other battery powered devices such as my tablet. Each of these devices requires a mains powered wall charger. So, if I’m trying to charge them all at the same time after a day out and about I could easily need five wall sockets. If you’ve ever stayed in a hotel room with five wall sockets then I’m envious, you’ve obviously stayed in much better rooms than I have!. 🙂  In addition some of these chargers are bulky, weighty and take up room in one’s case or bag and require travel adaptor plugs to fit the local mains sockets.

So here’s my solution, at the heart of things is my Anker 5-port USB charging hub. This small solid metal-cased device takes an interchangeable plug in mains lead so only one mains socket is required and has a hefty 8 AMP output across the five ports. This allows me to directly charge/power my phone and power my USB/hub card reader. To charge my Olympus camera batteries I have a very small lightweight USB charger and also a USB AA battery charger which will charge batteries for my GPS, my transceiver and any other AA battery powered device . I can also simultaneously charge one or both of my Anker USB powerbanks which in turn provides charging/powering capacity when I’m out and about. The AA battery charger and/or the camera battery chargers are also small and light enough to go into my bag and plug in to a USB powerbank and thus power/charge batteries on the go.

So I’ve completely said goodbye to wall chargers when travelling, maximised my baggage weight allowance and I don’t have to keep unplugging wall chargers and hunting for mains sockets, one working socket is all that I need. Furthermore it’s great to have the ability to power/charge devices when out and about.

If you’re going somewhere for a while where there simply isn’t a mains socket at all then the 20 AMP powerbank will power/charge gear for quite a while, I’ve run and charged my phone off of it for over a week on a single charge!. It also has three USB output sockets on it so you can if you wish plug in several devices at the same time. Another nice feature of this particular powerbank is that it has two input charging sockets so that it can charge faster, another benefit of having 5 ports on the USB charger.

Please contact me if you’d like more info on the above.

Best wishes

PS. One more thing, if you haven’t already stumbled across “pre-charged” AA rechargeable batteries then check them out as they hold their power up to 85% for a year I believe. I’ve never had to put this to the test but nice to know.

Hi everyone,

My E-PL5 retro makeover is now complete, regular visitors to my blog will know how much I love retro-looking stuff. The new faux-leather case and metal lens hood for the Lumix 12-32mm turned up in the post. I think that it looks pretty cool as well as improving the grip. The case came to 1/4 of the cost of Olympus’ larger grip! 🙂

Best wishes

Try doing that with a DSLR!. The beauty of Micro Four Thirds size and weight. E-M1 and grip, M.Zuiko 12 mm f/2, 17 mm f/1.8 ,45 mm f/1.8 and Lumix 12-32 mm lenses as well as all my other every day gear, filters, spare memory cards, 4x spare batteries etc. in a small bag, total weight approx 2.5 Kg, probably a bit less 

Kind regards

Hi folks,

Sometimes I just want to travel ultra-light so I bought a new lens for my E-PL5. I’ve been looking for a nice pancake zoom lens to suit my most used focal lengths and settled for the Panasonic Lumix 12-32mm as it covers the wide-angle end and the combination works extremely well. The Panasonic lens image stabilisation works well with the Olympus body and I think it’s better than the E-PL5’s in-body image stabilisation.

It’s so light that I don’t even know that I’ve got it with me and makes a nice change from my regular gear. As it’s a tiny pancake lens it’s not the fastest lens in the world but it’s quite acceptably sharp throughout the zoom range. It’s a really un-obtrusive camera/lens combination and I plan to take it out on a few trips this year and carry it around with me when I’m out and about.

Best wishes

PS. Because I love “retro” I bought an inexpensive case for it. I’ll probably use it as a half-case and it’ll give it a bit more grip and I have the VF-4 viewfinder attached. Olympus want a ridiculous price for their larger grip and this case was considerably cheaper with free shipping 🙂 .