Watson ‘Duo Charger’ | Review

Anthony Thurston

As photographers, having enough power to get through a shoot is imperative. You can’t capture images if your battery is dead, and that extra one will do you no good either if you didn’t charge it because you only had time to charge your primary one.

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If you have multiple batteries (and you REALLY should), then having one charger is really not good enough. Charging one battery at a time is a waste of time, and with many chargers, it can be a guessing game to see if your battery is fully charged or not.

Enter the Watson Duo Charger, a recent investment of mine, which I wanted to share my thoughts on today.

[RELATED: 5 Must Have Accessories for Fuji X-Series Shooters]

04-performance-5-stars

What really can you ask for out of a battery charger? Simply charging the batteries quickly is enough for many people, but I am also a huge fan of accurate battery power readings (if I ever have to look at one more blinky light, I’m gonna scream!). The Watson Duo Charger is great at both; not only are you charging your batteries quickly, but you can see exactly where each individual battery’s capacity is.

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09-features-5-stars

This sort of ties into the above section, but as far as battery chargers go, this Watson Duo Charger has all the bells and whistles that I could ask for. The Duo charger comes with a standard wall plug, as well as a car adapter for charging on the go.

But what makes the Duo Charger a real gem is that you are not limited to one sort of battery. You can buy different plates for just about any kind of camera battery known to man. I love this because it means if I decide to change camera systems, or add to mine, I can still take advantage of this charger’s killer feature set. I also love that it has a USB port on the side for charging your phone or tablet.

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13-design-4-stars

The design of this charger is pretty straightforward. You have the LCD Display and the battery plates (which are removable and replaceable as I mentioned above). It is not some crazy device that people are going to ask about when they see it, but it gets the job done and looks good doing so.

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18-quality-4-stars

The only thing keeping this from a full 5/5 stars for me on Quality is that it is made primarily of plastic. If you take advantage of the car adapter, the unit could get beat up pretty quickly, and I’m not sure how well the plastic casing would hold up to heavy abuse.

It is a solid device, and if you keep it on a desk or in a corner for charging, then it will work wonderfully and look good too. I’m just not sure how well the plastic would hold up to a lot of use in the field. That said, if you take care of it, and protect it when it’s not in use, this will work well for you and last a long time.

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23-value-4-stars

Value of a product is always so subjective, expensive to one person is dirt cheap to another. All I can say is that for less than the cost of some brand name camera batteries this Duo Charger can be yours. It has been invaluable to me in keeping my vast battery collection charged and ready to go.

Currently only $79,95, it is really a no brainer to me if you own multiple batteries.

33-overall-score-4.5-stars

Having the ability to charge multiple batteries at the same time with one charger is such a freeing experience when you are used to sharing just one charger between multiple batteries. You can leave two batteries charging and know that even if you forget to change over to the other dead batteries, you will at least have two good batteries for your job.

Being a Fuji Shooter, I constantly have to be aware of my battery life, as do many mirrorless shooters. The Watson Duo Charger has made it so much easier to charge my pile of batteries, and be confident in their capacity for the day’s shoot. I simply can’t recommend this charger enough.

If you would like to get your hands on the Watson Duo Charger with the battery plates of choice, you can find them over on B&H for just $79.95. It really is a killer deal.

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