First of all, I should point out that this charger is suitable for owners of both the GoPro Hero 10 and the GoPro Hero 9. This is because the battery for these two action cameras are interchangeable. Not so with earlier versions of GoPro. So, having gotten that out of the way, I will say that this might just be one of the most useful accessories you can get for your GoPro.
For less than half the price of the “name brand” equivalent, the Telesin portable charger comes with 3 batteries (essentially the same capacity as the original GoPro batteries), and the charger itself is also able to act as a storage for these batteries, as well as for 2 microSD cards. I purchased this piece of tech from Amazon Prime, and the build quality seems to be excellent.- so far.
We all know that GoPros are battery-intensive devices, especially when shooting at maximum resolution settings. So it is pretty imperative that you have extra batteries with you. Sure, you can charge while you shoot, but this is only practical if you’re shooting at a desk or something. Even in this situation, your rig becomes cumbersome, with cables hanging out of an open battery compartment; in outdoor scenarios, opening the battery door renders your action camera no longer water-resistant, let alone waterproof.
The ability to swap out GoPro batteries when you’re out on a shoot is essential, and this charger could well be game-changing. This thing is almost universally useful- the only time when you can’t swap batteries out is in the middle of a shot, and realistically, you can pretty much plan for this by putting a fresh battery in before you start. The only scenario where this might not be possible is if you’re doing a long (and I mean long) timelapse. You can’t change out a battery mid-timelapse because it will cause the video to stop.
So if this charger and battery combo is so good, why would anyone even consider buying the original GoPro version? That is a very good question, and I think the only thing to consider is the durability and longevity of this third party accessory. The question of how long these batteries will hold their charge for can only be answered with time. We’ve probably all had negative experiences buying generic batteries in the past, but times have changed, and the quality of after-market accessories these days is pretty good, so it maybe worth taking the chance.
This Telesin charger seems so far to be a worthy addition to a GoPro shooter’s kit bag. If you’d like to see it for yourself, you can check out my YouTube video:
Until next time,
D