XTAR VN2 Review

As an avid outdoor enthusiast, I have been in the photographying for nearly 20 years. For me, charging the camera battery is a big hassle, because I usually take several thousand shots a day. When I am on the go, the wall plugs are always not enough to use. And as I need to prepare several batteries for the photographying, I have to charge batteries every night, and even sometimes get up in the middle of the night to change the batteries. This is really a torture for me. I was already very tired after the whole day’s outdoor photography.

Recently I noticed that XTAR has released a new USB charger – VN2. The design of Type-C charging port, dual charging channels, small size and lightweight instantly made me abandon the original charger that has been used for many years. Let’s take a look at how this camera charger is.

Firstly, let’s see its package.

XTAR uses ordinary card box package. The accessories in the package are also very simple, a VN2 charger, a type-c charging cable, and a manual.

This is the appearance of XTAR VN2. The first impression is that it is really small and compact. I bought the type of Canon LP-E6 charger, which is for the mainstream Canon SLR battery (1DX is the LP-E4N series, not applicable). This charger is only half the size of the original Canon charger.

The weight is only half, too.

As mentioned above, this charger is powered by the type-c port, and the input power is 5V, 2.1A, which means that it can be charged by power banks, portable solar pannel, car charger adapters and even laptops.

What’s more interesting is, this charger also uses a modular design. The charging base is removable. That means the same charging head can be charged with different batteries. You only need to remove and change the charging base. XTAR offer four charging bases – Canon LP-E6N,LP-E17, LP-E8 and SONY NP-FW50.

In the picture, the charging base on the left is for charging SONY DSLR. This modular design not only saves some tooling costs for manufacturers, but also provides buyers with benefits, and it can also maximize space savings in backpacking. 

XTAR VN2 has a LCD screen, which displays the real charging status. In the screen you can see the charging voltage, charging current, charged volume and even volume to be charged. You can not only know whether the battery is full, but also know the health of the battery, so that you can easily find out the aging batteries and avoid the dead battery in shooting.

I think the most practical feature is its dual charging channels. The VN2 charger can charge two batteries at the same time. For the photographers like me, I no longer have to get up in the middle of the night to change the batteries. And the VN2 provides charging current 0.5A for two bays and 1A for a single bay. I tested and found that, two batteries with zero charged volume can be fully charged in about 3 hours.

This VN2 charger has saved me at least a 220V AC socket. I only need to plug it into the USB port while charging the laptop. And when the last battery is almost dead, you can temporarily recharge one or two batteries with the power bank in your hand as an emergency. Sometimes I keep the camera batteries fully charged in the car.

Coupled with the XTAR MC4S battery charger that also uses the type-c charging port. The battery power problem is perfectly solved during travel.

I know some guys may prefer the traditional AC port. But the USB charging makes the camera batteries can be charged anywher and anytime. And the design of two bays saves us half of the charging time.

Anyway, it is very useful for me. I like this XTAR VN2 camera charger.