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LLANO CM4 EN-EL15 4-port charger Overview

Here is a detailed look at the LLANO 4-port battery charger that has reverse charging which is a pretty unique feature. Keep in mind that LLANO sent me this charger to try out at no cost. However, they have no say in the content of the video or this article, and they were not allowed to preview it before publication. Check out the full video on this device: The LLANO 4-port EN-EL15 Nikon type battery charger is a device with quite a lot going on. It features reverse charging capabilities, a touchscreen interface, and a magnetic lid with storage for SD and Micro SD memory cards. The charger. Design and Exterior Features This is a four-port charger designed with a metal exterior, which gives it a solid feel. On the front, there is a touchscreen interface. You basically tap the little fingerprint icon to wake it up and view the charging statistics.  The front display panel showing charging status indicators. Sorry, it's difficult to see in bright lighting. The display features two dis...

LLANO F15 2-in-1 Card Reader and Storage Case

In this article I take a look at the LLANO F15 which is a device designed to serve two purposes: acting as a rugged storage case for your memory cards and functioning as a high-speed card reader. The LLANO F15 2-in-1 High-Speed Card Reader Keep in mind that LLANO sent me this unit to try out at no cost to make a video on, based on my collaboration terms. This means they have no say in the contents of the video or this article, and they were not allowed to preview anything before publication. I make these website articles as an added bonus to people that prefer written versions of my videos.  Check out the full video overview on YouTube:   Unboxing and Accessories This is a convenient way to store your Micro SD and standard SD memory cards while maintaining the ability to connect them to phones or computers via USB-C or USB-A ports if you use the included adapter. In the box, we have the device itself along with a carabiner that you can attach to the stretchy loop on the top. I...

Pro-Gaff, 3M, and AmazonBasics No Residue Tape Overview

In this article I talk about gaffer tape as well as no-residue duct tape. I have used tapes like this for years and it's tough using anything else because of how versatile it is.  Check out the related video on YouTube: The first one we are talking about today is Pro Tapes Gaff. This is a traditional gaffer tape that's meant to not to leave a residue as well as being easy to tear. If you are in some type of video production situation, you typically use this type of tape to put over cables or other obstacles on set.  I do not do professional video production, but I do use this type of tape a lot in just almost any situation related to my online video work.  Is all gaffer tape the same? I had used a roll of Amazon Basics gaffer tap. The nice thing about this tape was that it did not have a white backing, which made it look cleaner on the edges, but it failed at being no residue for extended periods of time. They do mention on the product page it's not intended for long ter...

Turning a spare PC into a big photo archive with ACDSee PSU 2026 & open source software

In this project, I am going over the process of scanning my entire photo and video archive, which sits at around 22 Terabytes, using ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2026.  ACDSee has sent me codes for this program in the past, but they have no relation to this specific project. I was simply curious to see how the AI keywords and face detection features would function when processing and using a large archive. As it turns out, it was quite the process getting this working and fulling scanning my ~22TB archive. My local setup using a small dedicated monitor to check the server computer locally. My goal here was to create a client-server environment. Rather than running this compute heavy process on my main computer, I wanted to offload the work to a separate machine with one of my archive copies attached. Obviously, scanning this volume of data takes a long time, so separating it from my main computer seemed like the best approach. The Software Setup: TightVNC and Remote Ripple To make ...

Autumn Photo Walk with the Canon EOS M6 Mark II and Sigma 16mm f1.4

I went on a photo walk at a beautiful Japanese styled garden with a Canon EOS M6 Mark II and the Sigma 16mm f1.4 lens. It's worth noting that this equipment is now discontinued, but you can likely find it used. Sadly, the EF-M mount has been phased out. This photo walk was recorded in 2022 and has been on my work drive since then so I wanted to do something with it. Check out the video on YouTube: The silver Canon EOS M6 Mark II & Sigma 16mm lens. I was using the silver version of the M6 Mark II. I won't go into a ton of detail about the camera itself in this article, but I will focus more on the lens. Camera Settings I also had two Canon M50 cameras at the time which worked well with the Sigma lens. For this photo walk, I used aperture priority with a minimum shutter speed of 1/60th of a second and a maximum ISO of 3200. I also had video stabilization on for the few clips I recorded (they are in the linked video). Since this camera doesn't have sensor-based stabilizati...