At Home with Tech

It’s not as complicated as it looks. Tech tips for your life.

Category: Tech How To

September 27, 2026

Can You Charge a Camera Battery Using an Apple Power Adapter?

If you don’t have a charger for your camera’s battery, you might consider using another charger like an Apple power adapter. But is okay to do that? I faced that exact question as I unboxed my new Fujifilm X-T30 III and was surprised my camera didn’t come with a battery charger.

When you proudly unbox a new piece of tech, you shouldn’t get worried if you’re missing the battery charger. That’s because the manufacturer simply didn’t give you one. Today, you’re often expected to buy it separately or use a power supply from a separate piece of gear. Sometimes you can plug your new thirsty device into your computer for juice. 

It’s your problem to figure out. (You’re welcome.)

Of course, it’s a great way for our favorite brands to save money… and perhaps make some more.  And one could also say it helps reduce waste as you should already have access to any number of ‘compatible’ chargers for your other pieces of tech.

But is it really okay to use other random chargers and cables with your new tech as long as the connector fits?

That’s the question I suddenly faced when I unboxed my new Fujifilm X-T30 III camera… sans charger.

External Battery Charger Vs In-Camera Charging

Yes, I could simply purchase an external battery charger for my Fujifilm battery. But my nifty APS-C camera can also charge its battery in body via its USB-C port. (Easy!)

So, I could do it by the book, order a battery charger and wait a few days for it to arrive in the mail, or I could power up my new camera… almost immediately.

I could delay my moment of tech gratification, or I could get my dopamine hit in the next hour. Hmmm…

As I considered my options, my gaze zeroed in on a sleek, white rectangle plugged into a nearby outlet. It was my trusty Apple 20 Watt USB-C charger I use for my iPhone. It never looked so beautiful…

Would that work?

Will an Apple 20 Watt USB-C Power Adapter Work with my Fujifilm Camera?

I quickly went to my Fujifilm manual. It suggested I could use a ‘recommended’ AC adapter of 7.5 watts or more. (That guidance seems rather vague.)

The fine print also read, “Use a USB-IF certified AC adapter or USB-C to USB-C cable when charging with the camera. An AC adapter of 7.5 W or more is recommended.”

Well, my Apple charger offers more than 7.5 watts. But is 20 watts too much more? I don’t want to damage my new battery… or my camera.

We know that Apple tech requiring less juice connects safely with its 20-watt power blocks. The power supply is engineered to provide the correct energy flow that the particular Apple device needs. 

But what about other manufacturers’ cameras and the Apple power adapter? Will they “talk to each other” and successfully negotiate wattage needs too?

In simple terms… Will my Apple charger be friends with my Fujifilm camera and its battery?

Approval Received?

The common online wisdom regarding this topic is YES:

  • The battery in the Fujifilm camera will indeed only pull the wattage it needs from the Apple charger. It won’t take the full 20 watts… just the 7.5 watts. (Both A.I. and humans offered this guidance.)

So, it shouldn’t be a problem.

Fujifilm’s manual seems to align with that conclusion (with enough room in its language for plausible deniability).

Online forums also generally agree. Though there are purists who don’t like powering up a battery in camera due to concerns over possible heat generation (battery gets warm) that could affect the camera’s long-term health.

That said, my research found no one complaining about actual damage.

So, guess what…?

I immediately went ahead and powered up my Fujifilm camera battery with my Apple USB-C charger… No problem.

Yay!

And My Camera Finally Comes to Life for the First Time

Yes, this took some thinking through and certainly should not be the first topic I obsess over after I unbox a shiny new piece of tech.

Perhaps we simply live in a time when bringing your own power supply to the party should be common knowledge by now.

I’ll try to get out more.

And when I do, My Fujifilm camera will be ready to go.

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September 6, 2026

Why I Like to Convert my New York City Photos to Black and White

Though I’m not a black and white photographer, sometimes I choose to pull the color out of my shots after I walk through the streets of New York. Here’s why.

I grew up in New York City. It’s my forever hometown. Though I haven’t lived there in decades, my life forever orbits around it.

I’m as close as the 7:55am Metro North train into Grand Central Terminal.

Discovering What’s Around the Corner

Many of the photos I’ve taken of the Big Apple over the years are simply the result of my commutes and what I’ve run into on the streets of Manhattan. 

And I’ve found that more than a few of my resulting shots look better as black and white versions. 

Prometheus Watches Over the Ice (2021)

Photo by Barrett Lester

Why am I drawn to the black and white look? When you think about New York City, what are a few descriptors that come to mind? For me, I would say:

  • Classic
  • Dramatic
  • Timeless
  • Gritty

And these are also some of the ways that black and white images present themselves. So, the visual and energy alignment is clear.

Better in Black and White 

That’s why I occasionally feel compelled to click on the tiny black and white button when editing my New York City photos on my Mac Studio. (My tool of choice is Adobe Lightroom. It offers a variety of B&W ‘looks.’)

As a result, my selected shots often benefit from their visual conversion into the black and white universe.

Sure, they still look nice in color. I just like them better in black and white. It generates a classic timelessness about them.

Here are more examples.

Atlas Lifts World Cup Awareness (2026)

Photo by Barrett Lester

Scabby the Rat Protests (2026)

Photo by Barrett Lester

Morning Commute at Grand Central Terminal (2025)

Photo by Barrett Lester

East 63rd Street (2022)

Photo by Barrett Lester

48th and 5th Avenue (2021)

Photo by Barrett Lester

Smith & Wollensky (2021)

Photo by Barrett Lester

Bliss (2021)

Photo by Barrett Lester

Outdoor Dining (2016)

Photo by Barrett Lester

Follow Your Flow

I usually don’t go looking for photos to snap on the streets of New York. Certainly not black and white ones. They find me. And I often don’t recognize the opportunity to convert them to black and white till much later… sometimes years later when I review them again.

I’m not sure what that says about me as a photographer, but it does reveal something about my creative process.

We all travel our own road that leads us into inspiration and towards creative execution.You just have to go with the flow and see where it takes you.

New York City Marathon (2008)

Photo by Barrett Lester
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August 30, 2026

Why I Created Three AI Spokespeople to Promote My Blog

Meet Mr. Tech, a robot and a time traveler. I invented them and then brought them to life in their own commercials below. But here’s their true purpose.

I had a mentor who once told me about her 80/20 rule when producing content. The rule said you should spend 20% of your time ‘creating’ and the other 80% ‘promoting’ what you made.

Leaning into the spirit of that 80/20 marketing rule, I’ve decided to spin up a few Gen AI characters inspired by my blog topics to help promote a few of my past posts. (And of course, by doing that, I’m instantly breaking that rule.)

So please meet my three AI spokespeople I created who are now starring in the below 30-second At Home with Tech commercials.  

The Time Traveler

Mr. Tech (You’ve seen him before.)

The Robot Teacher

My next step was to bring these freeze frames to life. But to accomplish that, I had to first wear the following hats:

  • Casting
  • Location Scout
  • Script Writer 
  • Talent Director
  • And Director of Photography
    (I occasionally used Claude for this.)

Once I provided the necessary creative direction and script, I put Gen AI to work creating video clips for my commercials. Here are the results.


This Time Traveler has a Mission to Save Time

My Blog Post:
How to Use Shortcuts on Your iPhone to Save Time



Mr. Tech Worries About Capturing the Sunrise on a Cloudy Day 

My Blog Post:
How Clouds Transformed My Boring Sunrise Timelapses
into Pure Magic



Robot Teacher Explains How to Unlock an Old Suitcase

My Blog Post:
Try this Luggage Hack If You Forget Your Lock’s 3-Digit Code



I Used Google Flow

So yes, I hope you watch my above AI commercials and then read my blog posts they’re promoting.

But truthfully, that’s not the main reason why I created them.

I gave myself this marketing assignment, because I wanted to learn more about how to make these AI spots.

For this project, I used Google Flow (Veo) as my Gen AI tool of choice. 

The Steps to Bring My AI Characters to Life

And while parts of my workflow generated cool, unexpected AI iterations, which I used for inspiration, much of my creative process still relied on this human’s creative vision. 

And because this astonishing technology is still highly imperfect, I found a clear need for an organized process that would lead me to an acceptable level of creative consistency and output.

So, I had to stick to the following steps:

  • Create the characters and their voices first
  • Generate their environments
  • Then put them together
  • Write the script and figure out each shot and length
  • Be ready to adjust certain shots if they’re not generating correctly
  • Don’t forget that each failed video generation drains your monthly credit allotment 
  • So allow yourself the flexibility to leave certain ideas behind
  • Give yourself enough time to account for platform generation delays
  • Simplify as needed

Though you can perform basic video edits on the Google Flow platform, I decided to bring my clips into Final Cut Pro for more advanced results.

I’m Learning a New Way to Communicate

None of this went especially quickly, and I found there were clear limits to what this ‘beginner’ could accomplish. What I ended up with wasn’t exactly what I envisioned, but it was close. It still feels remarkable that this is even possible.

And though there is some commentary out there about how AI may be taking away our need to ‘think,’ let me tell you, I had to do a whole lot of thinking with this. It was like trying to solve a puzzle that was regularly shifting on me. 

Sure, I traveled through several phases of frustration. But I also found the process entirely fun and invigorating. I was like a Star Trek ‘Q,’ creating realities from the whims of my imagination.

Of course, I know it’s only going to get easier. Not only because AI is constantly improving, but because this ‘organic’ is learning too.

Radical Change

As I travel through this new creative process to visualize my own ideas through AI, I hope you enjoy my silly AI spokespeople and find more of my blog posts.

The road ahead is far more serious.

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