Bedford Camera and Gnarbox 2.0 Review

GNAR BOX 2.0 + Bedfords + MWB. Another not exactly gear review on here. Not because I am qualified to talk about all the specs but because I know what I like and what I would use and this thing is 100% finding space in my bag.

When Steve from Bedford Camera and Video wrote me last week to see if I wanted to hang out with this Gnarbox 2.0 the answer was a quick yes. I’ve been a big fan of Moment (the mother company) for a long time and wanted to get my hands on the original but wasn’t ever really sure how to integrate it into my workflow. Admittedly I bought a competitors product last year and the result was slow and clumsy. So it was nearly immediately back to my laptop and the same old backup strategy that almost every other wedding photographer out there uses. This thing though has largely tackled the problem of speed easily pulling the files off of a 64gb card faster than my laptop actually does and safely storing them on an internal SSD. Still struggling with the integration to workflow a little bit I played with it with Max and our buddy Jason Vinson to see what he thought. All of us are a little floored by the speed, the relatively little heat the thing puts out, and how substantial it feels in hand. I’m not sure it’s exactly made with a wedding photographer in mind however being able to pull a card out of camera and have it safely backed up within a few minutes means that hypothetically I could have an entire wedding backed up on a drive (or even two if I plugged another into the base) before I even get home. That means an extra hour and a half of sleep on a wedding night, a little extra piece of mind, and the cool factor of knowing that when we are on one of our more adventurous trips like the one to Iceland or Canada last year we could back up safely in the field. Battery life is pretty solid but being able to swap batteries solves any problems I could see arising and as with pretty much everything else Bedfords is doing right now they’ve found a product that seems like not only a good fit, but the best fit for the market. This thing isn’t for everybody - heck at the price point it pretty much narrows down the demographic all on it’s own - but I’ll absolutely be using it and love the way it slides into a bag and lets me feel a little safer if my laptop dies, hard drive crashes, or I just want to make sure that a memory card doesn’t disappear.

Full disclosure here, I’m not paid by Bedfords for this advice but let me go on a short tangent on why having a local camera shop is so important. Number 1 - this industry was built on these guy’s backs. Long before e-com was a thing there were nerdy people selling cameras to nerdy people and that made us all stronger together. Having a place to drop in and a face to smile back at means that I know when I buy something from Bedfords no only is the money staying in my local economy but I’m supporting a company who supports my industry right back. Local educational opportunities, local workshops, local staff, local photographers. Don’t get me wrong - I’ll shop pricing around but rarely do I find somebody to beat these guys (especially after shipping) and I absolutely love that when I request a product, or a brand I have somebody who can get it in for me and give me unbiased opinions about it. So - go shop at some place local - because it’s awesome.