Today we are taking a look at a new electrical blower by Nitecore which recently launched a whole range of photography cleaning accessories – the new Nitecore BB2.
BB2 A second-generation mini electric blower
A few months ago, Nitecore released the BlowerBaby electric photography blower and while we didn’t do a separate review of this unit, we did use it mostly to clean dust from our lenses and from products that we have been shooting in the studio.
Recently Nitecore decided to ramp up its game by making the BB2 a more powerful and versatile electric blower with a few interesting features.
Although the older and newer units look physically similar there are quite a few differences between them. While the older unit felt pretty well made from aluminum, the new one is substantially more robust and feels surprisingly heavy for its small size.
The controls and charge port are not on the bottom of the unit anymore but on the top. We actually preferred the older design in this respect as it allowed for a more natural grip. While the old unit had a simple button and a single-speed blower, the new unit has a dial with 4 modes – lock (plus light), silent, optical, and turbo mode.
The Nitecore BB2 Electronic Blower with the 4-mode selector
The BB2 has a new tiny LED in the front. It’s not very powerful but it does help to spot dust from a close range. To turn on the light you have to turn the ring and push the power button but only while the ring is in a locked position. Talking about the lock position, we would probably prefer a separate switch lock instead of this type of wheel.
The motor on this unit is very impressive and so is the maximum power. The BB2 has a 650mAh internal battery coupled with a 33.6W motor. The result is a unit that is more than 50% more powerful than the previous generation and you can certainly feel and hear that.
Very impressive and powerful motor (a significant improvement in blowing power over the previous generation)
A full charge of the battery will give you about 10 min of use at full power which is a pretty long time since the normal type of use for this device are short bursts of less than 10 seconds.
One more addition to the BB2 is the retractable magnetic brush which is surprisingly useful for those sticky dust particles that won’t blow away. Talking about sticky dust, what we would really like to see in the next generation of this device is some sort of anti-static or ionic technology to remove dust and prevent it from getting back (basically a low-cost tiny version of the German-made Ionstar used by professional industrial painters).
Although the BB2 has a fine dust filter just like its predecessor we are still reluctant to try it on our camera sensor and prefer the more traditional manual blower, however for lenses and products it sure comes in handy and does a pretty nice job. Another unexpected use we discovered is to cool down a camera that gets too hot, just open the monitor and give it a minute or two of air behind the screen at full blast, it really does help.
Nitecore now has a full line of photography cleaning accessories
Pricing
When it comes to pricing, the Nitecore BB2 sells for just under $90.
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Iddo Genuth 
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