550EX - More battery power required

[iwatkins]

Hi All,

Found myself in the strange position of shooting a round of the Miss England competition at the weekend. Good fun it was too. :)

So I went armed with my 1D MkII and a 550EX. I don't use the 550EX much as I'm usually in the studio with strobes.

So, I run the flash on rechargeable NiMH batteries. No problem, fast recycles but they drain down a bit after two hundred odd shots. No worries, I've got some good alkalines in the bag, so I switch to those. As we all know they aren't too good for flashes so recycle times are longer. Even so, they get me through this shoot, just. i only missed a few shots due to waiting for a recycle.

Now, I can't help thinking there is a better way to give me fast recycle times on the 550EX from an external battery pack and for it to last the night (500 odd shots, 30% of which are close to full power). I see Canon do an external batter pack but does anyone use anything alternative ?

I won't use if very often so I don't want to spend too much cash. If it comes down to it it is just additional sets of NiMH batteries.

Any ideas.

Cheers

Ian

[scottbergerphoto]

It's not cheap but it works better then NiMh in demanding siuations: Quantum Battery Packs, like the Turbo. www.qtm.com

[tim]

I use the 550EX, and carry 4 sets of NiMH for large events. You might like to check out this site (http://www.aljacobs.com/index2.htm) for a battery pack that's cheaper than a quantum, and should give you slightly faster recharge times too.

[Huckaback Photo]

Ian
Nothing beats a Quantum pack for quallity.
I've used one with the metz 45 for nearly 20 years and its still going, yes I would say there are cheaper units to be found but these are proven proffessional packs, the right one will also power your camera.
Martin (Huckaback Photo)

[iwatkins]

Thanks everyone, I will look into the options. :)

Cheers

Ian

[Huckaback Photo]

Ian
one other thought, I use both 550 and 580 and I notice a differance , the 580 does not seem to get through batteries like 550 also seems to work better with 1D mk2, there is of course the canon pack available, but I dont rate that.
Which ever battery you get it will be conected with a cable, now I always carried 2 cables in the past, only a thought. as these can be easilly damaged.

Martin (Huckaback Photo)

[tim]

The 550EX illuminates the area that a full frame camera would capture in a frame, whereas the 580EX knows about the smaller sensor and illuminates a smaller area. Because of that it uses less power, and recharges more quickly. If you're using a diffuser you lose this advantage.

[Huckaback Photo]

Tim
That was a good point worth pointing out, thanks.
the 580ex is supposed to recycle 25% faster than 550ex.
If you get the canon battery pack CP E3 it will allow approx 430 shots and can be used with both flash units, its takes 8 @ AA bats and its pos to buy extra magazines to pre load for fast change.

Martin (Huckaback Photo)

[Longwatcher]

Although an external pack would probably be the best option, I carry around a set or two of oxy-akaline AA batteries if you can find them (Kodak Digital Max is the brand I like) for backup. I normally use NiMH batteries as primary because I usually only need my flash for a small number of shots typically and I use the same batteries with a couple of external packs for other devices. But I keep the Kodaks for my critical emergency backup set.

The reason I like the Kodak batteries is they work even faster as they heat up and although I haven't over worked them with my 550EX on 1DsMkII yet, I have shot a few runway-style shows with my 10D, 70-200/2.8L IS, 550EX combination and got over 400 shots with no misses after the first few minutes. We are talking as fast as I could press my finger recharging. Good enough for me, although I was starting to get worried that they might be recharging the 550EX too fast.

I even looked at the white paper on the batteries and they are well designed for high-speed recharging of digital equipment and especially flashes. And it actually shows why they work better as they get hotter from use. They are just a bit hard to find at times except at overpriced airport kiosks for some reason.