Need battery pack suggestions please!!!

Ok so I went with the advice of some on here and purchased the Yonguon or how ever its spelled from flashzebra.com. Now it worked great for a week or two and failed. I contacted Lon and the replaced it for me, the new one worked for the same amount of time as the first one did. I just noticed it took a dive like the first one, the light turns on, then shortly starts to flash then turns off. The recycle time on a 1/1 firing is about roughly 3 seconds on my 580ex II an then pack doesn't cut the time in half nor down a bit. Plus the pack stopped making the wining sound when it used to work. So I contacted Lon again and he agreed to return my money. Great customer service just got a bad string of the product no harsh feelings, just disappointed.

My question is what other battery packs will work better? The batteries I was using are the Sanyo Eneloops and I have about 20 of them. I tried the Shoot pack from ebay for $20.00 and that didn't work with the normal alkaline batteries but it did with the eneloops, go figure. They agreed to replace it as well. But I still need a pack that will work and for for more then the first weeks or so and I won't have to worry if it is gonna work when I go out shooting. Maybe I should just the canon pack or go all in on a quantum pack.

Any Suggestions?

Thanks in advance

Sevan

I have no experience with the Yongnuo battery packs, but have a friend that uses them all of the time. He swears by them. We get together a few times a year at Sporting Events. He shoots single shots & I shoot sequences. Just flat action lighting, maybe a Better Beamer, nothing fancy.

I have Canon & Pixel packs. I try to shoot close to ambient using the flash to help freeze motion as well as fill-in face shadows. I use fresh slow-charged PowerGenix NiZn batteries in the battery packs with only the pack refreshing my 580Ex II.

I have used the Canon CP-E4 with my 580EX II for over 4 years and it has never given me a hint of a problem. It will give me about 2-3 frames at around 6FPS (ISO 3200-6400, Manual, 1/640, f/2.8, ETTL) on my 1D4/70-200 before a skip... YMMV depending on distance & camera settings. I try not overheat the flash by overcycling it.

Last year I purchased a Pixel CP-E4. Its battery tray splits the batteries into two groups of four batteries. It has dual circuits that feed the flash, reducing the time that is required to refresh the flash (anyway, that was the sales pitch). It seems to get 3-5 frames before a skip... again, YMMV. The Pixel has not given me any problems either. Because of the split circuit design, battery life suffers. Also, in the event that one of the circuits fail, the other still works.

So far, I haven't had the guts to put PowerGenix batteries in the 580EX II & combine all of the batteries of the flash & battery pack. I would expect a slight improvement in performance. The electronics would probably handle it, but the flash tube might get a little warm.

PixelHK if you want good, and cheap, I use two and they're fine. use Canon if you want the best but expensive.

Thanks Guys, I just need something that will no crap out within the first two weeks. I wonder if the power from the Eneloops is too much from the pack and the flash? I may look into the PixelHK or maybe the canon next.

It'll just be poor quality products. My PixelHK packs work fine, i've done a dozen weddings with them, but my first one was partially faulty. The recharge speed of one was slower than the other, so they replaced it. I got it from ebay.

I have 3 of the YNs and 5 of the Pixels. I had to return 3 Pixels for a variety of failures. One of the YNs lost part of the plug and became unusable.

Bottom line, the Chinese knockoffs have some QC issues but all in all they are very useful and much less expensive than the Canon alternative.

I quite sending the Pixel packs back to China when they failed. Just kept the trays for quick change.

The last two Pixels I purchased from Cheetah Stand to simplify exchange if there is a problem.

I like the Pixels a little more than the YNs. If I were going to buy anymore YNs I'd buy them from Lon.

I have 8 Speedlites that use the packs. They go all night long without a problem.

S.E.V. wrote in post #12343269
Thanks Guys, I just need something that will no crap out within the first two weeks. I wonder if the power from the Eneloops is too much from the pack and the flash? I may look into the PixelHK or maybe the canon next.

I doubt it. Eneloops only have 1.2V. Alkalines have 1.5V and NiZn are 1.6V. Like others said, it's just poor QC. I use the Pixel TD-381 as well and never had any problems.

dmward wrote in post #12343470
I have 3 of the YNs and 5 of the Pixels. I had to return 3 Pixels for a variety of failures. One of the YNs lost part of the plug and became unusable.

Bottom line, the Chinese knockoffs have some QC issues but all in all they are very useful and much less expensive than the Canon alternative.

I quite sending the Pixel packs back to China when they failed. Just kept the trays for quick change.

The last two Pixels I purchased from Cheetah Stand to simplify exchange if there is a problem.

I like the Pixels a little more than the YNs. If I were going to buy anymore YNs I'd buy them from Lon.

I have 8 Speedlites that use the packs. They go all night long without a problem.

Believe me when my YN pack worked I was out shooting all damn day, but when you turn it on the next day and it doesn't work, you kind of question the reliability. I know knock offs are not going to be the best route but for the price you have to deal with the experimenting of which one is better then the others. But when you only take about 40 shots then it craps out, there is a bigger problem at hand.

another vote for the Pixel packs. Got mine from CheetahStand as well and so far, so good. Does what it is supposed to and does it consistently.

I'm curious how hard you guys are using your packs.

I picked up a genuine Canon CP-E3 a while ago that appeared to be brand new. I used it at a couple of weddings and it was fine - but weddings are not too hard on flashes. Then I took it to a race I was shooting and it died. I was doing event style shooting so I was using it pretty hard but I try to take it easy on my gear so I had a 430exII that I would mount every 15 minutes or so and use it for a few minutes to let the other system cool down a bit. At some point during the day (I don't know when) the pack stopped working.

Of course it was outside the 12 month warranty window so Canon told me to take a hike (no repairs on these packs).

Is anyone else using one any of their packs really hard? Like 4000 pictures in 4 hours? If the Canon packs are ACTUALLY more reliable then I don't mind spending money on them... but if they all suck and they're probably going to die anyway then I'm going to buy the cheap one.

Since the OP mentioned the "Q" word, I'll offer that up as an alternative. I *hate* keeping track of and recharging piles of AA batteries. I have both Pixel and Yongnuo packs for my Nikon and Canon flashes and none has ever given me any problem. However, the packs take 8 AA batteries each and that I find a nuisance. Soooooooooo, when weight isn't an issue, I'll reach for the old Quantum Turbo every time. Used Turbos are cheap as are replacement SLA batteries. The packs are bulletproof and capacity is mammoth. I just added a Quantum Turbo SC to the battery family. It's small and light and also has huge capacity. However, even at eBay prices, it wasn't cheap.

Pixel for an 8 AA-powered, generally reliable pack. Quantum Turbo when weight and bulk are secondary considerations to absolute reliability. Quantum Turbo SC for extreme reliability and portability at a price.

Dave F.

cwood wrote in post #12405822
I'm curious how hard you guys are using your packs.

I picked up a genuine Canon CP-E3 a while ago that appeared to be brand new. I used it at a couple of weddings and it was fine - but weddings are not too hard on flashes. Then I took it to a race I was shooting and it died. I was doing event style shooting so I was using it pretty hard but I try to take it easy on my gear so I had a 430exII that I would mount every 15 minutes or so and use it for a few minutes to let the other system cool down a bit. At some point during the day (I don't know when) the pack stopped working.

Of course it was outside the 12 month warranty window so Canon told me to take a hike (no repairs on these packs).

Is anyone else using one any of their packs really hard? Like 4000 pictures in 4 hours? If the Canon packs are ACTUALLY more reliable then I don't mind spending money on them... but if they all suck and they're probably going to die anyway then I'm going to buy the cheap one.

I've never used it that hard, but i'll do 400 1/4 power flashes in an hour sometimes. The Canon and PixelHK packs have been reliable for me. The packs are simple, unless you burn them out somehow not sure how you could damage them. I have a CP-E3 and CP-E4 that are a few years old each and still work fine.

tim wrote in post #12406165
I've never used it that hard, but i'll do 400 1/4 power flashes in an hour sometimes. The Canon and PixelHK packs have been reliable for me. The packs are simple, unless you burn them out somehow not sure how you could damage them. I have a CP-E3 and CP-E4 that are a few years old each and still work fine.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm not sure how it would get burned out either. After Canon told me there were "no serviceable parts" I opened it up to find a few serviceable parts - so if something is "burned" it seems to me it should be replaceable... but if nobody is willing to do it then I guess its just garbage now.

My CP-E3 has similar symptoms to what someone else in this thread described with a 3rd party pack. The light comes on but now there is no noise coming from the pack, no improvement in recycle time, and no power drain on the packs batteries.

I'm a huge fan of the size and weight of these packs... and the AA batteries since I sometimes work in remote locations and I don't have access to chargers... but I'm hoping I don't keep burning through them.

Things are so cheap and peoples time is so expensive it's not worth the time to diagnose which individual components burned out and repair them. That'd cost way more than buying a new one.

If you need to do 4000 shots in 4 hours you should consider an industrial strength unit, like a Quantum.

I would say 1000 flashes an hour, the flash unit would be the week link. Even at reduced power that's a lot of heat. It would also require several battery changes I suspect. My guess is the circuitry in the pack would tend to overheat as well under those conditions. There is a transformer in the pack to get the high voltage and they generate heat.

That kind of workload, a shot every 3.75 seconds on average seems well beyond what the 580EX and pack are intended for.