Batteries and YN600EX-RT

Just got my first of these flashes to try out and I'm impressed. However, I was very surprised at a card in the battery slot saying Alkaline or NiMH only. no Li-ion batteries! I am SURE I have seens others using Eneloops in posts maybe here, but definitely in some of the forums. It was one of the many reasons I considered these.

Any idea why its not recommended and what to do? They seem to work just fine.

~Bob

Eneloops are nimn. Li-ion's can get hot enough to melt a flash. Canom recommends against them as well.

Really? Eneloops are no Li-ion? I need to go read and check then. Thanks for the pointer.

Just checked: They do not say anywhere on the battery what they are. I think I just assumed. Will Google for more info.

Thanks again.

What made eneloops special was the low self discharge rate and general quality.

I think there is some confusion here about batteries, Lithium disposables and Li-ion rechargeables are different beasts. Lithium AAs are not recommended for use in speedlites, because these are the ones that get hot.

Li-ion rechargeables work great powering flashes but they are not readily available in AA form factor because they have a cell voltage of 3.6V. There are some very specialized Li-ion AA batteries that have combination of battery plus internal voltage regulator to achieve 1.5V, but these are not common, affordable, or right for this application.

There are Li-ion external battery packs that can be used with the YN600ex-rt, but they are external. Example: http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …pp_310_compact_​power.html

^ ouch! $300 for an external Li-ion pack. I think I'll stick to eneloops, lol.

absplastic wrote in post #17788722
Li-ion rechargeables [...] have a cell voltage of 3.6V.

^THIS!
Eneloop are NiMH and will work in most cases just fine as replacements for alkaline. It is fairly easy to get Li-ion in AA form factor (they have a different name though) but they have a different voltage (3.6 - 4.2 V instead of 0.9 to 1.5 V) and should be never used as replacement for alkalines.

Eneloops (and other rechargebles, both NIMH and NiCad flavours), Alkalines and Lithium (Energizer L91 etc) are all around 1.5 v per cell (rechargeable a bit lower at 1.2 and Lithium higher at 1.7)
most products can tolerate the slightly lower or higher voltage, though some devices will get a bit hot.

Lithium Ion are rechargeable cells, and are available in in a AA size (normally known as a 14500**)
these are nominally 3.6v - but range from 4.2v fresh off the charger to 3.2v when fully discharged.
using them in a device not designed for them will result in it being damaged.


**Lithium ion cells are named by size in mm, the first two numbers are the diameter, the second two are length, and the last 0 means its a cylindrical cell - so a AA sized cell "14500" is 14mm by 50mm, cylindrical cell - a CR 123 sized Lithium Ion is a 16340 - 16x34mm

Just received my first YN600EX-RT from B&H. I put in Eneloop model HR 3UTGB 1.2V batteries and took a few test shots and got weird color casts in my shots - mostly blue sometimes yellow. I put in regular non-rechargeable batteries and everything works fine. Anyone else experience this?

I have about 36 Eneloops that I sure hope I can use with this flash. I just sold one 580EXII; am trying to sell my 430EXII; and if this flash works OK, I had planned to sell my last 580EXII. Now I may have to rethink things. This is a hobby, so buying Canon 600EXs is out of the question.

Oldschool1948 wrote in post #17794419
Just received my first YN600EX-RT from B&H. I put in Eneloop model HR 3UTGB 1.2V batteries and took a few test shots and got weird color casts in my shots - mostly blue sometimes yellow. I put in regular non-rechargeable batteries and everything works fine. Anyone else experience this?

I have about 36 Eneloops that I sure hope I can use with this flash. I just sold one 580EXII; am trying to sell my 430EXII; and if this flash works OK, I had planned to sell my last 580EXII. Now I may have to rethink things. This is a hobby, so buying Canon 600EXs is out of the question.

I'd throw the eneloops back in for a second go just to eliminate the possibility that the first shots were due to some breaking in period.

I did with the same result. The battery indicator is about 3/4 full. I'm going to put in a newly charged set and see what happens.

You arent shooting indoors under tungsten light and seeing bits of your frame illuminated by the flash and bits by the tungsten ?

I am shooting indoors, but the entire frame has a weird blue color cast.

When I use eneloops with the YN600, I consistently get a weird blue color cast
When I use the same eneloopes in my Canon 580EXII, no problems
When I use regular batteries in the YN600, everything works fine every time

I'm sending it back to B&H. If the next one does the same, then I'll buy some other RT system

I also ordered two YN receivers and the YN transmitter. So, I really want this to work

Received a new YN600. Using eneloops now with no issues

I get a blue cast when using theYN600EX-RT. I used fully-charged Powerex batteries. I put the same batteries in my Canon 600EX-RT and get the normal, warmer, results. So, it's not the batteries that are at fault in this case. I can compensate later in Lightroom for this but...
My previous Yongnuo 600 EX-RT was blue also, then stopped flashing. I'd better mention that long ago my Canon 580 Ex stopped flashing also. That's when I went with the Canon 600 series.
I wanted to stop paying almost $500 for a Speedlight and thought I'd try the Youngnuo route.