Flash battery pack for weddings

Hey guys,

Wondering if any of you use the Quantum Turbo Battery Pack for weddings. It can be found here. I was in chatting with a guy I deal with at a local camera shop and he uses it and says it's absolutely unbelievable.

Or do you guys just use the standard Canon battery adapter for your flashes?

The photographer for my wedding used this one, similar,

http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …bo_2X2_Ni_MH_Ba​ttery.html

I think its a great option to using just canon.

I don't use any. Just the regular 4 AA's.

Shooting at F/2.8 ISO800, you really don't use up much power, so the next two or three flashes are always charged and ready to fire. I rarely ever have to change flash batteries through an entire day.

Thanks Lloyd - this is great info, especially considering you are dubbed the king of flash around here

picturecrazy wrote in post #3958701
I don't use any. Just the regular 4 AA's.

Shooting at F/2.8 ISO800, you really don't use up much power, so the next two or three flashes are always charged and ready to fire. I rarely ever have to change flash batteries through an entire day.

Really impressive !!! I am always worried about noise with ISO 800+ (on 30D). I should be brave and try this out sometimes.

Lloyd, how would you minimize the noise with above setting ? low shutter speed (enough to advoid camera shake and expose well) ? IS lenses , Noise reduction program ... ?

Lloyd also uses a mk3 - the noise performance on that is unbelievable. Even still, I don't mind the noise that my 30D produces at ISO 800 - I really don't think it's that bad at all actually.

For dance shots at receptions, I use the 20 or 30D. I rarely use the 1D. And ALWAYS at 800 or 1600. Yes, there is a bit of grain but hardly anything to worry about.

The 20D/10-22 is my surefire dancefloor setup. The noise level has never bothered me or my clients. All you have to do is shoot a roll of 800 film in the dark and you'll think the 20D delivers the cleanest pictures ever!! LOL. that's what happened when I made the jump to digital!

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Well Lloyd, I won't comment on your eyes, but I like the photo And no, it's not grainy imo.

oh yeah, something that will also help your flash performance is good batteries and an EXCELLENT battery charger. I've had great performance from energizer, sanyo, and maha/powerex rechargables.

EVERY WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER SHOULD HAVE THE FOLLOWING CHARGER (or a similar Maha charger):
http://www.paulsfinest​.com …rger-1xBH4-case-p-15.html

I bought from Paul above (CANADIAN! WOOT) and his service is EXCEPTIONAL.

This bad boy charger will get you the most out of your batteries, and thus, your flash. My flash performance was degrading over time. It would take longer to recharge, and I would have to replace them twice a wedding as they'd run out. I was about to go out and buy another set of 40 AA for $150, but then I bought this charger instead. It analyzes your batteries and tells you their performance. I found most of my 2500mah batteries were only holding about 1600mah!! And some of them were only putting out a voltage of 1V, sometimes 0.9V!!! This was causing unreliable triggering with my pocketwizards and driving me nuts! (The batteries in the PWs were in the worse shape)

Well, after this charger totally reconditioned them, they are all running close to their rated capacities (the energizers seem to always be about 200mah below their ratings) and at 1.44V!!! That's higher than the 1.2V they are rated for. And now they are making my flashes FLY!! woo hoo! Since reconditioning, I haven't had to swap batteries during an entire wedding yet!

So I would definitely invest in the above charger LONG before I'd put money into a battery pack. It SAVED me money by not buying new batts, and kept them out of the landfills, which made me doubly happy!

Lloyd,
You have convinced me that ISO 800 is not bad at all Now I just have to be brave and try it out . lol

I use and love my CP-E3 a LOT, i'd like another one. I use it during formals outside in the sun, I expose for the background and light the people with the flash. I'm at full power usually so recharge drops from 7sec to 2sec. I strap it to a leg of my tripod/monopod when I use off camera flash. I keep it in my pocket whenever i'm shooting with flash basically.

As an added bonus it makes you look like you know what you're doing

+1 to Lloyd's recommendation for the Maha batts & chargers. Although I went with one of their 8-battery at a time ones, because it's a pain to have multiple chargers scattered around trying to get all my batteries recycled between shoots.

But I'm also with Tim on this one. My next acquisition is a pair of CP-E3's. One of the primaries I shot with this year regularly uses the Quantum, and after watching her recycle times, I can see why. Even with the PowerEx batteries, my times were still 2-3x longer than hers. My understanding is that the CP-E3 will get me a lot faster recycle times for a lot less money (and weight) than the Quantum.

Of course, that means even MORE batteries to recharge......

CP-E3 gets screwed under the camera from minute 1.

580EX full cycle time is about 2 seconds with a CP-E3, or just about instant if you're not doing a full charge. Be careful not to burn the flash head out.

cdifoto wrote in post #3960969
CP-E3 gets screwed under the camera from minute 1.

It screws to the 20D ok, but I can't get it to attach to the camera when a grip's fitted. I just put it in my pocket.

tim wrote in post #3961196
It screws to the 20D ok, but I can't get it to attach to the camera when a grip's fitted. I just put it in my pocket.

I screw it to the camera's, camera grip's, or bracket's tripod socket.