550EX - More battery power required

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

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

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

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)

Thanks everyone, I will look into the options.

Cheers

Ian

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)

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.

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)

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.