Hey guys-
While shooting my niece this halloween in the ~50° weather, I noticed my flash taking a lot longer to charge up. I use the powerex smart charger, and have a good amount of duracell nimh and energizer nimh AA's. I understand the physics of how cold weather affects alkaline, nimh, SLA, and lithium batteries, but I'm curious how everyone is planning for the cold months. Typically, with a freshly charged set of 2500-2700 nimh, it takes just a few seconds to achieve 1/8th power. Last night, It felt like i was waiting ten seconds (as if i was waiting for a full power charge). I'm not sure if the temperature was the culprit, or perhaps the batteries need to be 'refreshed' (which is a possibility), or the capacitor in this particular flash is going bad (i have 4 of the same canon 420ez flashes).
Anyway, for those of you that run nimh batteries, or are into fabrication, how do you battle the cold? I was thinking of getting a 7.4v Lithium battery cell (maybe 2500-5000mAh) then running a BEC from castle creations to regulate it down to 6v. Now I understand this wouldn't be the cheapest thing on the planet to do, BUT, it was be a perfect 6v and would NOT be affected by the cold weather. I would only need this for 1 flash, since I typically only use 1 flash for my portrait work.
Anyone else have any ideas? I've gone down the SLA route, and didn't work for me. I've thought about purchasing 'lithium' AA cells, but they get expensive and are non rechargeable. Do you guys just suck it up and deal with it? shoot less flash and more ambient light? I'd love to hear your ideas...Thanks again!
ps: the following shot was with my 1 flash technique. canon 420ez on 1/8th power ( or so ) + stofen diffuser + white 43" umbrella...I think it's got great coverage for little setup time, easy portability, and ease of use. just bring your sandbag!
Josue + Kristina
by btmlinedan, on Flickr
