Batteries

Recently I shot a wedding and had problems with my flash over heating my

batteries. Can I get some recommendations for what type of batteries everyone

is using and if anyone is using rechargable batteries. I shoot with a nikon

sb800 creative lighting system.

Thanks,

Peg

Read SB-800 Manual, and obey recommendation how often you can shoot, and how long you need to pause to let the flash and battery cool down.

 

If you get external battery, most likely you will blow up the flash with too frequent shooting, but you battery could be cool.

 

The best known and expensive batteries are from Quantum. Nikon SB-8A external battery pack takes 6 AA baterries, and the internal 4 batteries in the flash are also required. This combination of 6+4 will give you much faster recycle and larger number of flashes per charge. Your batteries will stay cooler, but you are to abey the Nikon recommendaation to use the SB-800 "lightly" and let the flash cool down regardless what battery you use.

 

Sb-800 is not a PRO type heavy duty flash, and shooting fast sequences in a wedding is beyond recommended use by Nikon. I use 3 SB-800 and alternate to allow cooling down. My first SB-800 was blown up by Quantuum battery and my careless fast shooting for extended time.

WOW, that is scary. We did recognize the need to allow a coolng period. We also have an SB600 as a backup. Thanks for the info.

In my Canon 580ex and 430ex flashes I use Duracell Rechargeable 2650 mAh NiMH 'AA' batteries. I don't have any problems. I believe the SB-800 is roughly equivalent to the 580ex in terms of power.

What is the problem again? The flash overheating the batteries or the batteries overheating the flash? Could be two different causes and two different problems. You can overheat the flash by firing too many times in a row in a short space of time. You can overheat the batteries if they are lithium batteries--I noticed once when I used lithium batteries that they got really, really hot.

 

I use 2500 NiMh rechargeable batteries and the work fine. Plus I use an external battery pack--Dynalite Jackrabbit, which also works well. So which is it?

I'm taking a guess that you are using Lithium batteries. If I recall correctly lithiums have a temp sensor in them that shuts them off if they get too hot.

 

I might suggest that you increase your ISO to help your flash unit stay cool.

Peggy

 

I use lithiums in my SB-600 & SB-800. Lithium batteries will shut down when they become too hot. When they cool off, they work like new again. This will prevent you from "frying" your SB-800. It's quite rare that I've overheated the batteries. Even during a fast & furious wedding shoot.

 

Russ

I thought everybody used rechargeable AAs. Well OK, sometimes I use lithiums too, but most of the time it's NiMH AA batteries for me. They work so much better/faster than alkaline. You can fry an SB-800 with 'em. I also use an external high voltage battery pack for serious flash destruction.

 

Just kidding. I do use NiMH rechargeables though, and the external high voltage pack as well. Alkalines are lame, and lithiums are expensive.

I use Quantum (external) batteries with my SB-800's and recommend them. My 2x2 clips onto my belt and is practically unnoticeable in terms of weight. It will last for an entire event and then some.

The 2x2 will power the camera, flash or both. Since I carry spare batteries for my Nikon bodies, I usually only use the 2x2 to power the flash unit.

 

I also use the Compact Turbo, which attaches to the bottom of the camera and powers the flash with a short cord. It's very comfortable, but I have large hands. It may be a little unwieldy for smaller hands.

 

I once ran into the situation, when I was not using an external power source, where my SB-800 batteries started to fade during a wedding reception, and that was enough for me to switch to relying on the external batteries. Sure, I had extra batteries, but I went through them all and it was a pain to switch them. Please note, of course, that you still need to have some sort of AA batteries in the SB-800 for it to function, even if using an external power source.

Rechargeable batteries are the way to go if you shoot allot of weddings. I use Duracell rechargeables for my Canon CP-E3 battery pack. Never had any problems with this combination. I think I read somewhere in the manual, that you got to let the flash rest a few minutes after every 10 successive shots or so, otherwise you risk overheating.

If the batteries are hot, then what you've done is fired too many shots in a row. The SB-800 can handle up to 15 firing in a row, possibly a bit more if they are all at lower power. But that's the absolutely max. And they recommend _10_ minutes to cool down.

 

There is no reason why you should need to fire that many that quickly. If you give it even just 1 minute to cool down after 2-3 firings then it'll be fine. Probably 30 seconds, even. It's not linear.

 

allan

I love my SB-800s and would never give them up! Use rechargeables at all times and have never had a heat problem.

 

I am a fast and always moving shooter who uses a ton of flash throughout the day and have never had issues with overheating using recharge AAs.

 

This is a hugely rugged flash and does not need a lot of babying. Perhaps there is some other issue going on. What cord are you using to connect the flash to the camera. IF you are not using the right one then you will have issues both in heat and in accuracy on the exposure.

 

I suggest a look at if you are working properly with the flash and a switch to recharges. They have great lasting power and I get about half an event out of each 5. I change at an easy time to make my life simple but have gone way past halfway when I was busy and not close to the spares.

 

Brooke

Brooke,

 

Trust me - if you fire off 15 consecutive bursts at or near full power, the batteries will be red hot. I had a friend do this - he had to drop the batteries due to heat, and I was already on my way to him to tell him that he shouldn't be abusing the flash that way, so I know what he had just done. Logically, any attempts to continue with flash will start to fry the capacitor and bulb, too.

 

Yes, it's quite possible that something else is wrong, but I know that too many consecutive bursts will cause those symptoms.

 

allan