Cheap Battery Pack

<p>Hi all</p>

<p>Im thinking of buying a battery pack to complement my SB800/Nikon D300.<br>

Do not want to spend too much. Any suggestions?<br>

Thanks for your time</p>

<p>what are you asking? a cheap battery pack for the D300 or some sort of pack for the SB800?</p>

<p>for the SB800, you could get a Nikon SD8A or Al Jacobs unit. for the D300, I would go OEM</p>

<p>Hi...its for the flash</p>

<p>if you're looking for something that will 'keep on going', then look at the two I mentioned, otherwise just your basic good AA's and 5th cell. 'Not too much' is a relative term. Most of the external solutions are $150-200 and then some.</p>

<p>Bought a Black Box from Al Jacobs 2 years ago and can't say enough good things about it. Price is great and it easily lasts through a 9+ hour wedding.<br>

<a href="http://www.aljacobs.com/">http://www.aljacobs.com/</a></p>

<p>Or you can make your own if you are handy. I used 18AWG wire, dummy batteries and a 6V Yuasa battery and I'm good for 1000 shots in TTL. Do a search in google and you'll find a bunch of guys with details and pictures. My setup was about $30 and does the same as other expensive low voltage units. Let me know if you need any help.</p>

<p>Michael & Dan,<br>

Besides longer lasting batteries do you get the same recycle speed with you units compared to regular NiMH or are they faster or slower?</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Recycle time will be a little better because the external batteries can provide more current to the voltage step up circuitry. The real advantage is the number of flashes the batteries provide. For batteries I find the Panasonic Enelopes to be very good. You want to use nickel metal hydride cells and avoid nicad, or gasp, alkaline (only to be used in an extreme life or death emergency). For emergency spares carry some Lithium cells in case your rechargeables run out of energy.</p>

<p>To get really fast recycle times you need a high voltage pack that provides high voltage to the flash bypassing the conversion process. With my high voltage pack I get 2 second recycle time even with a full discharge. Of course there is that annoying cable from the flash to the pack.</p>

<p>To really appreciate fast recycle time one has to journey back to the 70's when the Honeywell Strobonar 800 that used a 510 volt battery. Recycle time was very quick, about a second in the unit I saw. The batteries were expensive but did last quite awhile. I drooled over being able to get one of those units but they were priced out of my reach.</p>

<p>My Yuasa battery gives me much faster recycle time. I'm using this battery on my Nikon SB-28 Slave and at full power it charges in about a second. The pros are 1. you don 't waste money on batteries 2. You don't have to worry about your flash going out at the wrong time 3. Since your DIY battery has a larger capacity it will continue to have the same recycle time while your AA batteries will start to go below 6v. Only con is annoying to carry around the extra battery.</p>

<p>Thanks Mike & Ray.</p>

<p>I like the idea of using a battery pack when the flash is stationary, for instance on a stand in a corner or clamped to something. NiMH and LiIon isn't as robust or inexpensive as SLA (sealed lead acid) batteries IMHO.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Being congenitally cheap, yet handy, I built a set of battery packs from lead-acid batteries for my Sunpak 383s. At Fryes Electronics, they sell 6V lead-acid batts in 1.2Ah and 2.4Ah for $15 an $17, respectively. I originally bought the 2.4Ah, because a NiMH AA is about 1.5Ah, right? I don't know if the lead-acid spec writing people engage in less hyperbole, but even the smaller lead aid battery is equal to two or four sets of AAs. The best thing is the recycle time--with the right sized wire, I get about 1.5 second recycles after a full pop. I bought a belt-mounted camera pouch to hold the battery, fuse holder and disconnect. All in, I'd say it's $30. It doesn't look as nice as Al's, but it looks OK and work's great. I'll post how-to pics if I get a moment. Do remember to include a 1A fuse right at one of the battery terminals, because exploding acid makes me sad. The AA replacement is a wooden block shaped to fit snugly inside the battery bay, with room for wires and screws to contact the flash's terminals.</p>