Sunpak 555 w/ TR-PK II charger

[medina photography cherry]

I bought the Sunpak 555 used as a third light for wedding receptions. My goal

was to have 2 550ex flashes on light stands triggered by PW's. I did this at

my last event and got some great lighting. One flaw was when someone blocked

the light (me shooting 90 degrees of the first light, 180 from the other) i

would get really great rim and side lighting but the bodys would be silhouette.

 

Anyway, so I knew that I needed more power than just the AA's, so I got the

power pak. Does the power pak work inconjunction with the 6 AA batteries or

independently when turned to BATT?

 

I know that the power pak works without the AA's in the flash on AC/HV was

just curious as to the other.

 

Thanks

[Gary Naka]

Don't know about the 555 but on some flashes, you cannot plug in the HV cable in the BATT postion. There is a tab on the switch that slides into the HV jack to block the plug.

 

Interesting that it would work w/o the batteries. On many strobes, the AA batteries are needed for the onboard circuits.

[bsotiras]

Never had a problem with power drain, but the 555 instruction book says on page 9.

 

"

Caution: In dedicated operation with other power sources than 6AA or CL-2,keep 6AA batteries or CL-2 in battery compartment to control dedicated circuiterty. And make sure the Power Switch is set to AC/HV postion,or current is drawn from batteries and auxiliary sources in parallel."

 

Decicated operation means when you use the TTL hot shoe modules.

You will need the 6AA in the battery compartment for the TTL metering to work.

[medina photography cherry]

I don't have a manual for the flash since I bought it used. So does that mean that as long as I have it in the AC/HV mode I do not need the 6 AA batteries installed?

I am not using the dedicated piece as I am using it attached to a pocket wizard.

 

Thanks

[Gary Naka]

Since you have a digital camera, give it a try w/o the AA batteries. My hot shoe flash need the AA batteries to run the sync circuits. w/o the AA it won't work at all.

 

With todays 2500+ma AA NiMh batteries, the pack won't give you more power. HV packs were and are primarily to reduce the recycle time.