Nikon Speedlights Burn Out

[waynesview]

<p>I have twice now burned out two of my Nikon SB800 speedlights while using them as off-camera flashes, (fired by Pocket Wizards). I have four SB800s and I switch them out consistently, so it's not the lights themselves. I've read everything I can find from Nikon. My setup: Locations: Wedding reception (dance floor) Nikon D3 with a SB800 & Pocketwizard on top, two other off-camera SB800s on stands with Pocketwizards recving. The on-camera flash does not overheat/burn-out, but the two off camera ones do, even though they are all three fired together. Same batteries. What am I missing? Please help - thank you in advance! Wayne</p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>At what power levels are you using them (and the on-camera unit). What kind of batteries are you using?</p>

[waynesview]

<p>Now I show my ignorance so please bare with me: Is the power level the same as the F-stop?</p>

[ilkka_nissila]

Well no, but they are related. What is

meant by flash power is actually the

flash energy. In manual mode you select

it directly ie. M1/1, 1/2, etc. If you use

TTL, you are probably not aware of the

exact energy that the flash is outputting.

If you shoot at M1/1 or M1/2 or their

equivalent in TTL, and shoot quite many

frames in a short time, you run the risk of

the flash overheating and melting.

[craig_shearman1]

<p>It is very likely that the off-camera units are firing at or close to full power each time because they are farther away from the subject than the on-camera flash. If you are operating all the units manually, you might be setting the off-camera flashes at full power but the on-camera flash at 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 or even lower. If you are using TTL, the flash units may be doing that for you. Either way, the on-camera flash is operating at well under its rated power and can probably pop off as many flashes as you want without overheating or having a problem. But the off-camera flashes may be at or close to their limit, and are overheating.<br />How many flashes are you doing how close together? A shot every minute or two should not be an issue. But bursting off three or four or five frames in a row and doing it four or five times a minute (let's say you're shooting on the dance floor and shooting a lot of frames to be sure to get good shots) could be.</p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>Did you use any high-power battery pack to speed up the cycle time of those SB-800? One way or another, too many consecutive flashes would cause the flashes to overheat, thus damaging the flashes. Those battery packs just make things worse. That was why Nikon added a thermostat to the SB-900, but that causes another problem as that thermostat is overly sensitive and causes some pre-mature flash shut downs.</p>

<p>When I need to do a lot of flash photography, I tend to bring 2 or 3 flashes and rotate them so that they have sufficient time to cool off.</p>

<p>Additionally, Nikon introduced the SB-900 back in 2008 and then discontinued the SB-800 shortly after. Any SB-800 still in use today is likely to have gone thru a lot of cycles. It is time to replace them.</p>

[frank_skomial]

<p>Nikon's flash instructions are very specific how fast and how namy shots one can take, and how long you need to pause to let cool the flash down.<br>

Just read your manual and obey it.</p>

<p>For your setup on remote light stands, there are better, more heavy duty flash solutions available.</p>

 

[ilkka_nissila]

<p>I think a feature that would limit the TTL flash energy to e.g. M1/2 or M1/4 would be extremely useful to me, as often the recycle time gets too long if the flash fires at full energy, and exposures start becoming variable. With battery powered studio flashes (or I guess you could call them field flashes ;-)) usually the recharge time is very fast (1s max) even at full energy. This means the practically useable flash energy is much greater than with speedlights (assuming no external battery pack is used) and you know that they give the same result every time. If the recharge is not complete, and a shot is taken, they'll just not fire at all, which means the next shot will come out ok since the recharge is not interrupted by the too hasty photographer. </p>

[mrp-images]

<p>As for the reasons for burning out SB-800's I can only speculate they overheated and died, as Shun pointed out they no longer produce the SB-800's it was replaced with the SB-900, although thermostatically protected it (SB-900) also had overheating issues and has been replaced with the SB-910. <br>

Honestly when replacing those off camera flashes its certainly worthwhile looking at Yongnuo 560 EX or the 568 EX, very effective and less than 1/2 the cost, I have been using a pair of them now for about (2) months and have had no issues with either light consistency or reliability. </p>

 

[waynesview]

<p>Thank you all for your responses. I think from reading the above maybe my problem is that I fire the flashes too quickly - as the batteries get rather warm too. I think as suggested above - I need to invest in flashed made for more frequent/heavy duty use and maybe even try no to fire them so often. Nikon Pro charges $110 per flash to repair - so I think I can justify the expense! :-)<br>

Cheers from Murrells Inlet, SC</p>