430x ii & 450D???

[MNoelGray]

I hope I am posting in the proper spot, and I really hope someone can help me.

I purchase a pre-owned (I know, first mistake) 450D with lens kit and a 430ex ii earlier this year. Up until now, I've not really needed to use the speedlite, but now I absolutely need it as I've had to move my photography indoors for the winter season. My first shoot, it worked flawlessly. But since then, I've been having problems getting it to fire.

The pilot light doesn't light up at all. I have brand new, fully charged rechargeable batteries in it. Could they still be at fault? Should I purchase a new set? I don't have the time or money to purchase a new speedlight, or unfortunately studio lighting.

I had three sessions today, and the light only worked for about 5 of the first session's photos. It comes on, I can change all of the settings, the batteries are in correctly, it is locked into my camera, it's not turned off on the camera. I just don't know what to do. I have another shoot tomorrow and I really need my flash.

Any help/advice/suggestions would be wonderful.

 

[TCampbell]

It really sounds like bad batteries.

Keep in mind that the technically there's a capacitor that fires the flash. This allows it to release a burst of power faster than batteries can provide. The batteries simply recharge the capacitor to be ready for the next shot.

If the flash is doing a full-power discharge, then it will normally take several seconds before it's ready to fire again. As the batteries drain low... this time will take longer and longer... until it reaches a point where it will never be ready to fire (even if the flash LCD display powers up.)

I have purchased brand new batteries and discovered bad batteries in the pack... it happens. When in doubt, use a volt-meter to check the batteries.

While I sometimes use single-use batteries, most of the time I use rechargeable and specifically I use Panasonic Eneloop rechargeable batteries. These are a special "low self-discharge" rechargeable which means once you charge them, they can sit unused for a very long time and STILL have quite a bit of a charge on them. I think they claim that new Eneloop batteries will still have about 90-95% charge on them even after sitting for a year (a normal rechargeable battery might lose more than that in just one day.)

Rechargeable batteries can get hot if you're shooting rapidly -- so hot that they could ultimately damage the flash unit. Canon issued a warning about that.