Battery life SB700 and SB800 when used in wireless mode

[AfricaWild]

Dear All,

I am using a Nikon D5300, and I would like to use SB-700 or SB-800 with the extra battery pack, in wireless mode, for camera trapping.
However, I don't know about the battery life of these flash when left in wireless mode and sleep mode.
I am not sure they can last days, or even weeks, which is what I need.
Let me know everything you know about the battery life of Nikon flash in wireless mode.

Thanks

 

[astroNikon]

I've never tested it but I've occasionally left my SB700 and or SB800s on for at least a month at a time before using them again.
I've never tracked how long, or how many shots after I took.

If you are using it to trigger at anytime though I would think it would need to be ON and charged. Then it can flash immediately. So Sleep mode might not be what you want.

 

[SnappingShark]

I know I had mine about a year. Battery didn't run out once.

I also used it with pocket wizards, but that had its own battery source.

 

[D-B-J]

I've been on shoots with 2sb600's and a sb700 at or close to full power, fired off 300+ shots, and not had to change the batteries. I see these flashes going a long time in sleep mode. Easy.

 

[astroNikon]

But with The Noise and chargeup coming out of sleep mode though might scare away something in the dark, and if it's running past, won't even flash in time. So I would think it would have to be ON and no Sleep Mode in order to be triggered immediately.

 

[Tailgunner]

I've been on shoots with 2sb600's and a sb700 at or close to full power, fired off 300+ shots, and not had to change the batteries. I see these flashes going a long time in sleep mode. Easy.

Where you using straight store bought alkaline batteries? I shot an event once with my SB700 and had to change my batteries every 200-250 shots.

 

[D-B-J]

I've been on shoots with 2sb600's and a sb700 at or close to full power, fired off 300+ shots, and not had to change the batteries. I see these flashes going a long time in sleep mode. Easy.

Where you using straight store bought alkaline batteries? I shot an event once with my SB700 and had to change my batteries every 200-250 shots.

Sanyo Eneloops. All day.

 

[Tailgunner]

I've been on shoots with 2sb600's and a sb700 at or close to full power, fired off 300+ shots, and not had to change the batteries. I see these flashes going a long time in sleep mode. Easy.

Where you using straight store bought alkaline batteries? I shot an event once with my SB700 and had to change my batteries every 200-250 shots.

Sanyo Eneloops. All day.

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind in the future.

 

[D-B-J]

Where you using straight store bought alkaline batteries? I shot an event once with my SB700 and had to change my batteries every 200-250 shots.

Sanyo Eneloops. All day.

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind in the future.

Well worth the monies, in my opinion.

 

[Tailgunner]

Sanyo Eneloops. All day.

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind in the future.

Well worth the monies, in my opinion.

Ya, I was looking them up, $17.99 for a 4-pk with wall charger. I spent probably $7-8 bucks on a 8-pk non-rechargeable Alkalines for that one event and was really cutting it close towards the end.

 

[AfricaWild]

Thank you very much for all your answers.
I have never done flash photography and this is going to be my first camera trapping attemps, so I apologise if the questions are those of a beginner.
I had not thought of the potential issue of triggering late if in sleep mode.
I know that SB-28 (connected with cable, no wireless) triggers straight away, even in sleep mode. Any idea why it would be different here?
(SB28 is commonly used for camera trapping but I would prefer to avoid having cables, because of the baboons occuring in my area).

Thanks

 

[Tailgunner]

Thank you very much for all your answers.
I have never done flash photography and this is going to be my first camera trapping attemps, so I apologise if the questions are those of a beginner.
I had not thought of the potential issue of triggering late if in sleep mode.
I know that SB-28 (connected with cable, no wireless) triggers straight away, even in sleep mode. Any idea why it would be different here?
(SB28 is commonly used for camera trapping but I would prefer to avoid having cables, because of the baboons occuring in my area).

Thanks

Honestly, I would probably start a thread titled "Camera Trapping and Flash Questions."

The reason being, is a lot of us replying here has some experience with flash, just not in this capacity. There is probably only a hand full of people on this forum who has experience with Camera Trapping in Africa. So creating a more specific thread may help you get in contact with those people.

 

[WayneF]

Dear All,

I am using a Nikon D5300, and I would like to use SB-700 or SB-800 with the extra battery pack, in wireless mode, for camera trapping.
However, I don't know about the battery life of these flash when left in wireless mode and sleep mode.
I am not sure they can last days, or even weeks, which is what I need.
Let me know everything you know about the battery life of Nikon flash in wireless mode.

Thanks

You will want to test that battery life before you rely on it.

The flashes have two wireless modes, both called Remote on the SB-700, but quite different. One is Remote for use with Commander, and one is SU-4 mode which is an optical slave.

Both modes cancel the Standby function, because there is no way the off-camera flash can be awakened from Standby.

In my experience if you've used the flash some (flashing), and then go off without turning the flash off (and in a mode without Standby), I would not take bets that the battery will still work next day. When the battery drops very low, THEN the LCD shows "Standby", which cannot be reset, and in this case, it means it needs new batteries. But there is no Standby function in the wireless modes.