Rechargeable batteries for speedlight

[Overread18 6]

KmH I think that your method works for someone doing regular planned shoots - you know you need the batteries the next day so you make sure they are 100% ready without fail. I find that when one is doing it as a hobby one often doesn't have regular planned events; so the batteries that hold their charge gain more importance because flash use is going to be more erratic and unplanned.

when it comes to number of flashes per charge I think that if you want a really major gain its best to either use an external lithium battery cell product or an AA battery pack (Pixel makes a very good quality and affordable option). The former for more heavy use; the latter for heavy use but in smaller doses or situations or simply for increased mobility/lighter setup over lithum

 

[hamlet]

If these batteries run hot, will my YN-568EX let me know? Is there some type of safety system?

 

[Overread18 6]

It's not the batteries that you have to worry about, its the flash tube that gets hot in a flash (if you're batteries get seriously hot they or the machine are likely faulty). You'll have to check the flash units description, many units do have heat detectors to force the flash to pause for longer if you build up heat. It's also good policy to give the flash a pause if you use it for a series of lower powered shots in rapid succession (because the heat from each shot builds up) or after a shorter series of higher powered shots (Again the heat builds up shot to shot so if you don't give some cooldown time you run the risk of overheating the flash tube)

 

[astroNikon]

The Energizers that I use are 2300 mAh (the green tops are 1500mAh)
the good thing about them is that you can buy them at alot of places - Walmart, Kroger, Meijers, Home Depot, etc.

I now use rechargeables in about half of my home appliances. The rechargeables seem to last longer then regular cells. no more buying 36 packs of AAs for all my kids toys and controllers.

I'm planning on getting 9volt, C & Ds too which would be the other half of stuff in the house. I'm really enjoying using rechargeables instead of regular batteries.

 

[Overread18 6]

Yeah it can seem expensive dropping £60 or so on a good charging unit; but once you add up all the times you'll recharge your batteries it just makes total sense and is far cheaper in the short and long run

 

[Edsport]

I use 3800 mAh recharable batteries...

3800 mah aa | eBay

 

[astroNikon]

I use 3800 mAh recharable batteries...

3800 mah aa | eBay

I know you brought up your 3800mAh before in a thread about batteries. Other posters had concerns that those batteries were fake --> http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...-battery-your-speed-lights-2.html#post3204378


but if they work, they work :thumbup:

 

[WayneF]

It is even possible to buy the fake 3800 mah no name crap on Amazon too (3rd party unknown vendors). Puzzling why Amazon allows that. Probably no one bothers to complain.

But surely it is good to realize that no major battery manufacturer of any significance (Eneloop, Energizer, Duracell, etc) can offer 3800mah in NiMH AA batteries. It simply cannot exist. I suspect those 2900 mah that do exist might be pushing reality too.

 

[Edsport]

I have no problem with them, been using them for a couple years and did 2 weddings with them. Fake or not, for the price of them you can't go wrong...

 

[WayneF]

I didn't look at your Ebay link very closely before... down lower, what that one actually says is:

[TABLE="class: fet-tb"]
[TR]
[TH]*Label Printed Capacity: 3800 mah[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TH]*Actual Capacity:500-800mah[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TH]*Voltage: 1.2V[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TH]*Chemistry: NI-CD [/TH]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]


An oddity. Honest I guess, and interesting, and cheap, but certainly no bargain. NiMH replaced NiCd 20+ years ago.

 

[astroNikon]

I didn't look at your Ebay link very closely before... down lower, what that one actually says is:

[TABLE="class: fet-tb"]
[TR]
[TH]*Label Printed Capacity: 3800 mah[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TH]*Actual Capacity:500-800mah[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TH]*Voltage: 1.2V[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TH]*Chemistry: NI-CD[/TH]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]


An oddity. Honest I guess, and interesting, and cheap, but certainly no bargain. NiMH replaced NiCd 20+ years ago.

Interesting

So "false labeling" though providing accurate information if you read the "small print" .. or I guess just the verbage itself. wow ... amazing.

 

[Edsport]

I didn't look at your Ebay link very closely before... down lower, what that one actually says is:

[TABLE="class: fet-tb"]
[TR]
[TH]*Label Printed Capacity: 3800 mah[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TH]*Actual Capacity:500-800mah[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TH]*Voltage: 1.2V[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TH]*Chemistry: NI-CD[/TH]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]


An oddity. Honest I guess, and interesting, and cheap, but certainly no bargain. NiMH replaced NiCd 20+ years ago.

Yah i've seen that before. Maybe the one's he's selling are only 500-800 mAh. I know mine is more than that because i've used Duracell copper top batteries which are 2850 mAh and my 3800 mAh batteries last just as long if not longer (when i did those weddings) and as i said earlier, they are cheap. Just a fraction of the cost of Duracells and can be recharged...

 

[Dao]

You can get some of those better recharger ( I have the La Crosse BC-700) which can test the batteries and tell you their actual capacity are. Some of the capacity of my older batteries are no longer as high as they were new. Few of them are 50% - 60% less than their original even I "Refreshed" them with the charger.

 

[WayneF]

Yah i've seen that before. Maybe the one's he's selling are only 500-800 mAh. I know mine is more than that because i've used Duracell copper top batteries which are 2850 mAh and my 3800 mAh batteries last just as long if not longer (when i did those weddings) and as i said earlier, they are cheap. Just a fraction of the cost of Duracells and can be recharged...

Obviously, you are happy with your choice, and which is none of my business. I feel sure you meant well, but I do worry someone might actually buy those batteries.

You said "Just a fraction of the cost of Duracells and can be recharged", so you obviously are comparing to alkaline batteries. Which are very definitely NOT 2850 mah rated in flashes (still more than 800 mah though).

Here is the Duracell alkaline data sheet: http://ww2.duracell.com/media/en-US/pdf/gtcl/Product_Data_Sheet/NA_DATASHEETS/MN1500_US_CT.pdf

Notice it says (in red type) "Delivered capacity is dependent on the applied load".

Notice the many load curves which show this. At a low 100 ma load, life is about 27 hours, which is 2700 mah capacity, at that low load, like maybe in a mp3 audio player for head phones...

Notice at higher 1000 ma load, maybe in a flashlight, the life decreases to about 2 hours (2000 mah capacity).

However, the speedlght flashes recycling load is more like 7000 ma, at least mine are. This very heavy load drains dry cell batteries, alkalines, and esp regular zinc-carbon batteries which don't last anytime at high load. But flashes only do this high load in short couple of second spurts (after each flash). The Nikon flash manuals show expected life of Alkalines to be closer to half of the life (number of full power flashes) that NiMH cells will last. We choose to use NiMH batteries for their faster recycle and their longer life (and they can be recharged of course).

Like Dao said, you ought to get a charger that can measure discharge capacity, to show the actual capacity of the batteries, and then will know. I mostly use a Maha C9000 charger, which is $54, but that's nothing in the photography business. The battery charge life still depends on load, but the IEC standards to spec capacity of a rechargeable AA battery is to charge for 16 hours at 0.1C (1.6x more charge than the capacity can store), and then after an hour rest, discharge at 0.2C, and time it. This 0.2C for a 2000 mah battery (Capacity C is 2000 mah) is only 400 ma discharge current, which is not typical of a flashes high load, but for batteries, it is the way the spec declares a standard condition for batteries to be compared in all cases. Discharging two batteries at different loads is not comparable. So we might not get 2000 mah out of them (at our high load use in a flash), but that is the honest and standard way they are rated.

 

[Edsport]

Yah i've seen that before. Maybe the one's he's selling are only 500-800 mAh. I know mine is more than that because i've used Duracell copper top batteries which are 2850 mAh and my 3800 mAh batteries last just as long if not longer (when i did those weddings) and as i said earlier, they are cheap. Just a fraction of the cost of Duracells and can be recharged...

Obviously, you are happy with your choice, and which is none of my business. I feel sure you meant well, but I do worry someone might actually buy those batteries.

You said "Just a fraction of the cost of Duracells and can be recharged", so you obviously are comparing to alkaline batteries. Which are very definitely NOT 2850 mah rated in flashes (still more than 800 mah though).

Here is the Duracell alkaline data sheet: http://ww2.duracell.com/media/en-US/pdf/gtcl/Product_Data_Sheet/NA_DATASHEETS/MN1500_US_CT.pdf

Notice it says (in red type) "Delivered capacity is dependent on the applied load".

Notice the many load curves which show this. At a low 100 ma load, life is about 27 hours, which is 2700 mah capacity, at that low load, like maybe in a mp3 audio player for head phones...

Notice at higher 1000 ma load, maybe in a flashlight, the life decreases to about 2 hours (2000 mah capacity).

However, the speedlght flashes recycling load is more like 7000 ma, at least mine are. This very heavy load drains dry cell batteries, alkalines, and esp regular zinc-carbon batteries which don't last anytime at high load. But flashes only do this high load in short couple of second spurts (after each flash). The Nikon flash manuals show expected life of Alkalines to be closer to half of the life (number of full power flashes) that NiMH cells will last. We choose to use NiMH batteries for their faster recycle and their longer life (and they can be recharged of course).

Like Dao said, you ought to get a charger that can measure discharge capacity, to show the actual capacity of the batteries, and then will know. I mostly use a Maha C9000 charger, which is $54, but that's nothing in the photography business. The battery charge life still depends on load, but the IEC standards to spec capacity of a rechargeable AA battery is to charge for 16 hours at 0.1C (1.6x more charge than the capacity can store), and then after an hour rest, discharge at 0.2C, and time it. This 0.2C for a 2000 mah battery (Capacity C is 2000 mah) is only 400 ma discharge current, which is not typical of a flashes high load, but for batteries, it is the way the spec declares a standard condition for batteries to be compared in all cases. Discharging two batteries at different loads is not comparable. So we might not get 2000 mah out of them (at our high load use in a flash), but that is the honest and standard way they are rated.

Why would you worry that someone might buy those batteries? I bought them and i would buy them again.

Without measuring them they last just as long as the Duracell batteries at a fraction of the cost. For the price of them that is a great deal. I don't know if they're 3800 mAh or not but i know for what i spent on them, they are worth the money...

Duracell AA batteries. 2850 mAh - 1 x Duracell Coppertop MN1500 AA 2850 mAh Single Use Batteries | eBay