| From: "Michael R. Hinkle" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
| Subject: EOS Battery Pack advice for the 550EX
|
| I am new to the Canon scene and wanted some advice on the pros and cons of
| the different battery packs that are available for Canon Flashes (the 550EX
| in particular.) If anyone who has experience in this area would help me
| out, I would appreciate it. I plan to use the pack when shooting 10 to 20
| rolls over 2 hours using 550EXs as primary light sources.
|
I put in my vote for the Compact Battery Pack E. Get 2 or 3 sets of AA
NiMH 1500-1600 mAH cells for it and for your flash unit, and a smart
quick charger. (I have 3 550's, a CBP-E, 3 Maha C204F chargers, and
somewhere around two dozen NimH AA's.) A good source for the cells
and chargers in the USA is http://www.thomasdistributing.com .
Of course, others will disagree. Here are the pluses and minuses as
I see them:
PLUS:
o Compact Pack E is COMPACT. It even has a screw that allows it to
attach to the underside of your camera, on the tripod socket (and it
replicates the socket so that you can still use a tripod).
o It uses the auxiliary connector of the flash. IIRC, the low-voltage
Quantums use a comparatively kloodgy and fragile battery compartment
replacement dongle.
o It recharges the flash capacitor as fast as or faster than any other
solution (with the battery at full charge). I didn't know this until I got
mine, but the CP-E is a high voltage supply. Interestingly, both the
inverter in the CP-E and in the flash body work in parallel to recharge
the capacitor, presumably using their respective batteries.
o Cheap. Last time I looked, it was the cheapest alternative.
MINUS:
o Even with the NiMH AA's, I don't think it has the charge capacity/
endurance of the Transistor Pack E with its size C cells, and perhaps
also not that of the Gel Cells in the Quantums.
o Balancing the previous point, with either Canon pack you can swap
out the cells with fresh ones (thus the reason I carry a lot of charged
spares), without taking the unit out of service for recharging.
o On the other hand, swapping cells out is a lot like changing film.
Hard to do with a kid on your back <[8^)
o You have to keep the battery in the flash unit. it runs the logic circuitry,
and apparently also helps recharge the capacitor. So you have two
sets of cells whose state of charge you have to worry about.
However, I think this is true of all auxiliary battery solutions with the
550EX.
DGW
*
****
*******
***********************************************************
* For list instructions, including unsubscribe, see:
* http://www.a1.nl/phomepag/markerink/eos_list.htm
***********************************************************
