Question for Canon Speedlite owners

Question

How many pictures can you usually take before your flash starts slowing down? Mine seems to eat up the battery power pretty quickly.

Answer 1

As always, depends on a lot.

The batteries you put in are important. Cheap walk mart brand batts in a 430 or 580 will not work well. Higher end Nicad or NiMH batts are the better choice, and NiMH in particular as they are rechargeable.

Power of the flash, and ttl will also drain power.

Short answer though you should be getting about 200 pops out of a fresh set easy. if its less change battery brand, and if thats still an issue contact canon for help.

on eother thing if you are shooting flash a lot at short intervals between pops, that can have an adverse effect on recycle times.

Answer 2

ok I had the same problem and I took it to another photographer with fresh batteries and asked them to try it out to make sure it was not my user error. Well it was user error. I had forgotten that I had it on full power!! It should be on 1/2-1/4 power for most shots and 3/4-full for bounced shots. check your power level first.

Answer 3

The Eveready Lithium AA batteries will give MUCH MUCH longer life in the flash rather than alkiline or even rechargables. If you are using the flash a lot, the best thing you can do is purchase the auxillary battery pack made by Canon. It holds 8 more batteries, plus the 4 in your flash, giving you a total of 12 batteries. If you use the Eveready Lithiums for all 12 AAs you will get LONG life before the batteries need replacing. I have done as many as 2 full weddings on one set of these 12 batteries using the external battery pack, (close to 2000 photos total... most with flash).

Here is the Canon external battery pack you really need to have for maximum flash effectiveness:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/49...

Also, don't be concerned with the "power level" on the flash. Unless you are using it in full manual mode, the flash will output only the power needed depending on the situation. That is what ETTL does. It measures ambient light through the lens and adjusts flash output accordingly.

One thing you can do to GREATLY reduce the output needed by the flash is to use an ISO of no lower than 400. This takes lots of stress off the flash, reduces power consumption, recycles faster, and you will not have noise issues at only ISO 400.

steve