I know there are external battery packs, but has anyone seen (or made) an A/C power adapter for their canon or similar speedlight? I do most of my shooting in my basement, and just being able to plug these in would be great.
Should be easy. Buy a 6 volt DC power supply and then get a "dummy" battery cluster like the ones many people use with external batteries such as Quantum XB5 cable. Re-wire the power supply with a 1/8" female miniplug jack & hook em up (make sure to check for proper polarity). Easy as can be. A larger power supply should have no trouble running multiple flashes, just use a 1/8" miniplug spitter "y" adaptor and an extra XB5 cord & extension cables to daisy-chain them together.
BUT, if you're going to use your speedlites as a studio light and bang away, You will eventually fry them.
The EXIIs have a thermal cut out (I think Nikon does as well but don't quote me there) but eventually you will fry them. I've done 2.
I bang away with mine for small product shoots on locations for clients and I find them great for small spaces but studio strobes for studio work is the ultimate answer Brian. Not lecturing just offering my experience.
The 580 EXII's have problems with being fired repeatedly at full to near full power. It has Benny documented that in some (not all) of these units the flash tube sits too close to Mylar coated reflector and combine that with the build up of ozone in the very tightly sealed flash head, arcing can result . Essentially the flash shorts itself out.
The Canon 430 EX II however does not have this problem.
E-Vener wrote:
The 580 EXII's have problems with being fired repeatedly at full to near full power. It has Benny documented that in some (not all) of these units the flash tube sits too close to Mylar coated reflector and combine that with the build up of ozone in the very tightly sealed flash head, arcing can result . Essentially the flash shorts itself out.
The Canon 430 EX II however does not have this problem.
You are absolutely right about the arcing. This is much more problematic when using HSS or "commander" mode, 99% of my misfires happened in those two situations. In manual operation I never had a "full pop" misfire. I have taken my 580exII apart and adjusted the flash tube position so it is centered in the reflector, that has minimized arcing from one end of the tube's contacts being too close to the reflector. I also adjusted the reflector position so it is not so close to the ends of the tube. I am considering drilling two small holes in the reflector housing, or removing the sealed glass cover to help in venting the ozone, the buildup that causes arcing is primarily inside the reflector housing, not the whole head of the flash. (In the Pocket Wizard white paper they state that after removing the reflector's glass cover, they did not have any more problems with ozone buildup related arcing) But as of this time I don't have the same problems with frequent "full pop" firings created by the arcing that I did in the past. If your flash is out of warranty and you feel you can take it apart and reassemble without problems, then these are easy mods that will extend the life of the flash.
