Thanks for the responses, everyone. Many situations described there where these boxes make a ton of sense. Nice flash shot Chet! 2000 flash shots! Crazy!
while surfing the net.... I'm off to pick up a 6v SLA battery afterwork.....
hmmmmm
P
I tried this last night.... works pretty well in the 420ex... I need to find a better way to secure the batteries in the 420ex. I am thinking I will probably use black electrical tape. I also need to improve the contacts on my 'dowel batteries'
Recycle times to full charge are less than 2 seconds on the 420ex, (best guestimate)
Prices in Cdn funds:
$13.95 for 6v 5Ah battery (locally)
$8 - Home Depot - female quick disconnects, package of small wood screws, 1/2" dowel, 10ft of black lamp cord.
I am probably going to use a 2 prong trailer connector instead of a molex one.
BTW, the live contacts on the 580ex II are the bottom 2 batteries. I tried my setup in that after figuring out which contacts were the live ones. Works in principal, but the 'new., improved door will take some getting used to try to get the cords outta the battery compartment.
1dvsgti wrote:
i've never seen the CP-E3 battery pack, but coming from electric model car racing...i can't imagine building a battery pack would be very complicated? has anyone tried? for those who have the CP-E3...is there anything special about the pack, aside from the 8 cells and the cord?
thanks,
It is much more than 8 cells and a cord. It is worth the money. The only downside to the CP-E3 is the brittle plastic of the battery magazine.
cogitech wrote:
Even for weddings that go into the wee small hours, I find two sets of 2500mA NiMH (per flash unit) are more than enough. The last wedding I did, I didn't even need to change them out of my 420 and my 550 didn't need the fresh set till quite late in the night. What are all you people shooting that makes these packs necessary? Or, is it just a matter of convenience to be able to use all 8 batteries at the same time?
its the faster recycle time...that i'm looking for...or what the CP-E3 provides..
The CP-E3 uses a DC-AC converter, it's not just a battery holder and a wire. It recycles faster than a solid cell battery, is far easier to quickly connect and disconnect than the Quatam/Al Jacobs method, is lighter and preserves your canon warranty. It's cheap, light and easy, I just don't see any advantage to going home made or using quantam, especially as you can buy spare battery trays for long use while still saving a fortune on the quantam units. An added bonus is that when your batteries stop accepting a good charge the cost of new NiMH's is very little. Anyone know how much it costs to get a quantam refitted with new cells? If you are are trying to get faster recycle times than the CP-E3 will give then you are going to fry your flash anyway and certainly void the warranty. The manual specifically instructs you not to pop more than X in a given time (don't have the manual with me) without giving it time to cool down.
I've fried flashes by putting the fake batteries in the wrong way, I've fried flashes popping them too fast with a homemade unit. I've broken doors working with quantam cords. Give me the CP-E3 any time.
