8 AA Cell Battery Pack for Canon?

I am suddenly very busy with weddings and as many of you may know the receptions tend to be in places with horrid light. I was thinking that an external battery pack may give my 580EX II not only the additional longevity that it desires but most importantly the faster recycle time that I desire. That brings me to my question, how do you feel about aftermarket battery packs?


For instance, www.flashzebra.com sellstheir 8 AA Cell Battery Pack for Canonfor $65.00. The CanonCP-E4 costs $150.00. Thoughts? Opinions? Practical experience?

I'd like to know about the flashzebra, too.


I would offer an opinion, though. It's a battery pack. I can't imagine it being a problem, since its only function would be to provide power to the flash, and the batteries would be AA, which are also not a problem.


$150 for Canon's is too high.

Be sure and check out this strobist discussion thread.

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Originally Posted by Sean Setters

Be sure and check out [url="http://www.flickr.com/groups/strobist/discuss/72157622919317987/?search=pixel+battery]this[/url] strobist discussion thread.
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Ordered! Now I just have to wait about 3 weeks for it to get here :-( I won't have it for the wedding I'm shooting on the 15th but hopefully I'll have it for the one I'm shooting on the 22nd :-)

Sean - you should check out the original poster's photostream. You'll love some of the gear he has made. He's an Aussie guy from what I know and does sell his gear if you get in touch. Some of his flash brackets are unreal. Been checking out his stream for ages but never purchased anything.... yet.

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Originally Posted by btaylor

Sean - you should check out the original poster's photostream. You'll love some of the gear he has made. He's an Aussie guy from what I know and does sell his gear if you get in touch. Some of his flash brackets are unreal. Been checking out his stream for ages but never purchased anything.... yet.
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You mean elv000? I've known about him for quite some time--I purchased one of his dual brackets back in 2008 (it was a very simple design...and I liked it). I agree, his flash brackets are quite rugged and look so good they're practically a work of art.

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Originally Posted by Mark Elberson

I am suddenly very busy with weddings and as many of you may know the receptions tend to be in places with horrid light. I was thinking that an external battery pack may give my 580EX II not only the additional longevity that it desires but most importantly the faster recycle time that I desire. That brings me to my question, how do you feel about aftermarket battery packs?

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I'm not a fan of aftermarket anything, but that's just me. I want reliability, so I go with name-brand stuff. I've heard horror stories about aftermarket battery grips, and have experienced horror stories with third-party camera batteries.


Regardless, external battery packs are so worthwhile. We have four 580IIs, two CP-E4s, and I often find myself debating "should I buy XYZ, or should I buy more CP-E4s? I know I'll use more CP-E4s...". They're a game changer - faster recharge, don't have to pause to change batteries as often, and from what Chuck Westfall said once, they help provide a more consistent color temperature because the flash is starting from a full charge more often.


You may want to think about your wishes for C.Fn 12: I normally use option 1 (draw power from external only), but you may prefer option 0 (draw power from internal and external). The flash's internal circuitry is always powered by the internal 4xAA batteries, regardless of whether you have an external battery connected and/or how you have C.Fn 12 set. So, with C.Fn 12=0, your internal batteries will wear out first (since they're powering circuitry and flash recharge, while external is only powering flash recharge), whereas with C.Fn 12=1, your external batteries will wear out first and your recharge time only improves by a factor of 2, not 2.99 or so. I choose option 1, as if my external pack gets low, I can unplug it and change those batteries while running on a nearly full charge flash (albeit without the faster recycle). If I ran with option 0, I'd have a dead unit and would be forced to change at least the internal batteries in order to have a happy flash again; I'd rather not be forced into that kind of situation.


For what it's worth, I change functions 0,1,6,12. :) Do let us know how you like your zebras!

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Originally Posted by Sean Setters

[You mean elv000? I've known about him for quite some time--I purchased one of his dual brackets back in 2008 (it was a very simple design...and I liked it). I agree, his flash brackets are quite rugged and look so good they're practically a work of art.

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Yep that's the guy. His work is incredible. The speedrings with multiple flash brackets impress me a lot.

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Originally Posted by peety3

For what it's worth, I change functions 0,1,6,12

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I change 0,1,12. Most of the time I will leave 12 alone though in order to get the fastest recycle times (I know, I'll need to let her cool off after too many pops). In my experience, 12AAswill be enough power for the night so I am less concerned with being able to unplug and still have the 4AAs in the flash to keep me going while I swap out the 8AAs in the battery pack.


The battery pack I went with is made by PIXEL. I ordered it from http://www.dealextreme.com/which I believe ships via air balloon so if I receive it by the end of the month I'll be happy :-) I'd recommend that 580EX users check this out and also read the Flickr thread that Sean provided. For $50 this thing sounds pretty darn sweet!

It finally came today! I loaded it up with 8 batteries and hit the test button on my 580EXII a few times to see what I was dealing with. Wow!!! At 1/1 recycle time is about one second. At 1/4 you can pretty much keep hitting the button until either your thumb is sore or you burn out your flash! I can't wait to test this in the field. I REALLY could have used it over the weekend as I was shooting a wedding but I knew up front that shipping would probably take forever :-(


I'll write another post once it's been through the paces.

Kinda off topic, but did you get hit with a bunch of spam after ordering from them. I ordered from those folks and another group (which I won't name in case they are the ones) at about the same time frame and I got slammed hard for months. I was alway curious as to who dunnit.

Definitely let us know how it goes (and, for clarification, which one you got). I got a new piece of gear today (Fader ND Mark II) that I plan on writing about, but I need time and good weather to test it out (which may be a while). Initial impression is pretty good, though...


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Canon 50mm f/1.4


f/1.4, ISO 100, 1/250 sec, in the mid-day sun...which means I should be able to use the studio strobes at wide apertures in broad daylight. This shot was manual exposure, straight out of the camera (except for a Kelvin temp adjustment).

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Originally Posted by Sean Setters

Definitely let us know how it goes (and, for clarification, which one you got).

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I got this

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Originally Posted by Sean Setters

I got a new piece of gear today (Fader ND Mark II) that I plan on writing about, but I need time and good weather to test it out (which may be a while). Initial impression is pretty good, though...

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I'm looking forward to that review. For those who aren't familiar, the Fader ND Mark II is similar to the Singh-Ray Vari-ND...only it costs about 1/3 as much!

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Originally Posted by andnowimbroke

Kinda off topic, but did you get hit with a bunch of spam after ordering from them

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So far so good :-)