Preferred batteries for flash

Back in December 2015, the general opinion, I think, was that Eneloop pro batteries gave the best performance. So I purchased a set, which I still use. However I no longer get the same capacity and recycle times out of them that I did then. (I guess that will be no surprise to anyone). So I’m considering replacing them.
Is this still the battery to go for, or is there an improved choice these days?

They’re still at the top of the pile, but no longer the only game in town.

GP has the Recyko Pro PhotoFlash, which (as the name suggests) are made specifically for photography flashes. I believe they are roughly equivalent to the Eneloop Pro. And you can get a really nifty USB charger, if you buy the right package.

There are also various others that are either rebranded Eneloops or at least about as good, but you’ll have to do some research. Ikea and Amazon both fall into this group (or at least did).

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A good charger can keep NiMH alive for a long time. I use Powerex MH-C9000. The latest model is MH-C9000PRO. Every 6 months I discharge and charge my NiMH batteries.

I use Eneloop and IKEA LADDA. Flawless until I charged them in an All-in-one charger from Jupio. Big mistake. The internal resistance increased enough until they weren’t accepted by my MH-C9000.

What to think about when you charge NiMH BU-408: Charging Nickel-metal-hydride - Battery University

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I am also using mainly eneloop and also some ikea ladda plus one or two sets from other brands. However, I always use the regular eneloops and not the pro. Many of my eneloops are more than 10 years old, even some of the first generation are in use, and I cannot see any degradation so far, my charger still reports similar energy going in as when they were fresh, however, I never measure the actual capacity, a slight degradation would probably be unnoticed. And, I am not using flash every week, but I am using all my eneloops wherever they fit, but I keep packs of 4, 3, 2 together for all the applications that require this number of batteries. So the batteries for flash are as well used in the babyphone, in RC cars and other toys, and other applications.

Today I pulled out 4 forgotten eneloops from a device I had not touched for at least 10 years. They were dead of course, but they charged to reasonable levels (~2500 mAh). Not sure how well they will perform, though, but at least the charger did not notice any issue.

Same here. I’ve been using IKEA LADDA 2450 batteries (without any issues) for years, now.

So in the end (needing to replace my worn-out Eneloop-pros for my SB-910 and SD9 (that’s 12 batteries)), I cautiously went for the eneloop-pros again. I’d be interested to hear from anyone who has the same equipment (or SB-5000) and uses LADDA batteries the results of the following test:

1/4000 sec. f/8. ISO 800. Flash head set for 200mm (I use a 300mm PF lens). Range 4m (with Better Beamer Flash extender - if you don’t have one, range 3m). 10fps (it seems the Nikon Z9 won’t fire at faster than 10 fps with flash - probably protocol timings or something). TTL FP mode with matrix metering. Dim lighting conditions.

The first 4 frames are perfectly exposed. The next two there’s a little vignetting at the top (don’t really understand why). The next two are black (flash doesn’t fire - presumably because even that setup can’t recycle quite fast enough). And the ninth and tenth are full brightness again.

Sidetracking the issue… but I purchased a Yongnuo YN-680EX-RT. I didn’t read the specs closely enough and this thing comes with its own Li-Ion battery… So that’s one more charging device. OTOH, instead if running off 4×1.2V/2500mAH batteries, I have a 11V/2000maH battery so that’s about twice as much energy in the same volume.

@Colin_Adams
Note that the capacity of Ladda batteries
has changed during the years, i.e. they are
not created equal at all.

I made a swift test using Ladda AA/2450 mAh
and tried to ape your settings using an X-T4
and a Godox flash.

The first 6 shots came out OK, numbers 7 and 8
were totally black :slight_smile:

Have fun!
Claes in Lund, Sweden

Depending on your budget and needs, you can check Energizer Lithium batteries. They are disposable and not cheap, but weigh significantly less than NiMh. I use my flash infrequently, and am on the same set of batteries for almost a year. I would say that I shot several hundred indoor pics with my flash (Metz M400) over the course of the year.

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Nice find. Looks also very useful for a lot of small no-so-energy-hungry devices (flash transmitters, remote control) where the alkaline self-discharge could be more important than the actual power consumption.

Actually they generally not recommended for slow discharge devices unless you need the extreme temperature range and/or weight savings. This is because at a slow discharge rate, they have comparable capacity to alkalines. Look a the below graph. Where the lithiums shine is the higher discharge rates where alkalines do very poorly.
image
Source: https://data.energizer.com/pdfs/l91.pdf