Need some advise on SB800

[photobum]

quantum, beta to use their battery pack...:bsmilie:

As a matter of fact, Quantum OEM flashguns for Hasselblad. The Quantum QFlash shares the same circuitry and flash head with Hasselblad D40.

 

[Cheesecake]

As a matter of fact, Quantum OEM flashguns for Hasselblad. The Quantum Qflash share the same circuitry and flash heads with Hasselblad D40.

:bsmilie: wa i dunno leh! :bsmilie:

quantum battery packs are good.
but... always get the nigging feeling that they overcharge us. :bsmilie:

 

[photobum]

:bsmilie: wa i dunno leh! :bsmilie:

Now you know lor... You won't feel overcharged if you purchase your Quantum set directly from the States.

In fact, it is the distributor here in Singapore who overcharges us.

 

[Cheesecake]

Now you know lor... You won't feel overcharged if you purchase your Quantum set directly from the States.

In fact, it is the distributor here in Singapore who overcharges us.

i din't say that! hahaha:bsmilie:


cheers!

 

[photobum]

Yeap... A lot of photographic equipment distributors here in Singapore make us stupid cows who yield to their ridiculous prices. A very good example is Canon.

 

[catchlights]

erm actually i quite a heavy user, currently using 1300mah x 5. but did not last me long.
one more problem is tat i need very quick recycle time.

Let us know how you define yourself as heavy user? like how many continue shots in a row and day after day?

1300mAh is long in the history liao, nowaday the norm is 2500mAh, if you buy a few sets 2500mAh, you can shoot whole day long.

and also quick chager is no good for battries, it would be better of to have additional batteries than charge the bateries on site with quick chager.

How quick recycle time is quick? If it is 2~3sec, get a SD-8A, but local don't have any stocks, and many people is in the queue of waiting list. you can forget about this, unless you looking for used SD-8A.

If you want 1sec recycle time, perpare to pay $1k plus for Quantum product and one back up SB800.

As for the burning smell, more likely is from your batteries, I blown one SB800 before, will never let that happen it again, so when I feel the frensel lens is heat up, will replace the flash with my backup flash and continue shooting.

Hope these help.

 

[ellery]

for more capacity but only reduce recycle times marginally (2.5-3 secs).

If you were to DIY your own battery pack you would be making a copy of the latter rather than the former(Turbo units). The Turbo units have the same HV electronics that are built into the flash unit (so the Turbo units supply HV to the flash directly - that is why the recycle times are so short) while the Quantum battery packs are just batteries with perhaps a simple safety circuit (the flash HV electronics still do the job of converting the 6V to HV).

goto www.qtm.com to find out the differences between the battery packs and the Turbo units.

Yup it's cleaner to diy the non turbo. But you could duplicate the turbo if you could get a customer lead acid pack for 9 volts never use the 12 volts for this. However a reputable maker of lead acid packs ala Quantum superior in US - who offers life time warranty on the product - 7 years on the battery puts it this way. The non turbo will never burn out a flash. A turbo may - turbo's depend on 9 volts or less over voltage here can lead to the high voltage output to be higher than what your flash manufacturer had planned for.

SB800 appears to drain off the 4 or 5 batteries faster than a SB26 both with SD8 or SD8a hooked up...the batteries (on SB 800) for some reason when worked hard heat up a lot more.

 

[Cheesecake]

Yeap... A lot of photographic equipment distributors here in Singapore make us stupid cows who yield to their ridiculous prices. A very good example is Canon.

wa seh, this one... :bsmilie: true too.
:bsmilie:

 

[Nikon D100]

As for the burning smell, more likely is from your batteries, I blown one SB800 before, will never let that happen it again, so when I feel the frensel lens is heat up, will replace the flash with my backup flash and continue shooting.

Hope these help.

can you pls share your experience of how you burn your flash
thanks you

 

[glennyong]

i dont understand, how do u define heavy user ??

if you dun wish to spend more $ on getting batt packs, theres a few solutions.

a) get more batteries.
b) get a battery pack

so its either A or B.

if u take A.

get higher capacity batteries like 2500MAH or the 2700MAH batteries. Sanyo is good.

if u take B.

SD-8A is good enough, but dun bother finding that stuff... theres thing thing called "Global SD-8A Shortage Syndrome" every freaking corner of the world is sold out.. so forget about searching.

SD-8A is cheapest, followed by Quantum 1+, Quantum 2X2

------------

in conculsion. IF u wanna budget. get more batteries. simple problem solved. problem with SB-800 is that the flash is not as "physically strong and enduring" den the good ol 80DX. so when u wanna blast it like nobody's business u better be prepared. i have blown 1 SB800 @ 8fpS and full dump. and the next 40 frames i tell u, its a flat line for my SB800....

and yes.. i borrowed a 2X2 to blast my Sb800, and erm... i dun use 2X2 but i borrow a SD-8A from my lecturer...... :bsmilie:

so blast it. take ur own risk.... my 2 cents....

 

[glennyong]

and i know someone posted a reply to visit K-13...

my 2cents again...

DUN EVER deal with them...

they take u like big fat blardy fat carrot ! chop ur head off like nobody's business...

QTM 1+ quote me $650 - $700 (Excluding GST)

 

[Tetrode]

Yup it's cleaner to diy the non turbo. But you could duplicate the turbo if you could get a customer lead acid pack for 9 volts never use the 12 volts for this. However a reputable maker of lead acid packs ala Quantum superior in US - who offers life time warranty on the product - 7 years on the battery puts it this way. The non turbo will never burn out a flash. A turbo may - turbo's depend on 9 volts or less over voltage here can lead to the high voltage output to be higher than what your flash manufacturer had planned for.

SB800 appears to drain off the 4 or 5 batteries faster than a SB26 both with SD8 or SD8a hooked up...the batteries (on SB 800) for some reason when worked hard heat up a lot more.

Sorry Ellery,

But you cannot duplicate the Turbo w/o building the HV charging circuitry contained within it. Not hard for someone with an EE background though.

The Turbos has built-in circuitry that ups the voltage of it's 6V battery to 300V and pumps that into the storage capacitor of flash directly (the same circuitry contained in the flash). That is why it can achieve such low recycle times. This is also why you can only use a Turbo on flash units that have HV bypass sockets.

While the Qtm Battries use the same 6V battery in the Turbo but connects to the flash via an adaptor that fits into the battery compartment (thus using the circuitry of the flash itself). Hence, the difference in performance between the two types of packs.

http://electronics.howstuffworks.co...chem.helsinki.fi/~toomas/photo/flash-faq.html

 

[catchlights]

.................

can you pls share your experience of how you burn your flash
thanks you

During end of wedding dinner shooting group photos, shoot shoot shoot, shoot till it "POP". everyone heard and know my the flash already "RIP".
send it to Nikon for repair, no charge, cos it only 5 months old.

 

[jamestan]

I just check nikon site and found out what SD-8a is but to me is just a device enable your flash to take 6 battiers at one go and cost RCP $275, Quantum 2x2 on ebay selling cheapest is USD$400 that very very expensive for a student like me who have to think twice on buying a 15min charger

Not only 6. You need 6 in SD-8A + 4 or 5 in the flash. Total = 10 or 11 depending on whether you add the 5th battery holder.

I have the SD, and with 10 batteries, am able to take at least 500 shots...

 

[catchlights]

long time ago I shared here with my DIY 6V SLA battery pack, but using original quantum module.

anyone interested can just see the photo and DIY, please don't email me where do get the parts and how to DIY. just search the old thread and find out "how to" or a google it.

And remeber, do it at your own risk.