AF360FGZ Battery life

after about half an hour of playing around using the flash as a slave unit, whilst attempting to photograph water droplets, the 4 Duracell batteries were completely drained and Very hot, in fact they got so hot two of them stuck together.....
Now is this normal for this flash unit?
and.. what are the best cells to use in it? alkalines or NiMh?

Andy

Andy,

If you are discharging at 1/1 (ie full power) then that's not surprising! You probably found the flash head quite warm too. (My monster Metz 50MZ5 at guide number 70 even has a fan in the head to keep it cool!!!!)

Personally I use Eneloop/Hybrio NiMh batteries. That way they stay charged for a year (which is important when you don't use the flash that often).

I presume you were using full power for water droplets?
Don't

The lower the power rating, the faster the flash duration, and the quicker the recharge So, on the AF360FGZ, running at 1/32 will give the best 'freezing power' for motion - but of course you'll quite likely need to ramp up the ISO on the camera. Definitely use fully manual (i.e. M on flash, M on camera) for that kind of work!

Hope that helps!
Matt

i was doing exactly the same thing yesterday with the same unit, took 367 shots using 1/32 power level with Duracell Ultrapower. would have used Lithium but Tesco out of stock. it had lithium in when i bought it and they lasted 18 months plus however long they had been in before i bought it.

Matt & Redbus..

Thanks for the help and hints, i'll reduce the flash O/P power and see how it goes....you are right, the flash gun was pretty warm, in fact the good lady said it stopped working....must have overheated methinks....
I have just invested in some 2400mAh Duracell rechargeables which ought to help too....

Regards

Andy

A top quality high capacity Alkaline Battery can have a capacity of 3000 to 4000 mAh but only at low to medium drain. If you use them for high power equipment such as a flash you will reduce the effective capacity to around 800 to 1000 mAh.

As for temperature, the continual high current pulses will cause a heat build-up as the cell will have an internal resistance of maybe 0.2 ohms - but with four cells the power converted to heat slowly build up and there is no cooling.