SB800 and Lithium AA

Joined: 14 Nov 2005 Posts: 174 Location: Baltimore, MD

Ok, I have got 300+ shots out of 5 AA Lithium batteries in my SB800. I shot a wedding last weekend and after the church stuff I told the family to go back in the church for the posing pictures. Well during this my batteries died in my SB800. I had only shot about 200 shots. New batteries were in my truck in the parking lot. So I had to wing it and use pop up flash...

I know I know...I should have had the batteries on me, but I was expecting atleast anohter 20-30 shots before they needed replacing. So I was able to replace the batteries before the reception. When I got home I ran a battery test on them and the test said they were fine? So im not sure what happend. How hard is it to over heat the SB800 at a wedding? The ready light was on but when I took a picture they came out dark.

How many shots are you guys getting when using double A's and the 5th extra battery?

Joined: 30 Jan 2007 Posts: 64 Location: Northeast, IA

For some reason, when you test the lithium AA batteries on a battery tester, they always test good. I don't know why, I have never seen a lithium battery that tested it was bad. I've been using Alkaline's, mainly because they are so much cheaper, and I still will have to switch them alot. The amount of flashes you are getting is similiar to what I have gotten off lithiums in the past.

Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 11:35 pm

I think with the 4 batteries the normal was 100 to 120 shots

I did a friend party and using the SB-800 with 5th battery

I think I've got 130 shot for each five and the battery is so hot cause I was shooting continuously

I made 265 shots out of 10 batteries before it died and I ended up using the Pop Up Flash but it wasn't good specially with a big lens in front 28-70 so I decided to go with available light and bump the ISO and put the camera on tripod some were kinda blur cause of people moving but some are sharp specially the one that stand still

on the side note I was even setting the flash to -2 so it won't use too much of the battery juice

Joined: 14 Nov 2005 Posts: 174 Location: Baltimore, MD

adorski wrote:

I think with the 4 batteries the normal was 100 to 120 shots

I did a friend party and using the SB-800 with 5th battery

I think I've got 130 shot for each five and the battery is so hot cause I was shooting continuously

I made 265 shots out of 10 batteries before it died and I ended up using the Pop Up Flash but it wasn't good specially with a big lens in front 28-70 so I decided to go with available light and bump the ISO and put the camera on tripod some were kinda blur cause of people moving but some are sharp specially the one that stand still

on the side note I was even setting the flash to -2 so it won't use too much of the battery juice

Were these Lithium AA's? You should have got alot more then that if it was. I got twice that amount with 10 batteries.

I also was just reading the manual and come to find out my batteries didnt die but the flash was underexposing. Which explained why the ready light was blinking 3 times after each picture. I cant find out why it was underexposing though. That manual didnt say or I missed it.

Premium Member Joined: 02 Apr 2005 Posts: 2020

Lithium batteries shut down when they reach a certain temperature. Which can be something of a difficulty with lithium batteries. NiMH batteries are better in my opinion.