Strobe batteries

[Interceptor121]

eneloop pro, for frequent, professional use | Panasonic eneloop

It explains why those are recommended for camera flashes and the useful life is 500 times in practical terms for a pro this means max 2 years note that while the standard eneloop are designed to last 10 years the pro do not have any declared life probably assuming you will use them intensively and will be replaced much sooner

Our eneloop pro batteries can be charged up to 500 times and they still retain 85% of their original power after 1 year. Furthermore, the power of an eneloop pro battery is stable which means that when you use it in cameras, you can use the flash very rapidly. With this type of battery, you can use the flash up to 800 times consecutively.

 

[bvanant]

"Guys battery life and charging time I meant you get more shots with the pro because they are higher capacity and will recharge your strobes faster". I am confused by this (not an unusual state). Faster charging is dependent on a bunch of things, V (the same for any eneloop), internal resistance (the Pros are a bit higher). In looking at discharge currents at 7A (probably too high for comfort) the discharge curves look identical until about 1 Ah. After that the Pro lasts longer of course. I was under the impression though that the strobe charging circuit is not a simple dead short but rather the circuit actually controls (limits) the charging current

 

[Interceptor121]

Bill I am not sure I understand your diagram that is the plot of volt vs capacity I think not sure how it relates to charging time.

All spec sheets of vendor like Inon INON Z-330 Strobe [Spec] indicate a charging time of around 10-15% shorter with the Pro and around 30% more shots with the Pro the vendor says that is the battery to use I am not going to run a test bank to prove or disprove. From a practical point of view I want my strobe to last more shots that I have to replace the batteries every 3 years instead of 10 is not a concern

 

[bvanant]

I get what you are saying. In some of my computer controlled battery tests, the original eneloops were better than the Eneloop XX (the predecessor to the eneloop pros) in terms of number of flashes that could be generated. I have just ordered some of the new PRO versions and will test them but I suspect that you are right, the new pros should have better characteristics. I will also test the Powerex pro versions, in some camera strobe tests they were pretty much the same as the eneloops.

Cheers
Bill

 

[TwoBitTxn]

I really do appreciate the conversation. Thanks everyone.

 

[fmerkel]

If you mean the Powerex 2700, I'm not sure you'll see any short term benefit and possibly lose some long term reliability. In terms of REAL capacity, not much different than Eneloop Pro. Discharge curve is almost identical. BUT, they are not LSD, and my experience with hi-cap NiMh is that the internal resistance goes up rapidly and performance drops off in a much shorter period of time.

 

[bvanant]

I have seen that as well, but supposedly the Powerex Pro is an improvement. They (Maha) are claiming that the pro has a very low internal resistance and after a year still have 75% capacity but we will see once they arrive. I was surprised that the Eneloop pros were so expensive but so it goes
Bill

 

[Pyndle]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I'm a bit confused though, everyone seem to be talking about battery capacity, i.e. whether you can shoot 150 / 200 / 300 times without changing the batteries. I agree it's important, but most batteries we consider go well over 100 shots at full power, which to me is usually sufficient (at least on my YS-01s).

What about recycle time? I understand that some batteries can be better than others in that field. Are the eneloop pro much better than the amazon basics for this?

That's basically all I care about, having 100/150 flash uses per dive, and minimizing the recycle time. If the batteries last only 2 years or take 10h to charge instead of 5, that's fine

Thanks!

 

[fmerkel]

Recycle time is a function of amp draw/power output. This is generally correlated with low internal resistance. For practical purposes you won't see any appreciable difference in recycle time between Eneloop Pro, or standard Eneloop in a 2 year time frame. The graph posted above shows both at a 7A draw (very high). They track almost identically for much of the discharge. Many batteries will be fine for 2 years unless you get real off brand varieties.

Amazon Basic USED to be rebadged Eneloops from Japan. I have some, they are great.
They now seem to be from China. Likely, they'll be OK for 2 years, maybe longer, but they will have a shorter life than the Japan made batteries. I have one set of 8 stock/white Eneloops from China. They were fine at first but over the years they are losing capacity and the internal resistance is going up faster than the Japan made versions.

 

[Pyndle]

Annoying that Amazon changed their models. I already have 16 amazon basics, from 2017/18 and they still work great (although I couldn't tell you if my recycle time is bad compared to what it should be), but thought I'd change them as I'm going for a long trip (several months) and won't be able to buy some where I'm going. Now I'm not sure it's worth upgrading with new amazon basics if they're bad quality :/