DWF Photographer and uber-geek Brian Tao has attracted the attention of one of photography’s most popular bloggers, David Hobby.
Hobby, the genius nutbar Lord High Ruler of photographer behind the popular Strobist blog and, by extension, movement, has linked to a couple of Brian’s videos.
In these videos, Brian is testing the recycling times of NiZn batteries. (We did mention he was an uber-geek, right?). While Hobby links directly to the Youtube videos Brian posted (which we have also done, in a lame attempt to steal some Strobist Thunder), we’d be curious to hear how big a hit Brian’s website is taking today. (While it isn’t really a baseline to test against, when I mentioned a photograph I had taken in the Strobist comment section, views for that photo spiked to about 200 times normal.)
Now back to the meat and potatoes of Brian’s tests…
While the recycle time on the batteries is impressive, the amount of heat the flash generates is also impressive, overheating in 13 flashes fired in a row, full power on an SB-900. Says Brian: “It takes less than 30 seconds to go from zero to thermal shutdown … The SB-900 manual recommends a maximum of 15 full power shots before the flash should be allowed to cool down for 10 minutes, and it’s not hard to imagine these batteries pushing the flash beyond Nikon’s testing conditions.”
What would happen if the thermal cutoff was disabled? Tao doesn’t know, but “ if anyone wants to lend me their SB-800 or SB-900, I would be happy to see how quickly I can cause your speedlight to melt down.”
You can check out Brian’s Website, too. And when he says how many hits he got today, we can say “it’s because we linked directly to you. Honest.”
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2 Comments at "Flash and Battery: 15 Minutes of Testing Fame"
This information doesn’t have much context. Maybe I’m missing a previous post?
It’s rare that anyone would fire that many full power shots in a row. In terms of wedding photography this overheating issue will get less and less important. With the new D3s sensor there’s won’t be many occassions to use full power. If you do need full power you can bungee cord two SB900′s together head to head, use a splitter so they share a trigger. Well if you’re using them on a stand.
I mean what’s a Nikonian to do you know?
I think he did it more for the sheer joy of causing the flash to overheat in less than 30 seconds. You know how geeks and there toys are. Check out the Strobist site for info on how to overcharge your flash and cause it to melt, too.
But while it isn’t a common situation, it is nice to know the limits of the tools you use, because if you are ever in a situation that demands firing a lot of pictures with a flash quickly, you will be able to pace yourself accordingly. I mean, who hasn’t mashed down the shutter button on their new camera to see how many full sized raws it will take before needing time to process. Sure it sounds cool, but it is also learning the limits of your gear.
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