I am looking for the best option for powering my 540ex. Pro's and cons? Advantages or disadvantages of either?

thanks in advance,

tony g.

Tony,

I'm assuming you mean the 580EX (not the 540EZ - super old model).

The Canon battery packs are small, use AA batteries, and you can get extra magazines for them. I use these and they last all day. If I ever ran out, I could send someone to pick up some standard AAs if needed (I use rechargables in them). I'll get 4-10 shots in a row before I blow past it. (ISO, Av, distance, etc all factored in). The magazines are kind of flimsy, expect the battery retaining clips to break off within the first month. It doesn't affect the performance, just an annoyance.

The Quantums are heavy duty, have charge indicators, and generally last longer. They're sealed lead acid (think very small leakproof car battery), which puts them in an entirely different category as far as reliability. Generally you can expect 5+ years before you need to replace the actual cell. They also discharge faster, meaning faster recycle times. The down side is that if you DO drain the battery (highly unlikely), you're kind of stuck, unless you have another quantum to use.

Both are used by professionals, both will do the job well. If you shoot lots of rapid fire low iso sequence shots, the quantum may be a better fit. If you shoot 3-4 shot bursts at most, you'll do fine with the canon battery pack. (We use the canon battery packs).

Hope this helps!

Shan

The Turbo SC isn't very heavy. It is the smallest Quantum battery and last many times longer than fully charged batteries in CP-E4.

Mario

I guess I should have made that more clear - Heavy Duty doesn't necessarily mean heavy weight - just durable. I'm sure the SC lasts longer than the AA rechargables and the Canon pack, but my point was that if it DID die, with the AAs you can just swap them out - with the SC, you're stuck using the 4 in the flash.

The Al Jacobs stuff isn't high voltage like the Canon or Quantum turbo packs, so it recycles a bit slower, but he (Al Jacobs) makes a strong point about why that isn't necessarily a bad thing. We've had 2 flashes blow over the last 2 years. Can it be directly attributed to the high voltage / fast recycle? Probably not, but I'm sure it didn't help.

I made some of Jacob's boxes before he started selling them - total cost - about $20 bucks. (Home depot emergency light 6v battery for $10, $3 camera bag from wal-mart, and a few misc. adapters from radio shack.) We use them for our Vivitar flashes, and I don't think I've ever seen one die, even after all day shooting at 1/2 and full power.

Shan