Well, I am still not back to 100% but am heading to bead early tonight. Just a short thought on rechargeable batteries. I bought some Energizer 2500 NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) AA’s for my 550 EX last fall when I bought the flash. Having recently acquired an ST-E2, I was excited to put it to use. It worked for a while, and then died rather quickly. Thinking it was the batteries, I recharged them last night and tried again this evening with very little success (one flash then kaput.)
I am getting a fresh set of Alkalines tomorrow just to see how long those go for, but suspect the rechargeables were a bad batch. I asked on a few photo forums and there is the possibility that the 550 somehow got fried, but every button seems to work, it’s just that the pilot wont come on. At first it was in slave mode, then in master and with the master/slave mode toggled off completely I got no pilot…very peculiar.
We’ll see with another bout on the charging stand, as well as a test run with some alkalines tomorrow. But, if anyone can suggest some good rechargeables for the 550, please share. Comments or email. Thanks and happy shooting (watch those batteries seems more appropriate today, but I’ll stick with tradition: watch those apertures! )