SB50-DX

I recently bought a SB-50DX flash for my coolpix 5k and to my surprise Nikon has used CR123 batteries instead of AAs. I ran out of battery pretty quick and I was wondering if I should return my flash and invest additional money to get the SB-80DX which uses AA batteries. I also use the flash unit for my Nikon 601. Any ideas will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Khaled

I personally chose the Quantaray PZ-1 DSZ Speedlight for $139 at Ritz. Uses 4 AA's, has front fill, swivel/bounce, etc..... IMO a much stronger and better flash but that's just me. I looked at the SB-80DX but it costs way more and does less. Tried it for two days before exchanging it.

You can however keep what you have and search this board for the rechargables. There is a site over in the UK that sells the CR123 rechargables. I was going to go that route until I saw other flashes.

Do what you need to as I'm sure you'll make good use of it regardless.

tim

ksalous said:

I recently bought a SB-50DX flash for my coolpix 5k and to my
surprise Nikon has used CR123 batteries instead of AAs. I ran out
of battery pretty quick and I was wondering if I should return my
flash and invest additional money to get the SB-80DX which uses AA
batteries. I also use the flash unit for my Nikon 601. Any ideas
will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Khaled

Click to expand...

http://www.2cr5.co.uk/start_shop.html

I have 2 sets and a charger they work great!! Cost about 100.00 US dollars.

Carmen

Tim Lauro said:

You can however keep what you have and search this board for the
rechargables. There is a site over in the UK that sells the CR123
rechargables. I was going to go that route until I saw other
flashes.

Do what you need to as I'm sure you'll make good use of it regardless.

tim

ksalous said:

I recently bought a SB-50DX flash for my coolpix 5k and to my
surprise Nikon has used CR123 batteries instead of AAs. I ran out
of battery pretty quick and I was wondering if I should return my
flash and invest additional money to get the SB-80DX which uses AA
batteries. I also use the flash unit for my Nikon 601. Any ideas
will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Khaled

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Thanks Carmen, I will look for rechargables here in Canada.

Carmen said:

I have 2 sets and a charger they work great!! Cost about 100.00 US
dollars.

Carmen

Tim Lauro said:

You can however keep what you have and search this board for the
rechargables. There is a site over in the UK that sells the CR123
rechargables. I was going to go that route until I saw other
flashes.

Do what you need to as I'm sure you'll make good use of it regardless.

tim

ksalous said:

I recently bought a SB-50DX flash for my coolpix 5k and to my
surprise Nikon has used CR123 batteries instead of AAs. I ran out
of battery pretty quick and I was wondering if I should return my
flash and invest additional money to get the SB-80DX which uses AA
batteries. I also use the flash unit for my Nikon 601. Any ideas
will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Khaled

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Thanks Tim for your thoughts.

Tim Lauro said:

You can however keep what you have and search this board for the
rechargables. There is a site over in the UK that sells the CR123
rechargables. I was going to go that route until I saw other
flashes.

Do what you need to as I'm sure you'll make good use of it regardless.

tim

ksalous said:

I recently bought a SB-50DX flash for my coolpix 5k and to my
surprise Nikon has used CR123 batteries instead of AAs. I ran out
of battery pretty quick and I was wondering if I should return my
flash and invest additional money to get the SB-80DX which uses AA
batteries. I also use the flash unit for my Nikon 601. Any ideas
will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Khaled

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

I wonder if your SB-50 has a problem. I've shot over 1,000 flash shots on my SB-50 and I'm still on my original $9.99 set of CR123s.

Or, maybe you got bum CR123s?

Geoff Thompson
http://www.fotki.com/geofft/

Geoff Thompson said:

I wonder if your SB-50 has a problem. I've shot over 1,000 flash
shots on my SB-50 and I'm still on my original $9.99 set of CR123s.

Or, maybe you got bum CR123s?

Click to expand...

I have not gotten that kind of mileage from the sb50. Do you bounce the flash or use direct? Shoot people close to the camera or rooms? I can see getting a lot of shots from closeups with direct flash. I tend to shoot rooms with bounce and that tends to drain the flash quite a bit more that short bursts from the flash.

Geoff Thompson said:

I wonder if your SB-50 has a problem. I've shot over 1,000 flash
shots on my SB-50 and I'm still on my original $9.99 set of CR123s.

Or, maybe you got bum CR123s?

Geoff Thompson
http://www.fotki.com/geofft/

Click to expand...

--

With mileage like that we would not need rechargeable batteries. I’m hearing 250 on this flash as the norm.

Steve B.

Rod Irons

You're probably right. 99% of my shots are bounced off vs direct.

Ken. said:

Geoff Thompson said:

I wonder if your SB-50 has a problem. I've shot over 1,000 flash
shots on my SB-50 and I'm still on my original $9.99 set of CR123s.

Or, maybe you got bum CR123s?

Click to expand...

I have not gotten that kind of mileage from the sb50. Do you bounce
the flash or use direct? Shoot people close to the camera or rooms?
I can see getting a lot of shots from closeups with direct flash. I
tend to shoot rooms with bounce and that tends to drain the flash
quite a bit more that short bursts from the flash.

Click to expand...