SB-800 eating rechargables

[Richard_Coyle]

If you're interested in the BC-900, don't be "roped" into the kit price that includes an additional 8 Sanyo Eneloop AA 2000mA batteries for $57.97. If you purchase the charger separately for $38.97 and the batteries for 2x$8.77 (the 2-3 quantity price), you'd be spending $1.50 prox less! Typical marketing ploy that preys on the consumer's assumption that any combo is cheaper than the sum of it's parts. Always do the math!

[Bruce_Stenman]

You may have a defective charger or a bad battery. It only takes one battery in the series to be defective to affect all the others as it produces added resistance. Best to get a tester that load tests the batteries after they are charged. There are some relatively inexpensive ones that work quite well that can be bought at Rechargeable Batteries Battery Chargers Rechargeable Lithium Digital Camera Batteries Maha Ansmann Energizer Sanyo ZTS. They also sell excellent chargers.

I have had new batteries that were defective and with the Nikon flash and 1.2 volt NiMh batteries it takes very little to drop their voltage below a level that will power the SB800's electronics and charge its capacitors.

[Anthony_Kearney]

Hi,

I use the Maha MH-C801D 8 cell charger with Powerex batteries for my SB-800 flashes. Super charger, never had a problem with the charger or batteries. Last wedding I shot using 2 D300s + 2 SB-800's, 800 shots nearly all using full or fill flash with no problems. There is still life in both flashguns. I do use the extra battery in the SB-800 which really speeds its recycle time.

Could not recommend the Maha charger and Powerex batteries highly enough. I have 2 other Maha chargers that are also excellent, but are 4 cell only.

Anthony,

[David Hughes]

Ansmann charger, Eneloop batteries and using the extra battery on the SB800 all seconded by me!

[captionsoflife]

I agree with the poster who stated you most likely have a bad battery.. reason being, I sent one of my SB-800 flashes out for repair two weeks ago because 1 out of 3 pictures were coming out. I 'thought' my rechargeable batteries were okay. Then my second sb-800 started doing the SAME thing.. so I thought, no way two flashes have the same problem within a week of each other. I sat there racking my brain - and then, it hit me, everytime I recharge my batteries - at least one battery will cause the light to blink on my charger - my husband thought it was because the battery was fully charged - I thought, NO WAY. (Let me back up a second... I noticed with the batteries my ready light was not coming on when charged.. checked the manual, and it suggested not fully charged batteries) So, I threw away the two batteries out of 6 that blinked at me... put four fresh batteries in the flash, and WOW it works. In addition, I pulled out the little adapter that you can attach to the flash that has one battery in it and helps with delay time between taking pictures with the flash - put a fresh battery in - and that helped a lot. Needless to say, if your getting that low of pictures from the SB-800, its either one bad battery out of the bunch OR another issue that Nikon needs to look at and fix... hope that helped along with what everyone else has said. =)

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