Last Updated: February 14th, 2020
We first started playing around with speedlights only a few years ago. They were never really a part of our approach to photography before then – mostly because we were scared of flash and didn’t really shoot in situations that would require it anyways.
Over this time, we’ve become really proficient with them! Not only that, but we’ve used quite a few different ones as well, so have become pretty familiar with the benefits of using all different types.
The one area we struggled with the most was being able to use our speedlites successfully over the course of a longer shoot – such as for a wedding or charity event. We quickly learned that shooting non-stop with flash drains the batteries in both the camera and the speedlight itself.
While it’s normal for the battery to go down as you use it, we’ve come to really find out that not all batteries are made the same. This is where we can really get into our discussion today! It’s all about the best batteries for your speedlight.
The Downside of “Regular” Batteries
To help you better get to know what the best speedlight batteries out there are, we want to first start by talking about the problems we’ve had.
Regular batteries, while great for a lot of things like household appliances, simply don’t cut it when you need your flash to perform. We found this out while shooting some of our first event bookings. We’re talking anywhere from 4-14 hours of shooting, much of it with flash, and burning through dozens of batteries during this timeframe.
In our experience, not only were we getting a pretty limited number of shots out of our flash when we used standard batteries – we also faced problems with the recycle times (more on that later), having to constantly buy new batteries, and even running out of batteries during a shoot.
So, if you’re here wondering if some standard Duracell CopperTop AA batteries will work for you, we’d suggest you don’t waste your money!
Alkaline Batteries vs. Ni Ma Batteries
Your regular store bought batteries will likely be of the alkaline variety. As you already know, these work well for a wide range of uses, but not so well in specific use cases like this one. The reason for this is because they suffer from high internal resistance.
Ni Ma batteries (Nickel-Metal Hydride for the chemistry nerds) are higher performing batteries. They do much better when high performance is necessary, and when used by electronic devices that drain batteries quickly. A speed light (and really any camera equipment for that matter) is really representative of that.
As was pointed out over on Improve Photography, “the best part about the rechargeable Ni Mh batteries is how even they stay in terms of power output right through until they are depleted of their power.” This is why you are able to use batteries of this type and see more consistency in flash performance.
3 Ways Great Batteries Help Your Flash to Perform Better
So, one big question you might have is:
“How will using a different battery improve my speedlight’s performance?”
It’s a legitimate question, and we asked the same thing ourselves.
After experiencing the negative effects of shooting with poor quality batteries for this type of use, we were definitely imagining there was either something wrong with our equipment or other photographers are dealing with the same problem.
No doubt, pro photographers at the top of their game don’t have to worry their flashes not performing just because the batteries aren’t great.
So…what do better batteries actually do to make things better?
Improve recycle time.
The recycle time (also known as: the refresh rate) is how long it takes from firing one shot with flash to be able to take another shot.
If you have a bad performing flash, you might get black bars across your image (or just totally black photos). This is often the result of taking a picture when your flash isn’t ready. While it can be a mechanical defect in the flash unit itself, more often it’s the result of poor quality batteries. To test this, simply switch out your current batteries with better quality ones and see how they do.
To put it bluntly, by improving the recycle time, you can take photos more quickly so you never miss a shot. This is really key for us as wedding photographers when we want to catch candid moments as they happen.
Allow you to shoot longer.
Really solid batteries will allow you to shoot with your flash without having to change them out as much.
Granted, if you are shooting an 8 hour wedding day with flash most of the time, you will end up needing to switch out from time to time (it’s why we own so many batteries ourselves). But, when you need to switch them out will become far more predictable and more spaced out.
One of the issues we had originally was shooting with batteries that would, honestly, burn out after 30 minutes of shooting at regular power. That just isn’t acceptable. Considering your average speedlite requires 4 batteries to function – you can see how quickly we could blow through a pricey pack of store brand AA’s.
This issue has been fixed, and we can now more comfortable shoot 1.5-2 hours’ worth of consistent shots on a single set of batteries with ease.
What Batteries do Work Then? The Best Batteries for Your Speedlight Revealed!
Let’s get right to it…the Panasonic BK-3HCCA8BA Enloop Pro AA batteries are our go to. We want to power our speedlights with the best batteries available, and these are it!
We actually found out about them ourselves through a number of other photographers who swear by them. After years of use, we’d have to agree. Compared to other batteries we have tried, these perform much better.
While they are pricier than normal batteries you’d be buying at the store, you need to keep in mind that they are also rechargeable. We bought a couple dozen of these so we would have plenty of backups if needed while shooting weddings and would rarely burn through them all during a full day’s worth of photography.
The 2 greatest things about the Enloop Pro batteries are simple:
1). They are rechargeable. The great thing about rechargeable batteries is that they can be used again and again and again. We bought our batteries over 2 years ago now, and they still are working like they are new. We’ve even started replacing other batteries around our house with these for this very reason such as our computer mouse and keyboard batteries, television remote, and so on. We pretty much never have to go to the store to buy batteries at all.
2). They are powerful. You may notice there is a standard Enloop Battery and the Pro Enloop Battery. We specifically use the pro version because of our need for a high capacity and high performing battery. Most photographers will want the same level of performance.
In short, they are the best rechargeable AA batteries for flash.
How to Keep Your Batteries Charged – Get a Good Rechargeable Battery Charger
Now that you know the best batteries to use with your speedlight, you’re still going to need to make sure they are getting the best possible charge. We’ve actually used a number of chargers but have had issues with most of them (one even fritzing out and sparking!!).
The 2 things we really needed to make sure we had were:
A rechargeable battery charger that actually worked well.
This should really be a given in any product we purchase. With battery chargers, we really came to find out that they are not made equally. Many of them came across as cheap knock offs. While these types of products might be okay in some areas of our lives, they do not work at all in this one.
There are some battery charging products out there that are outright dangerous (like the aforementioned sparker!). Others, they just don’t perform well. If your battery is not recharged effectively, it will end up killing the battery and decreasing it’s lifespan. What’s the point of having a rechargeable battery if you’re just going to end up replacing it in a few months?
A rechargeable battery charger that could handle charging many batteries at once.
If you only need to have a handful of batteries charged at any given moment, then this won’t really impact you too much. But, given we can go through a dozen or more batteries during a full day of shooting, it’s incredibly tedious and time consuming to charge batteries in pairs of 4. The Eneloop battery and charger kit comes with a charger that is great but has exactly this problem.
Our Recommendation – SunLabz Smart Rechargeable Battery Charger
The SunLabz Smart Rechargeable Battery Charger is great for all types of rechargeable batteries including AA, AAA, NiMH, and NiCD. We have been using this for years without a hassle.
The great part is this battery charging station can rejuvenate up to 16 batteries at a time. The digital interface is also great because it shows you when the battery is charging and completed. It has saved us a lot of time and headache waiting around for a set of batteries to get done just so we could load a few more on the charger.
For Even Better Battery Performance – Get a Profoto A1 Studio Flash
We used a number of speedlite setups for the first year or so of our photography business. While our Yongnuo and Canon brand flashes were great – especially considering their price tag – we still found them to be rather cumbersome. Even with great rechargeable AA batteries, we still had to carry around dozens of them. Not to mention, the interfaces on those speedlites were not exactly intuitive to get working exactly how we wanted them to in a pinch.
Over time, as our business began to grow, we were fortunate to have some extra money to put towards higher end equipment. It’s not for everyone, but if you have the money to spend, we highly recommend the Profoto A1 studio flash.
Not only is the Profoto A1 more user friendly (honestly – while we like it as professionals, it has a GUI that would be even better suited for beginners), but it’s battery pack is super simple. It’s just one battery than can last for hours on end. Oh, and it’s rechargeable too!!
During a single wedding, we can shoot with 3-4 batteries TOTAL and capture thousands of shots. Even the best rechargeable AA’s can’t compare.
If the Profoto A1 sounds like something that would be up your alley, we suggest giving it a look as an speedlite alternative.