NiHM's in a Canon flash

My cousin has bought himself a new Canon digital SLR and a Canon Speedlite 420 EX flash, and I told him to use RC's instead of buying new batteries all the time.

My question is will there be a problem(loss of preformance etc) running 4x1.2V NiHM's for a total of 4.8V compared to alkaline AA's for a total of 6V?

We have checked around and found a pack of 12 AA 2500NiHM's and a charger from Emilon for 30$, sounds like a deal, but if you have any advice we'll be glad

I have used NiMH from 2200 to 2500mAh in both the Canon Speedlite 550EX and 580EX with no probs. Works great. No loss of performance I noticed. Probably even recharges quicker, some people say. I've never really tested it. Get a few sets of NiMH and get flashaholic

I think digital cameras, in general, prefer rechargeables. They require a lot of current for short periods of time - which alkalines aren't very good at due to their relatively high internal resistance.

I run NiMh's in my Canon A95, and they work a lot better than alkalines.

In general, it's worth remembering that alkaline cells are only 1.5 Volts for the first bit of their lifespans. By the time they're half used (long before you'd think of throwing them out), they're under 1.2 Volts even under modest loads.

Electronic flashes, as has been pointed out, are far from modest loads.

Doug Owen

No problems at all. I have lent my NiMH to folks using the 550EX, and the day I get to own my 430EX (new release, 22 Aug 2005, expected to supersede the 420EX), I'll be using NiMH. Canon specifically supports both alkalines and NiMH.

These flashes will charge their capacitors from the batteries as fast as possible and fire the flash off the caps, so battery performance doesn't affect flash power output. Battery performance DOES affect flash recycle time, if you're operating on alkalines you can probably expect the caps to charge slower on heavily depleted alkalines, whereas NiMH excel at delivering high burst currents. I prefer the Sanyo NiMH cells, which have no problems delivering 3A+ sustained current.

Thanks alot for the answers

I'm using exactly this flash with nimh's for everday work. No problem at all.

Chrisse

I have tested the recycle times of that same flash unit with alkalines vs various nimh cells. All of the nimh cells recycle in less than 1/2 the time of the alkalines.

Been using NiMHs in 3x 550s, 2 of which run the 6 cell external bat pack, for about 3 years at the office. Work well and has saved me a bundle even though I put down a bit for the 6 Sony chargers and batteries.

-LT