documentation
August 4, 2010
for the most part, you can probably skip this post, although there is a universal truth herein that i get to… eventually.
so we have a little problem. now that we (finally) have two full-time external Speedlites available, we need more power, especially for the bigger, more powerful 580EXII flash. the solution: an external battery pack, and specifically, Canon’s CP-E4 Compact Battery Pack. it holds a total of 8 AA batteries inside. combined with the onboard batteries in the 580EXII, that’s a total of 12 batteries at play. from all accounts, its a wonderful tool for all-day shooting (read: weddings).
so i did my research, read nearly every single review on B&H (there are a ton), and decided that for the convenience and price, it was worth it. my last step was to try and find instruction manuals or documentation online from Canon so I knew what to “officially” expect. but there wasn’t any. i had to Google search “Canon CP-E4 compact battery pack” to even find it on the Canon website (a search on the site gave me nothing). but i figured, hey, nearly 200 reviews with an overwhelming positive response must mean its simple to use and just go. and it also has a handy-dandy tripod screw mount on the bottom to attach it to the bottom of the camera! sweet!
it came in today, and the first thing i did was pull out the one-sheet manual included. the very first note?: (not verbatim) do not attach the battery pack to the tripod socket of any EOS Digital camera except for the 1D-series. otherwise, the electromagnetic interference will cause noise to appear on all images.
huh. well that sucks, because we shoot with a 5DMII and a 7D, and it’ll primarily be used on the 5DMII. my next step was to find out what year the one-sheet was printed. perhaps since then, later models have been built to counteract this problem. date: 2007. alright! 5DMII came out well after this, so maybe we were in the clear. but just in case, i called Canon to triple-check.
their verdict? that note still holds true. the 1D-series cameras are built like tanks (true) and are able to negate any interference caused by the battery pack. for any other model, the pack must be at least 2 inches away from the body, preferably in a pocket (it does have a nice stretchy cord) or strapped elsewhere away from the camera body.
our problem? since the flash that needs the battery pack will mostly be used by Jac at weddings (somewhere she’ll most likely be wearing a dress while shooting), there’s nowhere to really put the battery pack except for strapping it to a dress strap. the pack itself with 8 AA batteries, while by no means “heavy,” is probably going to be quite uncomfortable when attached to a dress strap and may cause a wardrobe malfunction (!!).
this is, of course, vexing. we have to have that extra security that batteries aren’t just going to die at critical moments and its either the Canon battery pack or a $500 Quantum battery pack. lemme stress that: $500. we’ve been lucky the past couple of months being able to purchase most of the extraneous gear we needed without coming close to breaking the bank, but i know we cannot plunk down $500 on a battery pack anytime in the near future, not with so many other things that have to come first (like RML stuff and lenses).
so here’s that universal truth i spoke of earlier. everyone these days has a website, and for the most part, manufacturers of consumer goods are happy to put their manuals online in PDF format, freely available. Canon makes their camera manuals freely available as well. its truly frustrating when companies leave the small things out or make them impossible to find. i don’t know if this battery pack is going to work for us now, but i also know we cannot do without it. we can’t risk missing that critical shot or fleeting moment because the batteries decide they’re tired.
and thats all.
Advertisement
No comments yet
