Recently in Blues Category

Rechargeable Battery Blues

By Martin Joergensen | July 7, 2008 11:30 PM | | Comments ( 1)

MJ0_6081.jpgUsing several speedlights means using many batteries - at least four times the number of strobes and most likely eight times as many batteries as you have speedlights if you have a couple of sets for each flash.
Personally I only use rechargeable batteries - nowadays of the NiMH-type, Nickel-Metal-Hydride - which mark the current optimum between capacity, price and other traits you want from batteries.

They have a high capacity, no memory (like the old NiCd cells had) and keep their charge fairly well, and can be "topped off " - boost charged right before use - with no loss of capacity in the long run. They are also more environmentally friendly than previous types due to a large number of recharge cycles and the lack of the poisonous cadmium and other nasty substances.
The available capacity per cell is increasing year by year, and while 1,800 and 2,000 mAh (milliampere hours) was the norm just a couple of years ago, today's AA-cells have capacities of 2,300, 2,600 and even 3,000 mAh.

Continue reading Rechargeable Battery Blues.


Hot Shoe Blues

By Martin Joergensen | June 30, 2008 10:26 PM | | Comments ( 1)

nikon-d200-corroded-hot-shoe.jpg

I have always had problems with the hot shoes on my cameras. I shoot a lot of pictures very close to saltwater - sometimes even wading in saltwater - and that invariably means saltwater sprays all over my cameras.

Most of them have endured this otherwise rough torture, but a few have suffered the BHSCS (Bad-Hot-Shoe-Contact-Syndrome).

Salt, water and metal is a very bad mixture, and add to that electricity (or expected electricity, otherwise known as contact) and you are going down a road called Failure.
Continue reading Hot Shoe Blues.


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