Breaking News: Quantum Battery Blowout or Faulty Speedlite? Part 2

Earlier this week, I posted up about my Quantum Turbo 2X2 battery charger and the short circuit it may have caused in my 580EXII Speedlite. I am very thankful for the staff at Denver Pro Photo who quickly refunded my money for the questional battery charger as well as the sync cord without any argument or hassle.

They tried using the pack on a Nikon flash, and it worked well. It could also be possible that my flash was faulty; I have yet to hear from Canon about whether my own flash can be revived. Staff confirmed using a third-party product could cause a malfunction, however other wedding photographers have used the Quantum product the same way I hoped to use it without any issues.

Either way, I feel more comfortable now knowing that I got my money back and a new Canon-appropriate CP-E4 battery pack will be arriving soon. Maybe this is just a way for Canon to get people to only buy other Canon products instead of relying on third-party items, and maybe my Speedlite was faulty to begin with. I just hope the Quantum dealers might be willing to offer Denver Pro Photo some type of compensation for their time and efforts as well. As long as I have SOME flash to work with during the wedding, I will be more at ease.

Breaking News: My Flash Died!!!

My Canon Speedlite 580EX II died a premature death yesterday. What was the culprit? My new Quantum Turbo 2x2 external battery pack! Thank God I tried this new system out at home before my wedding shoot this coming Saturday. If my flash would have died while on location, I may have had a heartattack.

For the life of me, I'm not sure what happened. Per the instructions, I charged the battery pack for three hours before using the Quantum Turbo Flash Cable "CZ," which is supposed to be the correct cable to connect the Canon 580EX II to the Turbo. I plugged it in, and the green "pilot" button on my 580 flickered rapidly and then went out! I didn't realize the 580 was dead until I disconnected the cables and then tried to use normal alkaline batteries to fire it up. Nothing happened, save for burning my own fingers, because the batteries were scorching hot when I took them out of the flash.

My flash was out like a light, and my wedding assignment was just six days away! ALL KIND OF CUSS WORDS!!!!!

I went to sleep, and the next morning I tried to put another set of fresh batteries in the flash, hoping it had all just been a bad dream. No dice. I frantically called Canon only to be told that using non-Canon external power packs can cause malfunctions. No, really! You think???? To make matters worse, I couldn't find any of the paperwork or receipts for the flash to proove it was still under warranty. Sigh.

Luckily for me, my buddies at Wolf Camera had a 580EX II behind the counter. They reserved it for me, and I picked up a new one today. The service reps there think the Turbo may have shorted out the flash. Wolf will also send my old flash into Canon for repairs estimated to cost me $150, if they can repair it at all. You can bet I bought a service plan for the new one on top of the Canon warrantee, and I placed all the paperwork and receipts in a safe place.

Canon makes its own battery pack, the CP-E4 which uses eight size-AA alkaline or Ni-MH batteries, as well as AA lithium batteries. A customer service rep at Mike's Camera said they don't even sell battery packs like the Turbo 2X2 anymore since the lithium batteries are so strong. Good Lord, I hope the Denver Pro Photo shop where I bought the Turbo will allow me to return it...as I paid more than $500 for this piece of equipment. I'm too scared to try to use it again on my new flash. What do you think went wrong and has this ever happened to you?