Last month at the Digital Life Expo a customer dropped by our booth to say hi, and as we talked about batteries, he said

If Powerex batteries are good enough for Joe McNally, they are good enough for me!

I was not aware Joe McNally uses Powerex AA batteries and battery chargers. I took a look at his website, and he even has it published.

Joe uses the Powerex 2700mAh AA rechargeable batteries and the Powerex MH-C801D battery charger. You can read the full list of Joes gear on his blog at http://www.joemcnally.com/blog/whats-in-the-bag/

Joe McNally shoots for TIME, Newsweek, New York Times Magazine, and National Geographic He is a published author and voted as one of the most influential photographers of the last decade. That Joe McNally uses Powerex gear is a great testament to their performance and reliability for any Pro photographer.

We are now carrying stock of the Yongnuo CTR301P wireless flash triggers, and the RF602/C (for Canon) and RF602/N (for Nikon) wireless flash triggers. Yongnuo triggers have been getting great reviews on various photography sites, such as Flickr and dpreview.com.

So why are we carrying two different Yongnuo flash trigger systems?

Both systems will mount and work with almost all DSLR cameras with a hotshoe, and almost all speedlight and studio flashes, except for Sony/Minolta equipment. The main difference between the two systems are twofold:

1. Wireless frequency and Wireless range: The CTR301P works on the 433mHz frequency, making it compatible with other 433MHz systems such as the Cactus wireless flash triggers. The range of the CTR301P is around 10m, which is fine for most studio or outdoor photo shoots. The RF602 works on the 2.4GHz frequency, which provides a range of around 100m, and a stronger signal in buildings with interference issues. We have a customer who was having interference issues using his cactus remotes with his Canon 5D. Moving to a RF602C trigger and three RF602RX receivers has removed any interference issues, and he is now getting great results from his 3 flash set up for real estate photography.
2. Mounting System: The CTR301P receivers has a 1/4″ thread mount on the base, which fits on a standard light stand, whereas the RF602 as a standard Hotshoe mount. If you want to use these wireless flash triggers with speedlite flashes, that means you need a FH02 umbrella/flash mount for RF602, and a FH07 for the CTR301P wireless triggers.
3. Shutter release option: With an optional shutter release cable, the RF-602 can also be used as a remote shutter release, so they serve a dual purpose.

Whichever solution you choose, you are bound to get great value, and increased options for your off-camera flash setup.

That meant changing our stationery, and updating our address details with customers and suppliers. So we figured it was an opportune time to update our name and logo too. Effective immediately, we are now trading as PROtog!

Why PROtog?

When we started the business, using the family name seemed most logical. At the time, my wife Kellie and I were the only workers, so it made sense, but it didn’t mean anything to new customers, and unlike Penfolds, McDonalds, Dell, and Ford, Servaas is not so easy to spell or say! So I wanted a name that was easy to say, spell, and was descriptive of what we do.

Over the years we have learnt that most of our customers are photographers who get paid take photos as their main job, or as a side income, or they take their photography hobby seriously. They are what the industry would call PRO photographers, and PROsumers. So we were looking for a name which was a play on the words Professional and  Photography.

Some photographers affectionately refer to themselves as ‘togs’, just as electricians are ‘sparkies’, and carpeneters are ‘chippies’. So we abbreviated ‘Professional’ and ‘Photographer’ to get ‘PRO tog’, which for simplicity we have merged into a single word, PROtog.

Along with the new name we have a new logo:

We have also migrated the online store to a new domain name at http://protog.com.au

So, now we have a new location, a new domain, and a new identity. Tell us what you think in the comments!

For those of you who are sceptical of using Rechargeable battereis in radio microphones, Mike over at Church Tech Arts has done some thorough runtime testing of various AA rechargeable batteries in Shure UHF-R UR2 microphones with SM-58 capsules. Mike also includes ProCell Alkaline batteries as a comparison for those using Alkaline AA batteries .

The Powerex 2700 AA and Sanyo 2700 AA both had the longest runtime at 14 hours, eneloop came in at 11 hours, and the alkalines ran for 9.75 hours. You can be assured that quality recargeables will pay for themselves. Mike tested a set of 4 year old rechargeable AA’s and found they were still outperforming Alkaline batteries by 4 hours.

Mike has a great overview of why you may have been burned by rechargeables in the past.

Click here for a full explanation of the test setup Mike used.

We recommend 0.5C as a standard charge rate. That is 0.5 multiplied by the battery capacity. Here is an example:

0.5C charge rate x 1000mAh battery capacity = 500mA charge rate.

If you are in a hurry, you can use a charge rate up to 1C without concern of damage, but at 0.5C charge rate you will get a more complete battery charge. A slower charge will result in a slightly higher capacity, and it is easier for the battery to absorb the energy at a slower rate, which will contribute to a longer battery life. So why not charge even slower and get more charge capacity and more battery cycles from the rechargeable batteries?

Using a slower charge rate has a diminishing marginal benefit. Going any slower than 0.5C does not result in much difference to energy capacity or battery longevity.Futhermore, we recommend a minimum charge rate of 0.3C. Below 0.3C it is more difficult for the MH-C9000 to detect the change in voltage and know when to terminate the charge.

As a guide, here is a chart for our main battery models:

Read more about Tony’s experience here.

Powerex AA 5 pack for Nikon SB800

We have a fair amount of customers who shoot Nikon, and many of you doing a lot of off camera flash photography in weddings and portraits are using SB800 speedlites. So we talked to MAHA about packaging up their batteries in 5 packs rather than 4 packs, and we now have the Powerex 2700mAh AA battery 5 pack, including an 8 battery case

If you want to get updates the happenings at Servaas Products aka PROtog and you are into twitter, you can follow us @servaasproducts

The recommended maximum charge rate from most battery manufacturers is 1C, or 1 x the Capacity of the battery. For a 2700mAh AA battery, the maximum charge rate is 2700mA. A 15 minute rapid charger is very aggressive, charging at 4C. Absorbing the energy so fast will cause the batteries to become quite hot, and will shorten the life of the batteries. Any charger that takes 1 hour or longer to charge batteries will meet the 1C recommendations.

For example, The MH-C801D has a standard charge rate of 2000mA for AA batteries, so it is below the maximum recommended charge rate for our 2100mAh IMEDION AA batteries and our 2700mAh Powerex AA’s. The MH-C801D also has a SOFT CHARGE feature, which halves the charge rate to 1000mA, making the charging process even easier on the batteries. I would recommend using the SOFT charge feature whenever you have the time to charge your batteries at 1000mA, and feel free to use the 2000mA charge rate when you need batteries charged fast.

The ten types of batteries tested were as follows:

Sanyo eneloop “Pre-Charged” – 2000mAh, MAHA Powerex – 2700mAh, MAHA Powerex Imedion “Pre-Charged” – 2100mAh, Rayovac Hybrid “Pre-Charged” – 2000mAh, Rayovac “15-Minute” Rechargeable – 2000mAh, Duracell DX1500 Rechargeable “Pre-Charged” – 2000mAh, Kodak Rechargeable “Pre-Charged” – 2100mAh, Energizer Rechargeable – 2500mAh, La Crosse Rechargeable – 2600mAh, Energizer Max Alkaline – “Use by 2013”

Given that this test was conducted in the USA, some of the tested brands are not available in Australia, however, the significant results are that the Powerex 2700 AA rechargeable batteries provide the faster refresh time than any of the other batteries, and the IMEDION provided the fastest flash refresh time among all the Low discharge (ready to use) AA batteries.

Another significant result is that the Powerex IMEDION AA batteries provided more flash pops that all the other brands of low self discharge (ready to use) AA batteries.

You can read the (extensive) test results and procedures at the Photography on the net forum