Yongnuo 560 Question

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donkey_kong

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My good wife bought me a Yongnuo 560 for my birthday the other week and I'm pretty happy with it until recently.

There is a light at the front of the flashlight that is green when it is charging (is this the correct terminology?) then red when it is fully charged and ready to use. When I first got the flash I put in four new batteries and it took a few seconds to get to red before I was ready to snap away.

This start-up time has got progressively worse. Yesterday, I turned on the flash and it was green for about a minute before it switched itself off completely. I repeated the same thing three times before the light turned red. It flashed green and red a few times before turning to red.

I haven't tried to replace the batteries yet but I've only put the new batteries in last week and I've only been using the flash on the off ocassion to test it out. Does the flash drain the battery that much?

Anyone else have a Yongnuo with the same problem? Are there any other suggestions as to why this is happening?
 
All flash guns need regular feeding with fresh, high quality batteries. Handbook will say how many flashes you get, and at full power or close to it, that will only be a few dozen at best.

Consider rechargeables. Most people use Sanyo Eneloops.
 
Flat batteries. Forget using alkalines, decent rechargeables needed and now! Shooting a road rally of 75 cars cost me 3 sets of batteries. That's perhaps 30 (full power) flashes a set!

Yongnuo "handbook" won't tell you much, it was translated by 1000 chimps at a 10000 typewriters....
 
You should see an improvement with rechargables over alkaline batteries as rechargables have a lower internal resistance which means the power can flow more freely and recycle the flash quicker.

One thing I found too is that cheap rechargables dont last long either, I read that Eneloops are pretty much the go to battery for flashes until I saw a multiway shootout of Eneloops (different types) some other batteries and Maha PowerEx batteries. The PowerEx batteries were worth a look so I bought 2 sets for my 2 YN568s and so far they have been pretty amazing....so much that I've ordered a backup set today for each flash too.
 
I've also found that removing the batteries when the flash is off (not being used for a bit) also helps lengthen their life. Dunno why - or maybes it just seems that way - but I've seen me put a fresh set of Duracells finest in for a couple of shots then go back a week later to find they're dead.
 
It should be page 1 of every flash instruction book:

Do not even think about using Alkaline batteries in this unit

Apart from the fact they last no time at all, the power curve is horrific, with recharge times doubling and trebling before they give up the ghost. Whereas NiCd batteries more or less have a flat output level until they die.

Then the cost:eek:
 
On my flash it's a red light when it's recharging and then green when it's ready to go !!!!
 
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