A couple of things to note. First of all, the 500FTZ and 540FGZ do NOT use the same battery stuff, so if you get something for the 500 you will not be able to use it for the 540.
Recently I shot a gymnastic meet where 22 teams participated. 1640 shots all done with flash - I used the 540FGZ and a TR-Powerpac III. In the past I have shot my Metz and Pentax potato masher flashes with the Quantum battery II. The really nice thing about the TR-Powerpac is that the batteries are removed when low and a new set put in - for the gymnastic meet I went through 3 sets of batteries in the pack. If it had been like the Turbo battery, I would have run out of power and been dead in the water. So what you are trading is a little bit better recycle time on the turbo for the convenience of the replaceable batteries in the powerpac. You will probably need to look at your usage to determine which is more important to you. -- Best regards, Bruce Friday, April 17, 2009, 3:01:04 PM, you wrote: IR> Hi All, IR> Thanks again to all who responded to my question about Lightsphere. IR> Now I have a question about battery packs for the flashes. IR> Recently, I've experienced being limited by the time it takes to recharge IR> my AF-500 FTZ flash. Usually, with a fresh set of batteries, it is ok, IR> but after 10-20 shots, - I can see that the recharge time increases IR> considerably. IR> So, I am thinking if I should buy a battery pack for it - to minimize the IR> recharging speed. IR> I don't have much knowledge about the battery packs for flashes. IR> I see that there are less expensive that take 6 C-size batteries - IR> such as TR Power Pack II, and other that are much more expensive - IR> rechargeable (various Turbo models). IR> So, I would appreciate all the wisdom and pointers to the information IR> about various battery packs. IR> Specifically, I am interested in the following questions: IR> 1. Are there any other models besides Turbo and TR Power Pack? IR> 2. How does the recharging time differ between these two different types? IR> 3. How long do they last? IR> (I see the numbers for Turbo models on Quantum website: IR> http://www.qtm.com/Turbo/?res_set=yes&res=1280&resh=768 ) IR> 4. If a pack is listed compatible with AF-500 FTZ, would it be also IR> compatible with AF-540 fgz? IR> 5. Questions about "Slim Compact" model: IR> a) If anybody has used the "Slim Compact" (or Compact) version, - IR> is it convenient to mount it under the camera? Does the camera IR> become too heavy/too bulky with it? IR> Thank you, IR> Igor IR> -- IR> PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List IR> PDML@pdml.net IR> http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net IR> to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
