External Flash with Best Recycle Time?

I do alot of live concert photography and am looking into getting a new flash with a great recycle time. I currently have the 420ex and the 580ex. I just use rechargeable AA batteries, but neither recycles at the rate I need them too. Especially when I am trying to use the burst mode, half the photos don't have a flash going off.
Any reccomendations on a good flash to get? Or any other suggestions at all? I currently shoot with a Digital Rebel, and a Canon T-2 film camera.

Thanks!

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Originally Posted by Laura Zero

I do alot of live concert photography and am looking into getting a new flash with a great recycle time. I currently have the 420ex and the 580ex. I just use rechargeable AA batteries, but neither recycles at the rate I need them too. Especially when I am trying to use the burst mode, half the photos don't have a flash going off.
Any reccomendations on a good flash to get? Or any other suggestions at all? I currently shoot with a Digital Rebel, and a Canon T-2 film camera.

Thanks!

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hi Laura and welcome to the forum,
from what you said and I'm just guessing that you need to bump up that ISO alittle bit more, that will help the recyle time.
there are time I shoot nite football with my 20D and 580ex my setting at 1/4 or 1/8 ISO at 800 with a fresh set of battery I can fire three shot at a time. remember the d-rebel only shot 3 frame per second. maybe you could tell us what your shooting mode and setting so some other folk here could share some of there thought.

I have the same problem with my DRebel and 580EX when doing weddings. If faster recycle times are what you need, I think your best bet would be to get the external power pack for your flash.

another possibility would be to decrease the amount you are flashing. if you use less power, it will cycle much faster. if you decrease to 1/64 power, and just use fill, you should be fine to shoot bursts.

also this may be a viable idea because remember, a lot of the time you are relying on the venue's lights and set-up to give a lot of the colors and light of the photo, because that's what makes concert photography more natural. If you're flashing the hell out of the performers, it just won't look natural. Oh and 1/64 manual power on both of those speedlites still gives you a good amount of light.

As Liven said cut your power down and use the external battery pack for the 580EX and your burst times will increase.
If that doesn't cut it then you'll have to get a different flash setup such as the Norman battery pack & flash. The problem with the Norman is it's a big heavy pack and the flash bulbs are not cheap (like $50 each) although the bulbs do last most of the shooters I know a full racing season, on occsion one won't last long though. The Norman will however give plenty of light :)

JS

I generally have my camera set on Shutter Priority. I tend to use pretty slow shutter times so that I get the light trails. I generally don't have the problem with blasting the subjects with light.
I'll try bumping up the ISO. I try to use the slowest possible to eliminate grain, but maybe that's the problem.

Thanks for your suggestions!