The Nikon series of speedlights are great flash units. However, they do tend to chew through batteries pretty quickly. The solution is here: the Nikon SD-9 High Performance Battery Pack.

It is an external battery pack that attaches to the flash via an accessory cord. You can wear the pack on your belt, slip it into a pocket, or even put it in a camera bag that you're carrying. It is quite versatile.

There are three main benefits of using this battery pack (one of which isn't officially listed as a "feature", but we were very excited to discover it):

1) Battery Life

This pack holds 8 batteries, which gives you up to twice the battery life as you would with the standard 4 batteries in the flash. You are far less likely to run out of power mid-shoot.

2) Recycle Time

Since there are more cells available able to absorb each flash power cycle, the recycle time in between flashes also goes down when using this pack. Now your flash can more easily keep up with the camera!

3) Overheating

The biggest known problem with the SB-900 is its "thermal protection" circuit, which will shut down the flash when it gets too hot. Murphy's law dictates that this will happen to you right in the middle of something important, and you're stuck without a flash! But this battery pack helps prevent this from occurring by spreading the "load" out over more cells so that each cell doesn't heat up as much or as quickly. This is a massive benefit to SB-900 shooters who are worried about thermal shutdown. Yes, it can still overheat, but it takes a lot more flash "pops" to make that happen, and it recovers much quicker. This extra bonus holds true for the SB-910 and SB-5000 as well, so good news all around!

Overall, this is an easy way to make a good flash even better. Rent the SD-9 along with one of our Nikon Speedlights to achieve Nikon flash nirvana!