[lavascript]

Wow, I'm shocked that you actually convinced me that I want these. I've been extremely satisfied with my V4 set that I've had for a little over a year. At first, I thought the main "upgrade" was the switch to transceivers instead of the Tx/Rx pair. I've never had to change channels on my V4's, I'm fine with the batteries. But that "Ch1 fires Ch2-5" feature is awesome. To be able to fire each light in a multi-light setup? Wow.

Thanks for this.

[jake14mw]

Thanks very much for posting a very comprehensive review for us. I really appreciate you taking the time. I have been using a 301P set with pretty good reliability. I didn't even know that the Cactus people had a new model out.

My main criteria for these is reliability. You did not really talk about this much in your review. I think you made one reference to this where you were discussing close proximity reliability saying that when they work, they are 100%, and you also mentioned that other models had trouble with the Pentax 1/180th max synch speed. Here are my questions:

1) How did you get your units to test? You seem to indicate they are not available yet for sale genrerally.
2) Did you test just one pair? It seems that with many other of the cheaper triggers, reliability problems are much more prevalent when working with more than one flash.
3) You did use the words rock solid in your review, does this mean that you had 100% trigger reliability at 1/180th of a second?
4) What Pentax bodies did you test them on and what flashes?

Forgive me if I missed something that already answered these, I'm at work and did not much time to re-read things. One feature that looks great to me is the fact that you can mount another trigger in one of these. I'm hoping that this allows people that have a different existing set of triggers to hopefully get creative with some configurations.

Is there any word on when these will be available? I'm anxious to see reports from people on these. They seem to have some nice features, but reliability is the key for me. Thanks again for the excellent write-up.

[GerryL]

I've held off on the V4's and didn't want the RF-602's either since they were not really specifically for Pentax.
I was looking for one that can remotely trigger the camera too and this fits the bill!
I'm glad I held off as much as I can.
The only thing is...I keep coming back to Gadget Infinity site and it (V5) is still not available albeit now there is a quoted price.
I hope they offer a package "trio" instead of just the "duo" and the additional "single" if you want to add more units.
The price is affordable considering the quality they put into this now.

[Ken T]

Are they available to consumers yet?

[Class A]

Are they available to consumers yet?

The V5 will be available for sale on Gadget Infinity on Monday, January 24, 2011.

[Ken T]

The V5 will be available for sale on Gadget Infinity on Monday, January 24, 2011.

Thank you very much Class A .

[Class A]

I hope they offer a package "trio" instead of just the "duo" and the additional "single" if you want to add more units.

They'll only sell the "Duo" and "Single" packages.

[Class A]

My main criteria for these is reliability. You did not really talk about this much in your review.

Perhaps I didn't because it wasn't an issue. I never had any misfires. The only way to provoke misfires I found was to put receiver and transmitter too close to each other.

1) How did you get your units to test?

I had some email conversation with the manufacturer about the Cactus V4 a while ago and I guess they liked the probing nature of my technical questions. Anyhow, recently they asked me whether I were interested in becoming a member of their V5 beta testing team. They cannot possible test a new version on all equipment out there so they used a team of beta testers to have them test the units with their equipment and also provide feedback.

I thought they came up with a really nice trigger and hence thought I could share my impressions in the form of a review. It is really rewarding to see that many people seem to find it useful.

2) Did you test just one pair? It seems that with many other of the cheaper triggers, reliability problems are much more prevalent when working with more than one flash.

I used three units, testing the multi-channel option and switching the active flash on the fly. It was really nice to be able to setup a number of flashes in a room and then use the one that works best for a given situation or all of them.

3) You did use the words rock solid in your review, does this mean that you had 100% trigger reliability at 1/180th of a second?

Yes, no misfires, no banding. I tested the banding with "white wall" tests and with real life shots. I didn't have any issues at all. That's no wonder because the triggers could handle up to 1/1000 sync speed.

4) What Pentax bodies did you test them on and what flashes?

Pentax K100D. I'll see whether I can test them on some other bodies but to be honest, it shouldn't make a difference.

Flashes:

• Canon 540 EZ (trigger voltage <6V)
• Centon FG105D (trigger voltage ~5V, IIRC)
• Vivitar 2500 (trigger voltage ~13V)
• Sunpak GX 24 (trigger voltage ~56V)

Note that the Centon FG105D won't fire through the hot shoe with any receiver (Cactus or not) because it requires digital communication with the camera to release the centre hot shoe contact triggering. I triggered it using the 3.5mm sync socket I added with a modification.

One feature that looks great to me is the fact that you can mount another trigger in one of these. I'm hoping that this allows people that have a different existing set of triggers to hopefully get creative with some configurations.

It worked great with the Cactus V4 (433 MHz). Not sure how it will work with other 2.4GHz triggers. It won't be necessarily a problem because "2.4GHz" when used for radio triggers actually denotes a band of several possible frequencies. However, I wouldn't completely rule out the potential of interference.

[Tommot1965]

forgive a dumb question..if I wanted to fire 3 off camera flashes, Ill need to buy 2x Duo packs ?

if I wanted to fire a double head speed-light set-up.. could I do it with one transceiver ? , or would I need one transceiver for each speed-light, or could i mount one to the hot-shoe on the V5 and use a sync cable for the other ?

something like this

[Class A]

forgive a dumb question..if I wanted to fire 3 off camera flashes, Ill need to buy 2x Duo packs ?

In general, if the flashes are going to be spaced apart, yes.

Your double-head speed-light setup allows the use of fewer transceivers though.

You can fire a flash on the hot-shoe of a V5 and another through the sync cable. Note, however, that's like firing two flashes with a Y-cable, i.e., the transceiver does not electrically decouple the hot shoe and the sync cable.

Apparently, as long as you are using the same flash model or two flashes whose trigger voltages differ no more than 20% from each other, this electrical coupling isn't a problem. I know someone who has fired a double-head setup for over a year with a Cactus V4 receiver without any damage to the equipment.

Neither I nor the manufacturer, however, will endorse such setups, and will not accept any responsibility if things go wrong.

In summary, the official answer is "You need one receiver per flash" and the unofficial answer is "You can fire two flashes with one receiver but you are doing this at your own peril.".

[Tommot1965]

no worries thanks for the quick reply

are you aware of a radio trigger that supports P-TTL....as i take it the v5 does not?






l

[Class A]

are you aware of a radio trigger that supports P-TTL....as i take it the v5 does not?

The only thing I know for sure is that triggers supporting TTL cost $$$.

Have a look at Pocket Wizards (also dubbed "Poverty Wizards" because of what they do to your purse. EDIT: While I have seen "Pocket Wizards" been called "Poverty Wizards" in the past, nowadays "Poverty Wizards" seems to exclusively refer to budget triggers). I'm not sure what kind of TTL they support and for which brands. I don't shop in that league.

[kenyee]

are you aware of a radio trigger that supports P-TTL....as i take it the v5 does notl

There are none for Pentax P-TTL AFAIK.
The original radiopopper P1's did supposedly (I remember someone posting about them) since all they did was translate optical to wireless to optical.
However, the newer PX ones are tied to Canon/Nikon protocols (I tested them at a meetup w/ a local Pentax user and they did *not* work w/ Pentax P-TTL).

Only negative w/ the V5 appears to be size and an odd tripod mount that angles it upwards.

[Andi Lo]

Very tempted for the trigger separate flashes with channel 1 ability... not sure if I'll be using that feature much though. Do you know if the V4 would drop in price once the V5 is released class A?

[Entropy]

The only thing I know for sure is that triggers supporting TTL cost $$$.

Have a look at Pocket Wizards (also dubbed "Poverty Wizards" because of what they do to your purse). I'm not sure what kind of TTL they support and for which brands. I don't shop in that league.

Actually, I'm fairly certain the Cactus V2 units were what were dubbed "Poverty Wizard", as they were one of the first "dirt cheap" Pocket Wizard alternatives.