[Class A]

Both of my V6s were blinking green, and I am using Eneloop batteries.

Using Eneloops should be fine.

I only use Eneloops and don't have any problems with them.

I'm rather sure the rapid blinking of the V6 was due to the fact that you put the V6 that is connected to the camera (unit [B] in my description) to Tx mode.

maxfield_photo was spot on with his remarks about the V6 causing the trouble (not the RF60) and the fact that the unit connected to the camera needs to be in Rx mode.

I just know that I had to play around with some settings a bit, and when the RF60 began freaking out and randomly firing off shots, I think they were 'test' shots and maybe it was just trying to measure ambient light.

The RF60 will never do any measuring shots and will never initiate any test shots on its own.

When it did that, I would just turn off both V6s, and it would stop.

This supports my suspicion that you actually put the V6 that is connected to the camera via the cable in Tx mode (i.e., that it wasn't just a typo in your description).

I now remember that I had the same thing -- high frequency firing of the V6 and hence the remotely controlled RF60 -- happen to me myself in the past. It was when I tried to reduce the number of V6 needed for this "HSS with manual gear only"-trick.

The culprit is the camera, which for some reason unbeknown to me, starts sending out a high-frequency pulse out of its remote shutter release port after a while (IIRC, after the meter goes off). Any V6 in Tx mode connected to the camera via a shutter release cable will then fire very rapidly.

You can easily avoid that by setting the V6 that is connected to the camera to Rx mode and using the second V6 in Tx mode to trigger both the camera-connected V6 Rx and the flashes in parallel.

After about half an hour of just checking my settings, and getting the 'rhythm' of the whole process, I was able to use everything fine, but had to realize it takes about 30-60 seconds for the RF60 to cycle up again to take another shot.

If it was actual recycling time of the RF60 (rather than another problem) then this indicates that the RF60 was in overheating protection mode.

You can recognise that by a thermometer symbol that shows on the display.

There are two stages of overheat protection. In the first stage the RF60 will slow down a bit on recycling and in the second stage it will refuse to fire at all as long as it takes for the flash tube to cool down to safe levels again.

It sounds like through your testing you have issued a lot of flash triggers that drove the RF60 into overheat protection.

During normal shooting, it may not be a problem, but if you notice the overheating protection kicking in still, try reducing the flash power. Shooting at 1/2 power (or even less) will significantly drive up the number of shots you can take in quick succession before the overheat protection starts kicking in.

And even then, I have to gently press the TX (that's connected to the camera via cable) V6 for a second or two, then press all the way, and most of the time, the flash will go off with the exposure. Many times it won't, though. It's a bit wonky.

Try checking whether the RF60 has finished recycling whenever that happens.

I've never experienced any unreliable triggering and the only explanations I can think of is that the RF60 was still recycling or protecting itself from overheating.

maxfield_photo made a very good point about the camera perhaps wanting AF confirmation that it does not get. In this case, however, the camera should not fire either, when you press the V6 test button.

It's not highly reliable, but it's better than nothing.

I'm convinced you'll find the gear to be 100% reliable once you removed your last remaining hiccup in the setup.

I'd like to thank Class A for all the help.

No worries!

[Toni999]

So basically it will work in hss with any strobe having a duration longer then 1/200s?
I don't know how profoto b1 achieve hot sync. Depending on their technology it would be possible to mount a profoto hss trigger on a cactus and fire. The cactus would need to be triggered as optical slave with a pentax strobe in hss mode.
Anybody try that?

[Class A]

So basically it will work in hss with any strobe having a duration longer then 1/200s?

Yes, as long as you can make the strobe issue such a long duration flash.

The RF60 allows engaging HSS mode (in which it emits a burst of pulses like a system flash) manually but with all other flashes/strobes I know of, HSS-bursts are tied to the respective system-specific TTL protocol and cannot be activated manually. The only solution with such systems is to provoke a long pulse by using high power levels (in the case of IGBT flashes/strobes, such as speedlights) or low power levels (in the case of most classic studio strobes).

I don't know how profoto b1 achieve hot sync.

To the best of my knowledge, it can only be activated when using one of their Air Remotes which has to fit your system. They don't offer one for Pentax, though.

The cactus would need to be triggered as optical slave with a pentax strobe in hss mode.

Either that or you can use my "HSS with the V6 (without dedicated equipment)" workaround.

Depending on their technology it would be possible to mount a profoto hss trigger on a cactus and fire.

Activating TTL pass-through on the V6 would allow mounting a Profoto Air remote on top of the V6, but again in your case that would be of no use because there is no Pentax-dedicated version of the Profoto trigger.

[Toni999]

"Activating TTL pass-through on the V6 would allow mounting a Profoto Air remote on top of the V6, but again in your case that would be of no use because there is no Pentax-dedicated version of the Profoto trigger."


So according to this statement I could not have Canon HSS flash on a cactus to be operated from a pentax camera too, right?

So the only reason to buy a cactus remote, is to use an rf60 then if this is true. I thought I read somewhere, it is meant to be for brand interoperability.

[Class A]

So according to this statement I could not have Canon HSS flash on a cactus to be operated from a pentax camera too, right?

You can manually remote control the power levels of many Canon flashes using a V6 on a Pentax camera, but Canon HSS is a Canon-specific function that is only available with Canon cameras.

So the only reason to buy a cactus remote, is to use an rf60 then if this is true.

No, and I have no idea how you came to that conclusion.

Unless there has been a recent development that I have missed, there is no triggering system that can translate system-specific features from different brands into each other.

The Cactus V6, however, gives you the most brand interoperability that I know of. You can use all sorts of flashes from different manufacturers (Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Godox, Nissin, ...) and manually remote control them at the same time from a huge range of camera brands. The V6's TTL pass-through feature (only relevant for on-camera flash usage) also works on a wide range of flash systems (Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Fuji, Panasonic, Olympus).

[Toni999]

You can manually remote control the power levels of many Canon flashes using a V6 on a Pentax camera, but Canon HSS is a Canon-specific function that is only available with Canon cameras.


No, and I have no idea how you came to that conclusion.

Unless there has been a recent development that I have missed, there is no triggering system that can translate system-specific features from different brands into each other.

The Cactus V6, however, gives you the most brand interoperability that I know of. You can use all sorts of flashes from different manufacturers (Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Godox, Nissin, ...) and manually remote control them at the same time from a huge range of camera brands. The V6's TTL pass-through feature (only relevant for on-camera flash usage) also works on a wide range of flash systems (Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Fuji, Panasonic, Olympus).

ok I think I got it. It means if you have a nikon camera and flash you can use it. and if you have canon camera and flash, you can use it on them as well. Unlike Pocketwizard, where you need a specific version.

[Class A]

ok I think I got it. It means if you have a nikon camera and flash you can use it. and if you have canon camera and flash, you can use it on them as well.

Matching camera brand and flash brands with a Cactus V6 does not achieve much (except for allowing TTL pass-through which only works for one one-camera flash).

Everything that works when brands are matched (triggering, remote power control) also works when brands are different.

With other trigger systems (such as from Phottix) matching camera brands and flash brands unlocks system-specific features such as HSS and second-curtain sync over radio. The V6 is not such a "TTL via radio" trigger so matching is neither useful nor necessary.

The "Acon triggers" for Pentax support P-TTL (including HSS) via radio. However the firmware seems to be relatively immature at this stage as many of the initially announced features are not working yet. I'd take manual power control allowing many different brands, over simple P-TTL with just Pentax-dedicated P-TTL flashes any day, but mileages do vary.

[Toni999]

I don't worry about ttl. Hss is what I need.

[mcgregni]

I don't think you can get HSS without P-TTL. Certainly our Pentax DSLRs need a dedicated system flash in order to trigger a shot beyond the Max Sync Speed of 180th. As in my recent demo (see the thread further down on this forum) the optical triggering solution with the Cactus RF60 works reliably even in sunshine, and with two slave flashes set on opposite sides of the camera position.

But there will obviously be distance limitations, and I remained within about 2.5 meters from both slaves. I would love to have an easy and reliable radio triggered solution for HSS for longer distances ..... Do the Acon products now provide this ?

[Class A]

I don't think you can get HSS without P-TTL.

You can get the equivalent with an RF60 (manual HSS) or you can use HyperSync (accepting graduated exposure then).

Certainly our Pentax DSLRs need a dedicated system flash in order to trigger a shot beyond the Max Sync Speed of 180th.

Not quite true, if you consider my "HSS with the V6 (without dedicated equipment)" workaround.

Do the Acon products now provide this ?

Yes, the Acon triggers basically operate like a P-TTL wire.

Not all of their originally promised functionality is available yet, though.

[awaldram]

I don't worry about ttl. Hss is what I need.

Hss is a subfuntion of P-ttl

Its like

P-ttl
|
|
- Hss
|
- Wireless

So Without P-ttl you don't get Hss or Wireless

Though you can have P-ttl without Wireless or Without Hss (cheap flashes offer parts of P-ttl)

Because HSS is part of the P-ttl protocol all Triggers that support P-ttl will also carry HSS

One last point TTL is not P-ttl they are totally different

So the Cactus V6 though will control power levels on many manufacturers flasjhes using TTL with a pentax body it will not support P-ttl itself

The only true brand agnostic triggers are the AK-ttl trigger because the are flash signal repeaters so will convert a P-TTL signal fromthe body into Radio then back into light for the flashes
Aokatec - Products

The Acon R930 is a P-ttl only flash but is pure wire to RF so is easier to set up and use than the Aokatec units
Flash Trigger - acon-photo

[mcgregni]

Some good points and clarifications awaldram, thanks .... Also thanks for those responses above ClassA ..... It will be good if we do finally get full 'radio-cord' functionality from those Acorn products eventually.

[Class A]

Hss is a subfuntion of P-ttl

Not to nitpick, but this is only true in a certain sense.

If "HSS" means to you "Camera makes shutter speeds above the sync-speed available when using flash" then your statement is correct.

If "HSS" means "Light source produces a burst of pulses that approximate continuous light in order to support shutter speeds beyond the sync-speed" then it is not a subfunction of P-TTL, as my workaround demonstrates.

The only true brand agnostic triggers are the AK-ttl trigger...

...with respect to TTL functionality.

There are a lot of other triggers that are brand-agnostic with respect to triggering and some of them are multi-brand compatible when it comes to remote power control.

[maxfield_photo]

We need to give a name to Class A's workaround so that people understand that there is an alternative method for achieving HSS beside pTTL HSS. "The Class A Workaround" has a nice ring to it, but I kind of like "The Starter Pistol Method" since it conjures up the analogy of holding something in your hand (in this case a V5 or a V6) to start a race. I think it's a little easier for people to get their minds around what is going on. Thoughts, anyone?

[Class A]

I kind of like "The Starter Pistol Method" since it conjures up the analogy of holding something in your hand (in this case a V5 or a V6) to start a race.

I like that suggestion a lot!

Let's wait a bit for other voices, but unless another consensus develops, I would add your name suggestion to my original workaround description, with your permission, of course.