[Gerard_Dirks]

Hello

Yesterday I received my cactus trigger. Today I factory reset them all ( 4 pieces) and updated with the latest firmware. The Test I did with Metz flashes for Pentax (58AF1&2)

With the K-3 & K-5 the remote triggering works fine. TTL, HSS, Groups and even EV. I did only a short 15 minutes test but it looks good.
The Problem I have is with the K-1. The TX-trigger communicates with the RX-Trigger but the flash it not released. You will hear a short beep on the Flash. Pressing the Test-Button release the flash.

A general setup Problem. I recognised after made some changes I need to switch off/on all cactus before everything works fine.

I suppose this is a bug with the K-1 and the Pentax. I bought this cactus to use the with the K-1, with the K-3 & K-5 I have till now always used the Metz flashed in Slave Modus and the builtin flash of the Camera as Master.

Till cactus has solved the problem I will use a Pentax 340 as Master and the Metz 58AF as Slave.

I think we need to share a lot of information to cactus before it will work reliable.

Has someone other experience?

Gérard

[pschlute]

I occasionally have found with the K1 that after setting everything up I go to take my first picture and no flash firing. I change my procedure now so that the last thing I do before taking an actual picture is to turn the power down a few turns of the wheel on the TX unit then back to the level I want (or indeed to TTL mode). this seems to wake-up the RX units and everything works fine from there on in.

I also suggest you change the sleep setting on the K1 when using flash so it does not nod off.

This is using Pentax AF540/360 units as well as Cactus RX60

[DeadJohn]

...Metz flashes...

There's another recent thread where someone reported a problem with K-1 and Metz. Try searching for that thread to see if it's relevant to your problem.

[Gerard_Dirks]

There's another recent thread where someone reported a problem with K-1 and Metz. Try searching for that thread to see if it's relevant to your problem.

That was me ;-). But that problem is related to the Master/Slave function of Metz with the K-1. But the cactus doesn't use this function.

On the K-1 everything is very unreliable, ether the flash do not release or it is complete overexposed :-(

[pschlute]

Do you have another flash unit to try out? It sounds like a Cactus-Metz issue

[skyer]

I also have some issues with Cactus V6 II and K-1. I started a topic on the Cactus forum about this problem but it hasn't been solved so far. X-TTL for Pentax - Cactus Community

[Gerard_Dirks]

Hello

The support departement from cactus already send me an e-mail. The Problem is that they have returned the Pentax K-1 to Ricoh :-( So I don't think that the problems will be fixed very soon :-( Really a pitty. The relased the Pentax Firmware about 1 week ago and did'n't calculate that maybe some issues will accured which are not seen by the betatesters :-(((

It is a good sign that Richoh Hong Kong had borrow them an K-1, I would like that Ricoh Germany had done this to Metz ;-)

[Class A]

The Problem I have is with the K-1. The TX-trigger communicates with the RX-Trigger but the flash it not released.

Strange, I'm using the K-1 and the PEN.A.001 firmware on my V6II units and have no problems.

The K-1 seems to underexpose while the K-5II seems to overexpose with flash but the behaviour is exactly like when mounting the flash on the camera directly.

What mode are you using on the K-1?

Have you tried "M"?

What flashes have you tried?

Make sure to always select the flash profile for your flash manually on the V6II receiver. The "AUTO detect" feature does not work with Metz flashes.

[Gerard_Dirks]

@Class A,

Not all my flashes are listetd in the Flash Profile. The 58AF2 & 64AF1 are listed. I must do some studying how I can add the 58AF1 to this Profile. Also I have a 48AF1 & 52AF1 which are not listed.

In the Pentax Firmware I haven't found an option to come in the learning option shown in the following videos

You Tube

You Tube

- Cactus V6 Learning Profile

You Tube

You Tube

- Cactus V6 - 03 - How to use Flash Profile Learning

Ferther I have an Menu Option "Custom Settings" (OFF/TYPE 1/TYPE 2/ TYPE 3) which is not documentated :-(

Gérard

[Class A]

I must do some studying how I can add the 58AF1 to this Profile.

You cannot add profiles to a V6II.

The V6 has the ability to create new profiles (for TTL flashes), the V6II is meant to be used for P-TTL flashes and cannot create new profiles.

Also I have a 48AF1 & 52AF1 which are not listed.

That may mean that these flashes are not supported.

More likely, however, you can select a similar model and it should still work.
If you search the Cactus community forum, you'll find people having success and failures with flash models which are not natively supported. Note that success will depend on the firmware version. If the 52 AF-1 does not work with the multi-brand variant, it may still work with the X-TTL variant.

In the Pentax Firmware I haven't found an option to come in the learning option shown in the following videos

That's because only the V6 has that feature.

Ferther I have an Menu Option "Custom Settings" (OFF/TYPE 1/TYPE 2/ TYPE 3) which is not documentated :-(

Have a look at the firmware release notes. They contain descriptions for new functionality that has been added since the manual was created. In this case, the description of "Firmware V1.1.010" explains the "CUSTOM SETTING". I think that the naming is very bad and tried to convince Cactus that they should use a better scheme (e.g., call the item "CAMERA MODEL" and then allow you to select your camera model), but I wasn't successful.

[morenjavi]

That may mean that these flashes are not supported.

More likely, however, you can select a similar model and it should still work.
If you search the Cactus community forum, you'll find people having success and failures with flash models which are not natively supported. Note that success will depend on the firmware version. If the 52 AF-1 does not work with the multi-brand variant, it may still work with the X-TTL variant.

Hello, you can try the 50 AF-1 profile. I use it, and it seems to work. But notice that I don't have two V6II to fire this flash remotely. I just tested it with the flash on top of the V6II, in TX mode. Zoom and power changes seems to work (for the 'on-camera' flash). Also PASSTHROUGH mode works.
I still have the pre-X-TTL firmware.

If I'm not wrong, 52AF is an 'evolution' of the 48 AF, so it's possible that this profile worked for your 52AF too.

Forgot to say, that I have the Metz 48AF-1.

Regards.

[Gerard_Dirks]

Hello

I just test the cactus with the K-1 and an Yongnou Speedlite YN585EX.

P-TTL works fine, EV works. Zoom didn't work (but that is a bug in the Yongnou, it didn't work also on the K-1 fit directly), HSS can't work, because the Yongnou doesn't have this feature

Regards
Gérard

p.s. short comment. The EV Correction is only visible on the cactus and not on the LCD of the Yongnou :-(

[Class A]

I just test the cactus with the K-1 and an Yongnou Speedlite YN585EX.

Have you tried rear-curtain sync.?

Doesn't work for me on any of the flashes I've tried.

[Gerard_Dirks]

@Class A

I just tried it with both the Yongnou YN585EX and the Metz 58AF2 in a small test envoirement For both the Rear-Curtain works fine.

What I recognised is that the Yongnou made a correct exposure while the Metz was completely underexposed. Then I did it again with first curtain. Same result :-(
Then I change the the Flash Profile for the Metz from Auto to 58AF2, as cactus writes, same result.

I recognised that the Zoom Function for the Metz doesn't work.
Also the AF-Light was not working correctly. While switching AF Continues to on (on the cactus) both on flash and a camera are on. After changing the AF Assist on the Cactus TX only switch on the Camera AF but not the AF light on the flashes

At last I recognised that the batteries in the TX are half empty after about 50-75 test shots. For a shooting it is a No-Go to swap battery of all triggers after 150-200 photos. I extra started last friday with fully loaded Eneloop AA cells. I can't imagine that the power consumption of the cactus is nearly the same as a flash. On a normal set I have no problem to take 250 shots with a 4pack Eneloop

So for me this is not reliable. Once it works, once it doesn't work. A litte bit frustrated

For me the cactus V6ii will go back in the box and wait till a bug fix of the pentax firmware will be released. In the near future I will used my Pentax 360 as Master on my K-1 and the Metz as Slave. For the models it is very frustrated if the photograph need to do so many test shots before a session starts, only because the setup isn't reliable :-(

Gérard

[Class A]

I just tried it with both the Yongnou YN585EX and the Metz 58AF2 in a small test envoirement For both the Rear-Curtain works fine.

That's so strange that it does not work for me.
Could you please try "M" mode on the camera with a shutter speed of 1s?

What I recognised is that the Yongnou made a correct exposure while the Metz was completely underexposed.

Are you sure the Metz isn't undexposing on the camera as well?

I experienced big differences between K-1and K-5 II but it turned out that the flash showed the same differences directly on these cameras.

At last I recognised that the batteries in the TX are half empty after about 50-75 test shots. For a shooting it is a No-Go to swap battery of all triggers after 150-200 photos.

That shouldn't be the case.
What kind of display settings are you using? I guess, if you use a high brightness level and no time out, this could deplete batteries unduly, but normally battery life should be very good.