[lifebysong]

I bit the bullet and took a risk on pairing the battery-powered Orlit Rovelight RT 601 500Ws HSS (non-TTL) Monolight/TR-Q6 Trigger kit with the Cactus V6ii to see if it would work...glad I did. HSS works perfectly up to the max mechanical shutter speed when mounted on my KP.

The Orlit Rovelight RT 601 kit (including a TR-Q6N or TR-Q6C trigger) can be purchased new for $379 from Adorama. A used “like new” Cactus V6ii can be purchased for ~$64 (a new one runs $95). This setup is a steal considering you are getting a 500Ws battery-powered monolight and full wireless control.

I knew people had experienced success with the Cactus when paired with other more expensive monolights (Profoto, etc.), but I could not find where anyone had posted on the Orlit.

Like the other examples on the forum, the Cactus essentially acts as a translator when mounted on the camera hot shoe between the Pentax body and the Non-Pentax (Nikon in my case) trigger. With the newly-released Pentax-specific firmware installed, the Cactus automatically detected the Pentax camera and Nikon flash trigger.

V6ii settings: Tx, Pentax camera profile, Nikon flash profile, Normal HSS mode

TR-Q6N settings: Manual flash, HSS

RT 601 settings: wireless mode “TTL-N” for Nikon; HSS automatically enabled by TR-Q6N

I imagine this would work the same for the TR-Q6C (Canon) if you select “TTL-C” as the wireless mode on the RT 601. However, I don’t have a Canon version to test.

The Orlit TR-Q6 triggers allow for full control of the RT 601 including flash output, sync mode, modeling light, etc. The TR-Q6 also features bluetooth, which allows you to adjust the settings from a smartphone app for a wireless tethering experience. I haven’t tried that feature out yet, but it is on my to-do list.

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Last edited by lifebysong; 01-23-2018 at 08:58 PM.

[derekkite]

Thanks for this. Is there any documentation of the power as you shorten the flash duration to freeze movement?

[btnapa]

Like the other examples on the forum, the Cactus essentially acts as a translator when mounted on the camera hot shoe between the Pentax body and the Non-Pentax (Nikon in my case) trigger.

Welcome to the forum. Thank you for the post. I love to try this combo but I am a little confused. Are you using the two triggers in tandem to make this work. I feel that Pentax's weakest point is the flash system. I really like what my Canon and Nikon shooting friends are dong with the lighting choices they have.

Any chance you can post a picture of your set up too.

Thanks
Boris

[Class A]

Are you using the two triggers in tandem to make this work.

It very much looks like he uses the "trigger stacking" approach, i.e., has the V6II mounted to the camera and the TR-Q6N mounted to the V6II.

Cactus do not officially support trigger stacking but luckily it works for some trigger combinations.

[lifebysong]

Thanks for this. Is there any documentation of the power as you shorten the flash duration to freeze movement?

There is a freeze mode available on the flash. The flash duration can be as short as 1/19000 of a second in this mode according to the manual. I have not used this feature yet.

[lifebysong]

Welcome to the forum. Thank you for the post. I love to try this combo but I am a little confused. Are you using the two triggers in tandem to make this work. I feel that Pentax's weakest point is the flash system. I really like what my Canon and Nikon shooting friends are dong with the lighting choices they have.

Any chance you can post a picture of your set up too.

Thanks
Boris

Thank you for the warm welcome! Yes, I am stacking the two triggers on the camera as Class A mentioned. I will try to post a photo of the setup this weekend.

---------- Post added 01-24-18 at 07:13 PM ----------

Thanks for this. Is there any documentation of the power as you shorten the flash duration to freeze movement?

The manual doesn’t seem to indicate how power output is affected when utilizing freeze mode. I will do some investigation with the unit.

[mcgregni]

Duration seems to be the standard technical method of adjusting effective output of strobes and flashes. I wonder if it's possible to also have a combined technical approach, where shorter durations are compensated for by higher power putputs, thereby maintaining an effective exposure value even at very short durations .... ?

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Last edited by mcgregni; 01-25-2018 at 05:09 AM.

[Class A]

Duration seems to be the standard technical method of adjusting effective output of strobes and flashes.

That is only true for IGBT technology. All speedlights use this technology, but up until recently studio strobes used a different system. In the capacitor charge based system used by classic studio strobes, effective flash duration becomes longer the weaker the output.

I wonder if it's possible to also have a combined technical approach, where shorter durations are compensated for by higher power putputs, thereby maintaining an effective exposure value even at very short durations .... ?

A combination of short duration and high power is not theoretically impossible but you'd need correspondingly powerful flash tubes and respective electronics. It's all a question of price.