Originally posted by stevebrot The Pentax AF560FGZII is not their competition. It is primarily an on-camera flash, something Cactus does not offer for P-TTL here in the U.S. I don't know about the UK, but $185 USD only buys an RF60x speedlight. Fleshing out the system to include the required V6ii controller adds another $95 USD and I still don't have direct on-camera P-TTL. That is not a big deal unless one prices similar functionality from the "other brand" option where $200 gets you both controller and flash.
Steve
But, last year I bought 3 flash units and one transceiver, to give me a TTL/HSS 3 flash system for less than one AF540FGZII. I had a AF540FGZII, for which I bought another transceiver to give me a 4 flash system. Only needing one transceiver on the camera communicating with each Cactus flash, means the transceiver cost is spread out.
So, yes, not directly, comparable, but in some ways better and much cheaper as a system than building it around a 4 flash Pentax version and its optical (rather than wireless) system.
The 540 is more robust, weather proof and probably more accurate, but the much cheaper Cactus units are robust enough to have taken falls from head height onto tiled floors with no issues. I know I'd have sweated more if it had been the Pentax flash that had fallen over.