[kay]

I'm looking forward to your report! Definitely cheaper than Pocket Wizards.

Oh, they work just fine. I've used them with my K100D and my K10D, and with Nikon SB-24 and SB-26 flashes, and they're hard to fault. Sure, the range could be greater, and the build quality is not exemplary, but at the price they're a great way to get started. Do note that the SB-26 has a built-in optical slave, so you could trigger one flash with the Cactus V2 and have any number of slaved SB-26s fire automatically at the same time. I did this once when I was only carrying a single Cactus receiver, and it worked just fine.

[stewart_photo]

Thanks for sharing your setup details and experience! How are you finding having P-TTL on your remote strobes? Is it worthwhile? Do you generally run P-TTL with FEC on individual flashes, or do you shoot manual mostly? I currently have the first type of setup you described (radio triggers and manual flashes) and it works fine for me, but I'm wondering if there are any control benefits of going P-TTL? Also, is there much you can do from the camera, or does changing settings like power of individual flashes still require you to walk to that flash and fiddle with its controls?

If you already have a manual flash setup that's working fine for you, I can't think of an overwhelming reason to switch, Pavel. Using a P-TTL setup doesn't offer huge benefits over a manual setup, especially when it comes to the final images. It's really more of a convenience than anything else. However, that convenience is limited solely to exposure. In other words, no handheld flash meter most of the time. When it comes to just about everything else (power settings, etc), it's still the buttons on the back of the flash units.

But, when considering that convenience, one also has to consider cost. Buying multiple Pentax flash units, especially AF-540FGZ flash units, is far more expensive than a set of manual strobes, even with the expense of a light meter thrown in with those manual strobes. I'm making enough money at the moment to afford the occasional extravagance, but that's obviously not the case for everyone (nor me on other occasions).

For those not dissuaded by the above, I can say this P-TTL system does work well. It took some time to initially figure out, but the manuals are actually more confusing than the implementation. After a little practice, setup is as quick as any other system. With in-camera metering, one does have to watch carefully what the camera is actually metering on. The same is true here. However, with reasonable care, exposure is fairly consistent and predictable.

I think that answers all of your questions. If you have any more, feel free to ask.

stewart

[kay]

Great stuff, thanks for the reply!

[dugrant153]

Hopefully you folks don't mind me bumping this thread.
Since my last post, I made the decision to get the Cactus V2 triggers from Gadget Infinity, as well as an Opus Umbrella kit (there was an option to buy one with a cheapo strobe unit, but decided to use my Pentax AF540FGZ instead).

The pictures have come out fantastic! I don't think I can mount my flash on my camera ever again! hehehe. Shooting into an umbrella DEFINITELY makes the light a lot less harsh, which is EXACTLY what I was looking for.

However, I am thinking of going with the Vivitar 285HV as a second flash. With that setup, I'd have the Cactus V2 controller on my camera's hotshoe, and then the Cactus V2 receiver mounted on my umbrella light stand with my Pentax AF540FGZ.

If I purchased the Vivitar, I've thought about mounting my flash on my K100D again. But that would replace Cactus V2 controller on my camera and that means I won't be able to fire my external flashes.

Possible options?

[Mikhail]

You could pop your one flash on camera and use other as a optical slave but this is rather restricting.

The best option would be to get another stand\umbrella\holder\reciever set to go with it [ new flash ] and away you go!

Thanks