[Class A]

That is very, very strange. Yesterday was colder than today. I wonder if there is an operational temperature on this?

Glad to hear it is working again, but I agree that the behaviour is strange. The working temperature range is in the manual, but maybe it was just a stuck on/off button that came undone on its own?

BTW, GI's service has been excellent in my experience.

[ifringe]

Glad to hear it is working again, but I agree that the behaviour is strange. The working temperature range is in the manual, but maybe it was just a stuck on/off button that came undone on its own?

I am wondering about the batteries...but it is a straw I am grasping at. Time will tell.

BTW, GI's service has been excellent in my experience.

Agreed! I am more than pleased with their responsiveness. And that includes the initial, very timely shipment. It is nice to deal with a company that cares.

[Class A]

This

You Tube

You Tube

may give you the chills...

You'll have to watch the video to see how bad my pun is.

[LaurenOE]

I forgot I was subscribed to this thread. I managed to get a Laser Cactus, and I can't seem to get it to work without a delay of some sort.
I kind of gave up on it.
Good to know I'm still on this thread.

[Class A]

I forgot I was subscribed to this thread. I managed to get a Laser Cactus, and I can't seem to get it to work without a delay of some sort.

It has a delay feature so that's probably activated.

If you want to have another go at getting it to work without a delay, let me know.

It shouldn't be hard:

Before turning the receiver on, select your channel with the dial.

After turning it on, set the dial to "1". Then move the "Delay/Freeze switch to the other position" (it doesn't matter which it is, as long as the dial is set to "1" = no delay = no freeze).

You now have a receiver that sends on whatever channel you set initially without any delay. Don't change the dial position, though, unless you want to set a delay time or freeze time.

If you are triggering the camera (rather than a flash) with a V5 then you'll experience the normal shutter lag. But you'll see from the V5 LED that there is no delay introduced by the LV5.

I hope you can get it to work. Its a fun device.

[rawanduncropped]

Thank you for your detailed Cactus reviews Class A. They inspired me to get four V6 and the LV5.

I have a question regarding the shutter lag. In trap mode my K-3 and K-5 IIs need a 360 ms freeze (freeze, dial on 12) setting to fire on the first event. All subsequent events after the first event only need 20 ms (freeze, dial on 2) to make the camera release the shutter.
My settings were: camera in M mode, automatic off disabled, manual focus, V6 in relay mode on channel 2, LV5 Sensor on channel 1. I flicked my finger through the beam to simulate a very short event.

When I "wake up" the already turned on camera with a half-press all subsequent events get registered with a 20 ms freeze time.
This works even if I wait a few seconds after "putting the camera on alert" with a half-press (or the first event which will get missed by the camera when the LV5 is on 20 ms freeze time).
As long as the top screen of the camera is still glowing it is still alert enough to respond to a very short event. After the top screen stops glowing this alert time is over. The camera needs 360 ms freeze time to fire on the (next) first event.
When I let my finger rest on the shutter release button of the camera to half-press it the camera is always in "alert mode" and will register he first event with only a 20 ms freeze time.
Is there an option to put the camera in permanent half-pressed/alert mode without e.g. using a rubber band on an additional V6?

[Class A]

Thank you for your detailed Cactus reviews Class A.

You are welcome. I'm glad you found them useful.

I have a question regarding the shutter lag.

I'm not sure what your question is about. It could be one of the two:

1. It could be about shutter lag variation, i.e., the difference between the lag when the camera first has to "wake up" compared to when it was already ready to shoot. As you have observed, it takes the camera considerably longer to respond to a shutter release event when it has to wake up from standby.
   
   This is your question when the camera takes a picture after waking up from standby, but does so too late. In this case, there is nothing you can do, except try to keep the camera active somehow.
2. It could also be about the camera's ability to recognise short shutter release events when it is in standby mode.
   
   This is your question, when the camera does not take a picture at all of short events while being in standby mode. In this case, the below may be helpful.

Is there an option to put the camera in permanent half-pressed/alert mode without e.g. using a rubber band on an additional V6?

EDIT: On the camera models I own, there is no such option.
The K-5 II offers the option to disable the "Auto Power OFF" option (see my later post.

I can only maximise the metering period (there is an option to choose of how long the camera should stay active after you have activated it) , but it is not possible to turn off the standby behaviour altogether.

My settings were: camera in M mode, automatic off disabled, manual focus, V6 in relay mode on channel 2, LV5 Sensor on channel 1. I flicked my finger through the beam to simulate a very short event.

The settings are all great.

In trap mode my K-3 and K-5 IIs need a 360 ms freeze (freeze, dial on 12) setting to fire on the first event. All subsequent events after the first event only need 20 ms (freeze, dial on 2) to make the camera release the shutter.

In principle, the freeze period is only intended to suppress further trigger events after one trigger event has been passed on (e.g., to avoid spurious triggering with chaotic events like water splashes).

The freeze period is normally not intended to influence the shutter release signal sent to the camera, so in principle you would only have to change the freeze time when you want to ignore follow-on events, but not to accommodate the camera. Indeed, in "multi shot" mode, the freeze value does not impact on the shutter release signal at all.

However,In "single shot" mode, the length of the LV5's shutter release signal will depend on the freeze value. The rationale for this is that some camera models need a longer shutter release signal than others to respond at all. In "multi shot" mode, the shutter release periods passed on to the camera can be so small that slower cameras miss the cue altogether. That's why in "single shot" mode you can enforce minimum shutter release signal periods by increasing the freeze time.

If the K-3 and K-5IIs are not as attentive to shutter release signals while they are in standby then it would make sense that you would have to increase the freeze time in single shot mode.

You may want to experiment with using "multi shot" mode. IIRC, this one always tries to generate at least a 200ms shutter release signal (event frequency permitting). So unless you are dealing with high frequency event sequences, you should be fine (and can set the freeze value to 0).

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Last edited by Class A; 02-20-2015 at 09:55 PM.

[rawanduncropped]

It's good to know that my setup seems to function as it should. I was dissatisfied with the varying required trigger time of the cameras in standby and half-pressed state.
When I flick my finger through the beam it is a very short event and it only triggers the camera every time when I set the triggers to a freeze time of 360ms. It does work most of the time with lower values but not 100% if I move my finger really fast.
It's just important for me to know that I didn't miss anything and have to compensate for the required trigger time by setting up the triggers differently or to just "wake up" the camera before I try to capture a movement with the triggers.

It actually does work if I half-press another off camera V6 TX in relay mode. I can hold it indefinitely and the camera stays half-pressed. The only downside is that it just works for one shot. When I half press the shutter release on the camera it works all the time. I don't have to re-half-press like when I use the V6 TX.
Another option to have the camera always "awake" would be to modify the shutter release cable by shorting the wires that go to the 2nd and 3rd ring of the connector. It should keep the camera always half-pressed and the time needed to trigger the first shot would always be the same. I'm not sure if there is a downside to this.

Thank you that you took the time to reply.

[Class A]

Thank you that you took the time to reply.

You are welcome.

When I flick my finger through the beam it is a very short event and it only triggers the camera every time when I set the triggers to a freeze time of 360ms.

OK, this confirms that you are dealing with issue #2 (from my previous post).

I can't say that I remember this from my testing, but back then I only had a K100D and maybe this model is responsive even when in standby. Possibly, I just made sure that it was always active already.

I could do a test with my K-5 II, sometime, if you think that may help.

I was dissatisfied with the varying required trigger time of the cameras in standby and half-pressed state.

Technically, you don't need to adjust the freeze time.

You should be able to leave it at 360ms for both situations. The only downside to this would be that you are limiting your shot frequency to 2.8 frames/s even though a 20ms freeze time would support the full burst rate of your K-3.

Also, have you tried to put the LV5 into "multi shot" mode? The switch below the freeze/delay switch controls the "single vs multi" shot behaviour. If you really need 360ms freeze time to reliably wake up the camera, switching to "multi shot" mode may not help as, IIRC, the minimum shutter release time is just 200ms in this mode. But try it anyhow, perhaps that value is higher or was changed.

Another option to have the camera always "awake" would be to modify the shutter release cable by shorting the wires that go to the 2nd and 3rd ring of the connector.

EDIT: That may work (you can try by keeping a cable release half-pressed permanently).

See the next post.

The only downsides I can see is that the camera's battery will be depleted more quickly.

[Class A]

My apologies for not having realised earlier that at least the K-5 II offers an option to disable "Auto Power OFF". I'd be surprised if the K-3 did not retain that.

It is in the third screen of the "Setup" menu (the one showing the wrench).

If you turn this to "OFF", hopefully the camera will always be alert enough to catch trigger events, even when they are only 20ms long.

I'm hopeful that the camera's metering system does not need to be active as well. I'd test it myself, but am a rather busy at the moment.

[bobbotron]

I realize this thread is pretty old. Class A, do you still use the laser trigger much?

[Class A]

Class A, do you still use the laser trigger much?

Why do you ask?

The little time I have for photography I spend doing people photography. However, I'm glad that I have the LV5 available for when I need it. I'm sure it will come in handy some day again.

[bobbotron]

Why do you ask?

The little time I have for photography I spend doing people photography. However, I'm glad that I have the LV5 available for when I need it. I'm sure it will come in handy some day again.

I'm thinking of buying one for a few shots, searching for it on the forum I don't see that many mentions of it. I thought I'd ask to see if you had any longer term thoughts on it.

I do some archery, and thought it would be fun to do some freeze motion shots shooting water balloons.

[Class A]

Just depends on the kind of photography you do/like.

I thought about some additional uses beyond what I initially did with the triggers but I'm always too busy with other things.

BTW, arrows will probably prove very hard to be used for triggering as they offer so little profile and are so quick. I had success with darts but I believe they aren't nearly as hard to capture.

[bobbotron]

Just depends on the kind of photography you do/like.

I thought about some additional uses beyond what I initially did with the triggers but I'm always too busy with other things.

BTW, arrows will probably prove very hard to be used for triggering as they offer so little profile and are so quick. I had success with darts but I believe they aren't nearly as hard to capture.

For sure - you'd probably need to shoot a ton of arrows to capture one, and even then, probably not that interesting to see an arrow frozen in the air.. That's why I was thinking of adding a balloon - essentially you're not capturing the arrow, but the balloon bits flying everywhere.