Flash triggering: slave vs rf602/pocketwizzard

heki · 06-09-2012, 09:53 AM

Hi,

i just bought a pentax 540 fgz and was able to fire the flash in wireless mode, triggered by the popup flash on the body. i was looking at youtubes videos about
wireless triggering of falshes and i did stumble on a small question. If i can trigger all of my flashes as slaves with a popup flash, why would i go and buy wireless
triggers? I know this wont work if my slaves dont see the 1st flash, but if all flashes do see it, there is no need for wireless triggers. Am i right? Or can i get more
from triggers than from slave option on flash.

As i said, i just got into a wonderfull world of external flashes and the results i got from slave option made my heart skipped a beat ... so i am thinking of buying
2-3 cheap flashes and do some magic ... at least i hope so

Regards

elliott · 06-09-2012, 10:13 AM

Optical triggering doesn't always work reliably and you could be adding unwanted light with the popup flash. You could also run into a situation where you aren't the only one shooting in a particular area and someone else's flash could set yours off, ruining their shot.

The Yongnuo RF-602 does have some compatibility issues with Pentax, with unmodified Nikon or Canon triggers you can't shoot at 1/180, but if you hold the trigger button half way down you can. This is inconvenient, there is a modification to allow you to use a Nikon trigger on a Pentax body without any limitations, but it is better to just buy some triggers that work out of the box. I've heard Cactus triggers work great.

heki · 06-09-2012, 10:44 AM

Thank you for your reply.

i should have wrote that i was talking about taking photos inside, where i am the only one taking photos.

I did go to ebay and searched for cactus wireless flash triggers. Are those standard for all camera brands or do they have to be for pentax only?
Becouse i cant find anywhere if the results i got are made for the specific brand like rf602.

Thank you again for the fast reply!

elliott · 06-09-2012, 10:56 AM - **1 Like**

There are no RF602s made for Pentax, only Canon and Nikon. The ones listed for Pentax are really for Canon because the remote cable is the same, which is only useful if you also want to use the triggers as an RF remote for the camera. The Canon transmitter can't be modified to sync at 1/180 without holding down the trigger button half way.

I believe there are no dedicated Cactus triggers, so the same set works with all systems.

I have heard about the PT-04 triggers, they supposedly work at 1/180 with no modifications and they are cheap.

heki · 06-09-2012, 11:13 AM

!!! Thank you !!!

I think ill order PT-04 ones.

**jatrax** · 06-09-2012, 12:54 PM

Originally posted by elliott

I believe there are no dedicated Cactus triggers, so the same set works with all systems.

Yes, Cactus v4 works well with Pentax and v5 is really nice. I have v5 and find them very reliable and capable of much more than I use them for.

ihasa · 06-09-2012, 03:41 PM - **1 Like**

For indoor use (in your living room), those cheapo Seagull-type optical slave units work perfectly fine. There's also a limitless supply of incredibly cheap used flashes on ebay, so you can really go wild if you want to! I've been playing around with my AF280T flash on-camera, and various Vivitar, Pentax and Minolta flashes off camera with the slaves. The following was my first attempt at a bit of flash photography (I know they're not perfect, this is just to show the idea) with a Vivitar 3500 (with home made diffuser) and optical slave, costing well under £5 each; using the AF280T on low and full power (bounced):

That set up was OK, but I have settled on a pair of Minolta AF4000's as they're about the cheapest manually-controllable units you can get (I won one of them for £1.20!!! although postage was another £3.00....) I will keep the AF280T to trigger them (bounced, in low power mode).

Last edited by ihasa; 06-09-2012 at 03:50 PM.

heki · 06-09-2012, 10:48 PM

Just one more question. Does any of those trasmit ttl informations? I will basicly have all flashes in manual but having an option to use ttl would be great too ...

thx!

elliott · 06-09-2012, 10:51 PM

All manual, there are no RF triggers on the market that work with P-TTL.

heki · 06-10-2012, 12:55 AM

Hm
i have been searching the ebay for the past hour and i cant find any cactus triggers v4 or v5. i came up a search for v2. Can someone send me the link via PM or, if its not against the rules, post the link here.
Thx.

p.s. is posting links against the rules? Couse i got 3-4 links from ebay and i would like to ask a few things here ...

steve1307 · 06-10-2012, 05:24 AM

Originally posted by heki

Hm
i have been searching the ebay for the past hour and i cant find any cactus triggers v4 or v5. i came up a search for v2. Can someone send me the link via PM or, if its not against the rules, post the link here.
Thx.

p.s. is posting links against the rules? Couse i got 3-4 links from ebay and i would like to ask a few things here ...

Gadget Infinity link in these reviews written by "Class A"

Cactus Cactus V5 Duo reviews - Pentax Camera Accessory Review Database

Gadget Infinity Cactus V4 reviews - Pentax Camera Accessory Review Database

heki · 06-10-2012, 12:32 PM

I have just bought the af280t flash and i am planing on buying another or af200t. Are those two higher than 12V? Or will they work with PN-04 series?
I have a manual for af280t in pdf format but there is no information about that ...

**jatrax** · 06-10-2012, 07:31 PM

If you are asking about trigger voltage, I believe all Pentax flashes are safe. I use three AF200T flashes when I am set up to do manual, triggered with Cactus v5 triggers. I like the AF200T because it has a switch on the back that lets you adjust flash power. No menus or anything fiddly just slide the switch to the power you want, easy to adjust especially when you are trying to balance multiple flashes. And it is really cheap!

And here is the Gadget Infinity link for Cactus v5

sterretje · 06-10-2012, 09:32 PM

Anything that is not mounted on the camera is safe to the camera

You can do a search for flash trigger voltage to find sites with information.

GerryL · 06-13-2012, 07:26 AM

Originally posted by sterretje

Anything that is not mounted on the camera is safe to the camera

You can do a search for flash trigger voltage to find sites with information.

This is true but I guess there are some flash triggers that can't handle hi-voltage flashes and then there are some from what I have read (according to their specs) that won't even trigger if the voltage of the flash is too low.

06-09-2012, 09:53 AM	#1
heki New Member Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 15	Flash triggering: slave vs rf602/pocketwizzard Hi, i just bought a pentax 540 fgz and was able to fire the flash in wireless mode, triggered by the popup flash on the body. i was looking at youtubes videos about wireless triggering of falshes and i did stumble on a small question. If i can trigger all of my flashes as slaves with a popup flash, why would i go and buy wireless triggers? I know this wont work if my slaves dont see the 1st flash, but if all flashes do see it, there is no need for wireless triggers. Am i right? Or can i get more from triggers than from slave option on flash. As i said, i just got into a wonderfull world of external flashes and the results i got from slave option made my heart skipped a beat ... so i am thinking of buying 2-3 cheap flashes and do some magic ... at least i hope so Regards

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06-09-2012, 10:13 AM	#2
elliott Inactive Account Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: North Carolina Photos: Albums Posts: 1,720	Optical triggering doesn't always work reliably and you could be adding unwanted light with the popup flash. You could also run into a situation where you aren't the only one shooting in a particular area and someone else's flash could set yours off, ruining their shot. The Yongnuo RF-602 does have some compatibility issues with Pentax, with unmodified Nikon or Canon triggers you can't shoot at 1/180, but if you hold the trigger button half way down you can. This is inconvenient, there is a modification to allow you to use a Nikon trigger on a Pentax body without any limitations, but it is better to just buy some triggers that work out of the box. I've heard Cactus triggers work great.

06-09-2012, 10:44 AM	#3
heki New Member Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 15 Original Poster	Thank you for your reply. i should have wrote that i was talking about taking photos inside, where i am the only one taking photos. I did go to ebay and searched for cactus wireless flash triggers. Are those standard for all camera brands or do they have to be for pentax only? Becouse i cant find anywhere if the results i got are made for the specific brand like rf602. Thank you again for the fast reply!

06-09-2012, 10:56 AM - 1 Like	#4
elliott Inactive Account Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: North Carolina Photos: Albums Posts: 1,720	There are no RF602s made for Pentax, only Canon and Nikon. The ones listed for Pentax are really for Canon because the remote cable is the same, which is only useful if you also want to use the triggers as an RF remote for the camera. The Canon transmitter can't be modified to sync at 1/180 without holding down the trigger button half way. I believe there are no dedicated Cactus triggers, so the same set works with all systems. I have heard about the PT-04 triggers, they supposedly work at 1/180 with no modifications and they are cheap.

06-09-2012, 11:13 AM	#5
heki New Member Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 15 Original Poster	!!! Thank you !!! I think ill order PT-04 ones.

06-09-2012, 12:54 PM	#6
jatrax Site Supporter Join Date: May 2010 Location: Washington Cascades Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 12,991	Originally posted by elliott I believe there are no dedicated Cactus triggers, so the same set works with all systems. Yes, Cactus v4 works well with Pentax and v5 is really nice. I have v5 and find them very reliable and capable of much more than I use them for.

06-09-2012, 03:41 PM - 1 Like	#7
ihasa Veteran Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: West Midlands Photos: Gallery Posts: 2,066	For indoor use (in your living room), those cheapo Seagull-type optical slave units work perfectly fine. There's also a limitless supply of incredibly cheap used flashes on ebay, so you can really go wild if you want to! I've been playing around with my AF280T flash on-camera, and various Vivitar, Pentax and Minolta flashes off camera with the slaves. The following was my first attempt at a bit of flash photography (I know they're not perfect, this is just to show the idea) with a Vivitar 3500 (with home made diffuser) and optical slave, costing well under £5 each; using the AF280T on low and full power (bounced): That set up was OK, but I have settled on a pair of Minolta AF4000's as they're about the cheapest manually-controllable units you can get (I won one of them for £1.20!!! although postage was another £3.00....) I will keep the AF280T to trigger them (bounced, in low power mode). Last edited by ihasa; 06-09-2012 at 03:50 PM.

06-09-2012, 10:48 PM	#8
heki New Member Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 15 Original Poster	Just one more question. Does any of those trasmit ttl informations? I will basicly have all flashes in manual but having an option to use ttl would be great too ... thx!

06-09-2012, 10:51 PM	#9
elliott Inactive Account Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: North Carolina Photos: Albums Posts: 1,720	All manual, there are no RF triggers on the market that work with P-TTL.

06-10-2012, 12:55 AM	#10
heki New Member Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 15 Original Poster	Hm i have been searching the ebay for the past hour and i cant find any cactus triggers v4 or v5. i came up a search for v2. Can someone send me the link via PM or, if its not against the rules, post the link here. Thx. p.s. is posting links against the rules? Couse i got 3-4 links from ebay and i would like to ask a few things here ...

06-10-2012, 05:24 AM	#11
steve1307 Veteran Member Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Sydney Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 1,130	Originally posted by heki Hm i have been searching the ebay for the past hour and i cant find any cactus triggers v4 or v5. i came up a search for v2. Can someone send me the link via PM or, if its not against the rules, post the link here. Thx. p.s. is posting links against the rules? Couse i got 3-4 links from ebay and i would like to ask a few things here ... Gadget Infinity link in these reviews written by "Class A" Cactus Cactus V5 Duo reviews - Pentax Camera Accessory Review Database Gadget Infinity Cactus V4 reviews - Pentax Camera Accessory Review Database

06-10-2012, 12:32 PM	#12
heki New Member Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 15 Original Poster	I have just bought the af280t flash and i am planing on buying another or af200t. Are those two higher than 12V? Or will they work with PN-04 series? I have a manual for af280t in pdf format but there is no information about that ...

06-10-2012, 07:31 PM	#13
jatrax Site Supporter Join Date: May 2010 Location: Washington Cascades Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 12,991	If you are asking about trigger voltage, I believe all Pentax flashes are safe. I use three AF200T flashes when I am set up to do manual, triggered with Cactus v5 triggers. I like the AF200T because it has a switch on the back that lets you adjust flash power. No menus or anything fiddly just slide the switch to the power you want, easy to adjust especially when you are trying to balance multiple flashes. And it is really cheap! And here is the Gadget Infinity link for Cactus v5

06-10-2012, 09:32 PM	#14
sterretje Veteran Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Roodepoort, South Africa Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 3,561	Anything that is not mounted on the camera is safe to the camera You can do a search for flash trigger voltage to find sites with information.

06-13-2012, 07:26 AM	#15
GerryL Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: CA Posts: 2,731	Originally posted by sterretje Anything that is not mounted on the camera is safe to the camera You can do a search for flash trigger voltage to find sites with information. This is true but I guess there are some flash triggers that can't handle hi-voltage flashes and then there are some from what I have read (according to their specs) that won't even trigger if the voltage of the flash is too low.