Posts Tagged ‘v2’

Cactus V4 Remote Flash Trigger Review

March 24, 2009

cactus v4 

Final and Last Update 2

Update 1 since this review

I received my Cactus V4 Remote Flash Triggers yesterday and tried it out on Domo. I ordered a set of Trigger and Receiver and a additional receiver. The Cactus V4 is a update of the original V2 cheap EBay remotes that everyone uses as opposed to Pocket Wizards. Unfortunately, they always have a lot of issues either misfiring or not firing at all unless you modified them. I hated using them because they would always not fire. The Cactus V4 by Gadget Infinity went on sale March 13th and quickly sold out. You cant even see any info about them on their website which is sort of funny. I waited one week for them after ordering and since they ship from Hong Kong, that is not bad. You can get 3-day shipping for like $48 or something like that, but waiting several more days for regular airmail was a way better option.

These are the specs for the set: 

1) New antenna design that increases the reliability and effective distance to 30 meters.
2) New power source for receiver –AAA batteries.
3) 16 selectable channels and advanced anti-interference feature.
4) Compatible with low trigger voltage portable flashes, high trigger voltage portable flashes and studio strobes.
5) Trigger set includes three (3) connection cables while receiver only package includes one (1).

I tested my two receivers out on a Canon 430EX, 580EXII, and a old cheapo Sunpak strobe with a Canon 40D. They fired almost everytime on all 3 flashes. The batteries that came with one of them was low, which scared me at first because I thought it wasnt working but once I changed the batteries, it worked fine. The Cactus V4 was suppose to be able to fire up to 1/500 but it definitely was not able to do it. I was able to shoot at 1/100 to 1/250 and it worked fine. I didnt do much testing on the range but I dont usually need a big range since I am usually not too far from the subject and the flashes.

Overall, I am pretty happy and impressed with them so far but I have not tested them out that much yet. I hope to try it out on a model shoot soon.

domo

For this image, there is a 430ex behind Domo pointed at him at 1/16th power and another 580exII pointed at him at 1/16th power.

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Smoke Art

February 1, 2008

After looking at some pretty cool smoke art in the Flickr group called Smoke Art and here at the Sensitve Light website, I wanted to give it a try. There is a pretty useful tutorial on how to create your own smoke art here at Graham Jeffery’s weblog.

Smoke Art

This was my first attempt at creating smoke art. I used my 5×7 collapsible black backdrop. I put an incense on a stool about 2-3 feet away from the backdrop. My Speedlite 430ex was then setup on a light stand about 1-2 ft away from the stool on the left side. My camera was on a tripod in the front ranging from about 1-3 ft away. I used my prime 50mm f1.8 lens. My camera settings were at ISO 200, f14, and at 1/200. It was done in my room with the lights completely turned off so that it would be completely dark. Of course this also meant I could not see anything so I just kept firing away hoping for some good shots. Afterwards, the room was really smokey and smelly. The flash was set to full power since you are suppose to have as much as light as possible to capture the smoke. I used the Cactus V2 to trigger the flash. I also snapped away so much, I overheated my Speedlite 430ex! I highly recommend listening to the recommendation of letting the flash rest for 10 minutes after continuously shooting 20 shots. That sort of sucks because I now have to send it back to Canon for repair and will be without my flash for a couple weeks. I definitely learned a lot from setting up this shoot and there are several things I will try to change next time to get a better shot. Some things would be to try to move the background back a little more or to add a snoot to the flash so that there is less stray light. Next time, I will probably try to use continuous lighting so that I can actually see the smoke and shoot at a higher shutter speed.

My Smoke Art Flickr Set

Smoke Art

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Cactus V2 Review

December 31, 2007

This is a review of the Cactus V2 Remote Triggers from GadgetInfinity.com.

t 16766 01 Cactus V2 Review 

If you are in the market for a wireless remote trigger for your camera, I am sure you have heard about the Pocket Wizard as the defacto tool that every professional photographer usually uses. You have probably heard of the cheap Ebay triggers as well since they cost a lot less and work almost the same. The Cactus V2 is another alternative similar to the Ebay triggers but is sold through a website called GadgetInfinity. This version resolves some of the incompatibilities that version 1 had with certain flash units. I have tried the V1 version Ebay triggers with my Canon Speedlite 430EX and it definitely does not work. The Cactus V2 works a lot better than the V1 with the Canon 430EX but it still has misfires every so often. They also tend to happen when you are setting up so it gets quite annoying. Once you start shooting, however they work a lot better. If you set up multiple lights and the lights will not get triggered 100% everytime but its not too bad.

The standard set comes with one receiver and one trigger and there are four channels that you can set them to. The trigger is mounted on the hot shoe of your camera where the external flash is usually mounted. The receiver can be be used with the external flash or any other light unit either with a PC cord or hot shoe. I have tried the receivers on a Canon 430EX, 580EX and Alien Bee lights as well and it seems to work fine. The set of one trigger and one receiver from GadgetInfinity is currently $32.95 and additional receviers cost either $16.95 or $19.95 depending on which version you get as the older V2 Receiver works fine with Canon Speedlites 580EX and 430EX but the newer version is compatible with more flash units. The V2 set comes with the newer V2 receiver. If you are shooting for money, then they might not be the best solution but for the typical hobbyist, they are a good deal. You can read more about the V2 and purchase it here.

Compatible models:

  • Canon SpeedLite 580EX II, 580EX, 550EX, 540EZ, 520EZ, 430EX, 430EZ, 420EX, 420EZ, 380EX;
  • Nikon SpeedLite SB-800, SB-600, SB-28, SB-27, SB-26, SB-25, SB-24;
  • Olympus FL-50, FL-40, FL-36;
  • Pentax AF-540 FGZ, AF-360 FGZ, AF-400 FT, AF-240 FT;
  • Sigma EF-500 DG Super, EF-430;
  • Sunpak Auto 2000DZ, 622 Pro, 433AF, 433D, 383, 355AFm 344D, 333D;
  • Vivitar 285HV (Older Vivitar 285/283 works only with PC sync);
  • Other flash models with a trigger voltage of 12V or lower;
  • Does not work with V1 receivers or 16-channel trigger receivers

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