Any alternative to Cactus v5 from UK?

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Pietrach

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Hi
Cactus v5 sounds ideal for me, but I am concerned with extra taxed and duty.
Is there something of similar quality and characteristics available from uk?
The things i will not give up on is outdoor range, and I am not interested in cheap chinese brands.

Thanks
Pawel
 
Pietrach said:
Hi
Cactus v5 sounds ideal for me, but I am concerned with extra taxed and duty.
Is there something of similar quality and characteristics available from uk?
The things i will not give up on is outdoor range, and I am not interested in cheap chinese brands.

Thanks
Pawel
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If it's V5's that you want then you can bet them here without any tax or duty to worry about
Foto Konijnenberg http://www.fotokonijnenberg.co.uk/p...wireless-flash-transceiver-version-5-duo.html

Bob
 
Pietrach said:
Hi
Cactus v5 sounds ideal for me, but I am concerned with extra taxed and duty.
Is there something of similar quality and characteristics available from uk?
The things i will not give up on is outdoor range, and I am not interested in cheap chinese brands.

Thanks
Pawel
Click to expand...

Standard answer is Yongnuo RF-602 or 603. Try Premier-Ink for UK supply.

Most of these things are made in China these days. Even Pocket Wizard have some of the stuff made there.
 
Search 'Cotswold photo rf603' on google and buy the eBay link that turns up :)
 
Flash In The Pan said:
Cactus is the definition of a "cheap Chinese brand", YongNuo's stuff is far better quality.
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I suspect by cheap Chinese brand he means the PT-04 and stuff like that which is cheap rubbish rather than just inexpensive.

itsdavedotnet said:
Search 'Cotswold photo rf603' on google and buy the eBay link that turns up :)
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Cotswold don't sell the Yongnuo RF603 any more, they sell some interseting looking but more expensive Ojecoco triggers now. Chantelysee seems to be the only true UK seller of the RF603, on eBay at least. I got some from them a couple of weeks ago and to be honest I regret it a bit, the lack of a locking ring is just stupid.
 
Don't mess about with cheap Chinese junk that will most probably let you down.. Get pocket wizards you get what you pay for I have never had a miss fire from them yet
 
Flash In The Pan said:
Thank you for that concise rebuttal, the extra information you brought to the discussion has been really useful.

/sarcasm
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Never had an issue at all with my V5's, they are well built for the price and sync 100% of the time for me at 1/320 on a 1D4.

The two main difference I can see are the Yongnuo has a TTL pass-through hotshoe were as the V5's is not TTL and the V5's have a hotshoe lock where the 603's dont.
 
acetone said:
Never had an issue at all with my V5's, they are well built for the price and sync 100% of the time for me at 1/320 on a 1D4.

The two main difference I can see are the Yongnuo has a TTL pass-through hotshoe were as the V5's is not TTL and the V5's have a hotshoe lock where the 603's dont.
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So your insight is based on one set of triggers?
 
I've only needed to buy one set as they have always worked, if you having to keep buying different ones maybe they are not as good as you think.
 
acetone said:
I've only needed to buy one set as they have always worked, if you having to keep buying different ones maybe they are not as good as you think.
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Err, no I don't, but, I do have a bit of experience with ocf gear and the Cactus stuff, unless it has improved hugely in the last couple of years, wasn't exactly the best.
 
acetone said:
the Yongnuo has a TTL pass-through
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They don't, it's manual pass through only. There was a blog post somewhere that said they were TTL pass through and it confused a lot of people into thinking they were when they're not.

Flash In The Pan said:
unless it has improved hugely in the last couple of years, wasn't exactly the best.
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The whole trigger market has improved colossally in the past few years.
 
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I bought the YongNuo's stuff from flash in the pan when he was selling them & i have had them a couple of years now,still working.:thumbs::clap:
 
jockwav said:
I bought the YongNuo's stuff from flash in the pan when he was selling them & i have had them a couple of years now,still working.:thumbs::clap:
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Yes, me too, RF-602. And they're still working faultlessly.

Recently got a couple of Phottix Strato II. A bit more money, but class triggers. Full max x-sync, TTL pass-through, and all the right controls etc in the right places. Now available from Intro 2020 :)
 
Strato - been flawless in performance for me both indoors and outdoors. They've been in a drenching that finished off an SB-800 and just kept on working. Calumet does a re-branded version of the Mk1 Strato for £55 for a TX + RX set..... extra receivers are about £30.

The Mk2 seems even better and has the on/off switch on the TX that people wanted, plus better button configuration as Hoppy says :)
 
The cactus v5 triggers work well for me, and I've found them very reliable.

Features I like about them -

They act both as a transmitter and receiver (simply by moving the switch on the side). So you only need one extra unit to have a back-up for both receivers and transmitters.

They work reliably and well.

They will trigger pretty much any flashgun (even really old flashguns). For example, you could trigger both canon and nikon flashes together.

They have a locking ring so they don't fall off your camera hotshoe or lightstand, a small but important point.

Use standard AAA batteries for both transmitter and receiver.

They have a great range, cactus states 100m but I've seen reviews where people have used them at nearly twice this distance. I've always found them to work reliably at any normal shooting distance.

Usable channels feature, with a wheel on the side to switch between channels (useful for setting up and testing lighting)

Standard sized connectors, if you want to connect to your flash via a cable rather than hotshoe.

There's probably lots of other things too, but these are the ones that jump to mind.
 
canonjim said:
Don't mess about with cheap Chinese junk that will most probably let you down.. Get pocket wizards you get what you pay for I have never had a miss fire from them yet
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This will probably depend on what you photograph and in which locations, but I generally don't see the point of spending five to ten times as much for similar reliability. For the price of the RF603 (~£10-12 per unit), you can simply carry spares with you, should one not work.

I see the appeal of backward compatibility of PW to professionals though.
 
Thanks everyone for their input.
I shoot outdoor with flash very often several meters away, so good and reliable performance on long distance is a MUST for me. How would RF603 perform in these circumstances?

Thank you.
 
Pietrach said:
Thanks everyone for their input.
I shoot outdoor with flash very often several meters away, so good and reliable performance on long distance is a MUST for me. How would RF603 perform in these circumstances?

Thank you.
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The furthest away I ever used one, was about 30m away, behind a large christmas tree. It didn't fail me.

General guideline for best signalling is perpendicular antenna orientation (no idea how it runs within the RF603) and keeping your transceivers away from water, as this happily absorbs ~2.4GHz.
 
One other point worth mentioning about the Cactus v5....

They do not have pass-through ettl, which means if you mount a cactus on your camera hotshoe and then a flashgun on top of the cactus, that flashgun must be used in manual mode.

However, there is an easy workaround.

Mount the flash on the camera as normal, and attach the cactus to the camera's pc socket (you can use the supplied cable, but I'd recommend buying a screwlock version which costs about £5 and gives a more secure connection).

Now you can use the on-camera flash in ettl as normal, and have the cactus trigger a manual flash to, for example, light up the background in a large room. This is great for people like wedding photographers shooting groups of people quickly at wedding receptions and the like. You still have the convenience of ettl to light the people, and the background flash makes a big difference to the look of the pictures (for example, helps to eliminate colour casts in the background from tungsten room lighting).

I've found this a better solution than trying to use a trigger with ettl pass-through, as having the flash mounted normally on the camera is more secure (less wobbly) and its easy to velcro or rubber-band the cactus on top of it. Works well where a lot of people around and your camera/flash gets the occasional bump as you move about. Anytime I've tried this I've found it very reliable, with both the on-camera flash and remote flash firing every time.

The cable supplied with the cactus v5 units works okay, but spending a few pounds more on a screwlock version (same cable as used on pocket wizards) makes for a better and more reliable connection to your camera.
 
^^^ That's a good workaround Wavy :thumbs:

I've done that before and of course it works fine, though I couldn't get on with the sync cable coming out of the side of my Canon and velcro'd to the side of the flash. Just got in the way all the time. Depends on the position of your PC socket I guess.

So I now use the Phottix Strato II with TTL pass-though. I find the locking foot on both transmitter and gun quite secure with that combo.
 
Thanks HoppyUK, I've looked at the Strato II triggers and think it would be a close call between them and the Cactus v5. Both appear to do the important things well - reliably trigger the flashes and have good range.

However, for me, the fact the Cactus units can act as both a transmitter and receiver, and the simpler 'one pin' triggering system that enables them to work with any brand or old flashguns, swings things slightly in their favour.

On the other hand, I suspect the Strato units might have slightly better build - not that the cactus is bad, but the Strato appears to be smaller and maybe made from a better grade of plastic ;)

I'd put both these brands well ahead of the 602/603 units - the absence of a locking ring to secure them to your camera or light stand is just plain silly cost-cutting that I guess would quickly become very annoying when using them anywhere outside your living room. Other things, such as positioning the on/off switch in a place that can't be reached when a flash in mounted, makes me wonder what the designer was thinking about :)

I agree that using a cable to connect the cactus units to the camera (when using a flash in ettl mode mounted in the camera hotshoe) is not perfect, but I still prefer it as the on-camera flash feels much more secure when mounted this way (able to withstand a few knocks and bumps). I bought three screwlock cables for £10 in total. They are just the right length to connect the camera's pc port to a cactus velcroed on top of the on-camera flash, and a big improvement on the very short supplied cable.

Even if using the cactus on a light stand with a brolly, I still usually connect up the cable rather than mount the flash on the cactus hotshoe as I feel it directs the flash more into the centre of a brolly.

Anyway, these new canon flashes with built-in radio control might change things in future (if we can afford them, lol)

:)
 
That's a very useful work around tip on using the PC cable for ettl
 
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