Cactus V5 duo - Testing

[bhursey]

I was one of the lucky few to be chosen to test out the new Cactus v5 duo Transceiver system.

More specs to come. I will do a full review after testing.



With its Little Brother the V4...

[RecceDen]

Doh! Have just gone and bought the V4,

Look forward to the in-depth review.

RD

[bhursey]

Originally Posted by RecceDen

Doh! Have just gone and bought the V4,

Look forward to the in-depth review.

RD

The v4's are great triggers you got your moneys worth so don't feel bad. I just bought two more v4 receivers and a extra transmitter in November my self.. It may not be until January tell I have the review... Theses things are being well tested by a large group of testers. All I can say right now is there are alot of good improvements on the new triggers..

[inkista]

RecceDen, from all reports, the V5s are going to cost twice as much as the V4s (about $80 for a transceiver set, rather than $40 for a Tx/Rx set), so it's not exactly a straight replacement. [see below] Nice features, though. Especially nice to see more parity with the RF-602s with 2.4GHz bandwidth, wake-up function, and the metal foot. And being transceivers and using AAAs definitely gives them a toehold over the RF-602s.

I'm bemused that the fall fashions in radio triggers apparently has decreed that a pass-through hotshoe is de rigeur. That is so not what I wanted. I was really hoping we'd see at least one set of cheap radio triggers that could act as a wireless eTTL sync cord....

[bhursey]

Originally Posted by inkista

RecceDen, from all reports, the V5s are going to cost twice as much as the V4s (about $80 for a transceiver set, rather than $40 for a Tx/Rx set), so it's not exactly a straight replacement. Nice features, though. Especially nice to see more parity with the RF-602s with 2.4GHz bandwidth, wake-up function, and the metal foot. And being transceivers and using AAAs definitely gives them a toehold over the RF-602s.

I'm bemused that the fall fashions in radio triggers apparently has decreed that a pass-through hotshoe is de rigeur. That is so not what I wanted. I was really hoping we'd see at least one set of cheap radio triggers that could act as a wireless eTTL sync cord....

Where did you hear 80$ from?!?!?! Im in the testing community and there has been absolutely no mention of price. The cactus v5 may change from what I have right now so stay tuned.. Really I don't care to much for TTL passthrough my self. I did pass that people wanted that on to cactus. Would be nice but not at the priority of my list. True TTL would be nice. Gadget infinity does sell Pixle Knight ttl triggers.. But if you think about it Pocket Wizards Plus II's are still selling I see most photographers using them and they still are pc sync triggers. I like having more of a manual control over my light. Although like wedding run and gun situations ttl is nice to have... I actually am testing a setup where I just have the cactus v4 transmitter hooked up to my pc port on my 20D and my 580EX II on camera. This way it would trigger the off camera strobe also. The v4 transmitter is light enough. I saw some guys doing it with Pocket Wizard Plus II's at the wedding I went to this past saturday.

[RecceDen]

Originally Posted by inkista

I'm bemused that the fall fashions in radio triggers apparently has decreed that a pass-through hotshoe is de rigeur. That is so not what I wanted. I was really hoping we'd see at least one set of cheap radio triggers that could act as a wireless eTTL sync cord....

I completely agree with you on this one.

Only having a D3000 therefore no commander mode, I wholeheartedly look forward to the day that a set of cheapish TTL radio triggers come to fruition. I will most likely have upgraded my body before we see any TTL Radio Triggers.

[inkista]

Originally Posted by bhursey

Where did you hear 80$ from?!?!?! Im in the testing community and there has been absolutely no mention of price.

Crap. I honestly can't remember, and now I can't find it. Thanks for nipping that misinformation in the bud. I'll go up and edit my earlier post.

Mostly, it's not the TTL I want, it's the HSS.

[bhursey]

Originally Posted by inkista

Crap. I honestly can't remember, and now I can't find it. Thanks for nipping that misinformation in the bud. I'll go up and edit my earlier post.

Mostly, it's not the TTL I want, it's the HSS.

With high speed you limited on your shutter of your camera not the trigger... you do hss where it does multiple fires to cover the frame as the shutter pains down the frame.. This you need TTL communication for.

Your Canon 5d MKII is I think native at 1/200 and your 50D is 1/250...

I would love hss also... I was tempted to by a nikon d40 or a canon 1d original because of the way the shutter was made I think it could sync at 1/1000

[candleman]

funny you guys mention TTL passthrough,
I'd kill to have the speedlight on top of the camera-mounted Tranciever to TTL ....

that was the first thing I tested for...