Cactus Wireless Flash Triggers
I came home yesterday afternoon, and to my pleasant surprise, a parcel that I had been expecting was waiting for me: inside was the Cactus wireless flash stuff that I had ordered last week. I had bought the items and paid for them the previous Thursday, and received the order/payment confirmation on Friday, and they were shipped that same day. Yesterday, they arrived. Pretty quick. Although I knew I was probably going to get into some sort of wireless flash system one of these days, I hadn’t expected to be doing so this quickly. After all, I didn’t have any flash units. But that all changed when I came back a week or so ago, and found an old Metz Mecablitz 30BCT4 flash unit that had been left for me. Testing it's triggering voltage, I found it to be close to 200V, meaning it could possibly damage the electronics of my dSLR and hence it wouldn’t be too wise to connect it directly into the hot shoe of the camera. It also had a PC port, but I had no PC connection on my K10D. So here was an old flash for me to play around with, but I had no way of getting the camera to trigger the flash...
So what exactly did I order? Three things:
- hot shoe to PC sync adaptor
- Cactus 4-channel wireless flash trigger V2s (one transmitter and one V2s receiver)
- Cactus 4-channel wireless flash receiver V2
The hot shoe to PC sync adaptor, product page, fits onto the hot shoe of a camera, and provides a female PC sync connection on one side, for cameras without a PC sync connection like my K10D, as well as a normal female hot shoe port on top. I haven’t played around with it yet because instead, I’ve been going wireless.
The Cactus 4-channel wireless flash trigger V2s, product page, also known as Poverty Wizards, ebay triggers, ghetto wizards, etc, is a boxed set that contains one V2/s transmitter, one V2s receiver, a PC male to 3.5mm mono plug cable, a flash stand, a CR2 3V battery and a thin instruction booklet. Everything as described in the product description. I also got a separate V2 receiver, which came with it's own CR2 3V battery, because the V2s receivers only work with flash units with a trigger voltage of less than 12V, whilst the flash unit that I have has a trigger voltage closer to 200V. The build quality of these units isn’t outstanding by any means, and the battery compartment of the V2s receiver is a really tight fit and hard to open, but you do get what you pay for. The transmitter simply has a test button on the top, and a small red LED that lights up when the transmitter is active, either when the test button is pressed, or a shot is taken. At the bottom is the hot shoe connection and the channel select switch and there is a 3.5mm jack at the side for triggering without the hot shoe. The transmitter takes a 23A 12V battery.
Both the V2 and V2s receivers look pretty much identical both inside and outside. On the front is the on-off switch and a small red LED that lights up when the receiver is active and receives a signal. On the top is a female hot shoe port, and on the side is a female PC sync port. Opening up the back, inside is the battery compartment, with the transmitter taking CR2 3V batteries, as well as the channel select switch, which can be a little fiddly to toggle, but using something small and sharp like the tip of a pen helps. The bottom is the hot shoe connecting bracket, and allows the receivers to be tilted.
I popped the transmitter onto the hot shoe of my K10D and set the flash mode to wireless. Then, I mounted the Metz 30BCT4 flash onto the V2 receiver, and placed that on the included flash stand, and then played around and took some shots within the confines of my room. The success rate was 100%, until I tried shutter speeds faster than 1/180, when the flash wouldn’t fire. That was expected, since the flash sync speed on the K10D is 1/180, except when using flash units with a high-speed sync mode. I then went about testing the range of the setup. There were no problems within the confines of the width of the house, so I went out to the backyard. There were no problems until I was almost as far as I could get away from the flash and receiver, probably in the 15-20 meter range, when I had the occasional no-fire. That should be plenty of range for most purposes anyway.
There are two common mods that owners of these Cactus V2 triggers do to their units. The first is the antenna mod, which involves adding an antenna to the transmitter to improve either the range and reliability, or both, of the triggers. The second mod is the battery pack mod, which involves connecting the receivers to an AA battery pack so that they run off common AA batteries, as opposed to the not-so-common, and more expensive CR2 batteries. Although I personally wasn’t having any issues with range or reliability, I decided to do the antenna mod anyway. A lot of the guides for this mod is based on the work of Kuster, from his blog, however, I wasn’t too keen on the look of the external antenna, so decided to base my mod on strobemonkey’s work here. My transmitter now has a ~11.75" coiled antenna, made from some CAT5 cable, inside the casing, and while I haven’t noticed any particular increases in the range or reliability, nor have I specifically gone to do any tests, I haven’t noticed any decrease in performance either.
Being in a DIY mood, I decided to do the battery holder mod as well, and after a trip out to Jaycar today to pick up two 2AA battery holders, my Cactus wireless flash receivers now both have AA battery casings on them. At the same time, I also fixed the battery compartment door of the V2s receiver so that it is easier to access. This allows me to use two AA batteries, or a CR2 battery, to power them. I mounted my battery holders the way I did, as opposed to the way Kuster did, because I did not want to lose the ability to mount the transmitters onto a hotshoe, but one disadvantage I have now is that the transmitters are of an awkward shape which can make storage a bit difficult. I also did not have any epoxy, and the battery holders are held in place by contact cement and I hope that holds up...although writing this entry, I'm suddenly reminded that I do have a hot-glue gun...
Parcel of goodies
Back of parcel of goodies. The customs declaration lists them as "Camera Accessory"
Contents of the parcel. Box with Cactus V2 receiver on left, Cactus 4-channel wireless flash trigger V2s set in the middle, and the hot shoe to PC sync adaptor on the right
Opening up the Cactus 4-channel wireless flash trigger V2s set
Cactus wireless flash receivers. V2 on the left, V2s on the right
Cactus wireless flash receivers and the transmitter
Cactus wireless flash transmitter on the operating table
Cactus wireless flash transmitter opened up
Cactus wireless flash transmitter with antenna mod
Cactus wireless flash receivers with AA battery holder mod
The guts of the modded Cactus wireless flash receiver. Notice how the original PC port and hot shoe wiring uses naked non-insulated wires
So what exactly did I order? Three things:
- hot shoe to PC sync adaptor
- Cactus 4-channel wireless flash trigger V2s (one transmitter and one V2s receiver)
- Cactus 4-channel wireless flash receiver V2
The hot shoe to PC sync adaptor, product page, fits onto the hot shoe of a camera, and provides a female PC sync connection on one side, for cameras without a PC sync connection like my K10D, as well as a normal female hot shoe port on top. I haven’t played around with it yet because instead, I’ve been going wireless.
The Cactus 4-channel wireless flash trigger V2s, product page, also known as Poverty Wizards, ebay triggers, ghetto wizards, etc, is a boxed set that contains one V2/s transmitter, one V2s receiver, a PC male to 3.5mm mono plug cable, a flash stand, a CR2 3V battery and a thin instruction booklet. Everything as described in the product description. I also got a separate V2 receiver, which came with it's own CR2 3V battery, because the V2s receivers only work with flash units with a trigger voltage of less than 12V, whilst the flash unit that I have has a trigger voltage closer to 200V. The build quality of these units isn’t outstanding by any means, and the battery compartment of the V2s receiver is a really tight fit and hard to open, but you do get what you pay for. The transmitter simply has a test button on the top, and a small red LED that lights up when the transmitter is active, either when the test button is pressed, or a shot is taken. At the bottom is the hot shoe connection and the channel select switch and there is a 3.5mm jack at the side for triggering without the hot shoe. The transmitter takes a 23A 12V battery.
Both the V2 and V2s receivers look pretty much identical both inside and outside. On the front is the on-off switch and a small red LED that lights up when the receiver is active and receives a signal. On the top is a female hot shoe port, and on the side is a female PC sync port. Opening up the back, inside is the battery compartment, with the transmitter taking CR2 3V batteries, as well as the channel select switch, which can be a little fiddly to toggle, but using something small and sharp like the tip of a pen helps. The bottom is the hot shoe connecting bracket, and allows the receivers to be tilted.
I popped the transmitter onto the hot shoe of my K10D and set the flash mode to wireless. Then, I mounted the Metz 30BCT4 flash onto the V2 receiver, and placed that on the included flash stand, and then played around and took some shots within the confines of my room. The success rate was 100%, until I tried shutter speeds faster than 1/180, when the flash wouldn’t fire. That was expected, since the flash sync speed on the K10D is 1/180, except when using flash units with a high-speed sync mode. I then went about testing the range of the setup. There were no problems within the confines of the width of the house, so I went out to the backyard. There were no problems until I was almost as far as I could get away from the flash and receiver, probably in the 15-20 meter range, when I had the occasional no-fire. That should be plenty of range for most purposes anyway.
There are two common mods that owners of these Cactus V2 triggers do to their units. The first is the antenna mod, which involves adding an antenna to the transmitter to improve either the range and reliability, or both, of the triggers. The second mod is the battery pack mod, which involves connecting the receivers to an AA battery pack so that they run off common AA batteries, as opposed to the not-so-common, and more expensive CR2 batteries. Although I personally wasn’t having any issues with range or reliability, I decided to do the antenna mod anyway. A lot of the guides for this mod is based on the work of Kuster, from his blog, however, I wasn’t too keen on the look of the external antenna, so decided to base my mod on strobemonkey’s work here. My transmitter now has a ~11.75" coiled antenna, made from some CAT5 cable, inside the casing, and while I haven’t noticed any particular increases in the range or reliability, nor have I specifically gone to do any tests, I haven’t noticed any decrease in performance either.
Being in a DIY mood, I decided to do the battery holder mod as well, and after a trip out to Jaycar today to pick up two 2AA battery holders, my Cactus wireless flash receivers now both have AA battery casings on them. At the same time, I also fixed the battery compartment door of the V2s receiver so that it is easier to access. This allows me to use two AA batteries, or a CR2 battery, to power them. I mounted my battery holders the way I did, as opposed to the way Kuster did, because I did not want to lose the ability to mount the transmitters onto a hotshoe, but one disadvantage I have now is that the transmitters are of an awkward shape which can make storage a bit difficult. I also did not have any epoxy, and the battery holders are held in place by contact cement and I hope that holds up...although writing this entry, I'm suddenly reminded that I do have a hot-glue gun...
Parcel of goodies
Back of parcel of goodies. The customs declaration lists them as "Camera Accessory"
Contents of the parcel. Box with Cactus V2 receiver on left, Cactus 4-channel wireless flash trigger V2s set in the middle, and the hot shoe to PC sync adaptor on the right
Opening up the Cactus 4-channel wireless flash trigger V2s set
Cactus wireless flash receivers. V2 on the left, V2s on the right
Cactus wireless flash receivers and the transmitter
Cactus wireless flash transmitter on the operating table
Cactus wireless flash transmitter opened up
Cactus wireless flash transmitter with antenna mod
Cactus wireless flash receivers with AA battery holder mod
The guts of the modded Cactus wireless flash receiver. Notice how the original PC port and hot shoe wiring uses naked non-insulated wires