'Cactus' remote radio flash trigger

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'Cactus' remote radio flash trigger

Postby SpelunkerBoB » Jun 23, 2009 8:57 pm

Anyone have any in-cave experience with these little units? I saw an outside demo of one last weekend and am contemplating getting a couple. It'd be nice to know how they hold up to caving conditions before I do, though. Any other reccommendations for (economical) radio flash triggers?
http://www.gadgetinfinity.com/product.p ... ctid=16766
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Re: 'Cactus' remote radio flash trigger

Postby captnemo » Jul 10, 2009 1:24 pm

The units you're showing from the link are the Cactus V2's. From people I've talked to and from what I've read these had a lot of reliability problems. Their newer model the Cactus V4 seems to have addressed most of these. I bought several and while I've only had them a few weeks and have drug them on only one cave trip so far, I'm pretty pleased with them. I wrote a short review with pics on my blog http://thecaptainnemo.wordpress.com
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Re: 'Cactus' remote radio flash trigger

Postby NZcaver » Jul 10, 2009 5:25 pm

Thanks for posting that information on the Cactus units. I'm not familiar with those ones, but earlier this year I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to purchase a used Fotodiox Radio Slave Kit for about a quarter the price of a new one.

Image

OK, so I haven't got to use this caving yet - and it's certainly not going to be water/mud proof, and perhaps not so rugged because it's really designed for studio work. Plus it's the "budget" brand so I'm not expecting too much. But what the hey, the price was right! I like the idea of an RF option because I get frustrated when my nice, sensitive Gibson slave triggers are regularly triggered by fancy PWM regulated LED headlamps (including my own). I'm not sure the range will be as good as my Gibson units, especially non line-of-sight, but when circumstances permit I hope to be able to play with them a little more and find out.
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Re: 'Cactus' remote radio flash trigger

Postby captnemo » Jul 23, 2009 8:04 am

Greeting from Texas- the radio triggers have continued to perform well, despite the airlines slamming them around pretty hard(broke the case they were in and a couple of my flashes) I've started to post some of my pics from Mexico, you can see some that I used the cactus triggers on at
http://captnemo.smugmug.com/gallery/8984855_xtykx#597264976_uT5n7
Still a few more days of the International Congress of Speleology then I'll be heading back to Sacramento.

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Re: 'Cactus' remote radio flash trigger

Postby NZcaver » Jul 24, 2009 2:50 am

Hi Captnemo,

Thanks for posting your results - very nice! It would be nice to say hey to you in person since we're both here at the ICS, but I know it's a big crowd and a busy week for most of us.

I really regretted not having my radio triggers with me on Wednesday. There were only 6 of us on a trip to Groundhog Cave, but with 3 people with cameras and optical slaves we predictably kept triggering each others flashes.
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Re: 'Cactus' remote radio flash trigger

Postby harrym » Dec 23, 2009 5:34 pm

I've been looking at the Cactus as well as the Olympus wireless flash system. Both have an advertised maximum range of 10 meters.

Any feedback on actual working range?
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Re: 'Cactus' remote radio flash trigger

Postby NZcaver » Dec 23, 2009 10:59 pm

harrym wrote:I've been looking at the Cactus as well as the Olympus wireless flash system. Both have an advertised maximum range of 10 meters.

Any feedback on actual working range?

I haven't worked with either of those systems, but I did get to finally test the range on my cheap Fotodiox units a couple of months ago. They stopped working at almost exactly 200 feet line-of-sight, but I wouldn't expect them to reach more than about 100 feet around corners in a cave. Good enough for me though, especially at that price. I assume the more you pay, the more range and reliability you get. If the Cactus and Olympus are true RF remotes, I'd be surprised if you only get 10m/33ft out of them. They probably state that as a nominal 'reliable' range to account for walls, studio equipment, cellphones, and other interference.
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Re: 'Cactus' remote radio flash trigger

Postby harrym » Dec 24, 2009 4:07 am

Thanks. I've also been looking at a ot of other wireless slaves with advertised ranges of 100 feet. Why get a wireless system with a 10 meter range when I can get one with a 30 meter range?
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Re: 'Cactus' remote radio flash trigger

Postby Footleg » Dec 24, 2009 5:07 am

I've just bought myself a Cactus v4 radio trigger set for Christmas, for use underground. For me the main benefit is that I will no longer have to carry an extra flash to attach to the camera to trigger my optical slaved flashes. I don't think I have even taken a picture where at least one of my flashes is within 10m of the camera, so range should not be an issue. I'll report back here when I have had a chance to try these out underground.
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Re: 'Cactus' remote radio flash trigger

Postby captnemo » Dec 24, 2009 4:13 pm

I did some quick tests and the flash fired at around 100' outdoors without any problems. Haven't tried them at that distance in a cave though since I'd probably use flashbulb for anything that big anyway.
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Re: 'Cactus' remote radio flash trigger

Postby Footleg » Feb 24, 2010 8:11 am

Got a chance to try out my Cactus V4 radio flash trigger underground last weekend. The location was a cascade in a streamway, so the air was damp. Temperature was around 9 deg C. The flash fired every time without fail. So very impressed. In fact I have just ordered a second receiver so I can fire two flashes at the same time. I didn't test the range too much as the flash was only a few meters from the camera. But I use Firefly2 infra-red slaves for the more distant flashes, so I don't imagine I will be needing too great a range from the radio trigger.
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