Cactus V4

[t-shot]

Has anyone managed to get the new Cactus V4 triggers?

I need some reviews to figure out whether they have resolved the issues they have had with the V2s'.

Cheers

[lputman]

I'm waiting for mine to come in the mail now. I ordered mine on Friday, the 13th, and they shipped them on Tuesday, the 17th. I expect at the end of this month.

[lputman]

It says 15 days. I've never ordered anything that would be incoming from Hong Kong before.

[generic]

I've been wondering myseelf avout the cactus v4's.

A friend and I both got the (hong kong) wireless remote triggers. The batts have died in both. I order 2 batts nmhd and charger, his came back to life but mine has not. I'm thinking it's voltage requirement is slight high cause it 'thinks' its working (appears to be).

So now I'd like to radio the strobes (at least one).

gene

[lputman]

My order came in today, 3/24.

[generic]

Please let us know how you feel about them. I'd love to use radio to trigger my strobe mostly cause I'm working on making a strobe 'portable' with an inverter/battery combo of my own build.

Love to snatch it out of the van, stand it up, spread it, turn it on and use it from camera mounted hot-shoe radio trigger. I'm thinking then I'm using a single light and reflector when needed. Asid from that 'no wires'.

gene

[lputman]

Of course I immediately unpacked and had a quick play. I had no misfires in about 30 shots. The one thing that I don't like is the placement of the on/off on the receiver. If the flash is on the hotshoe then it is very difficult to turn the receiver on/off.

[brunski]

yeay!! i ordered mine too - i was advised not to get these 'poverty wizards', but i can't afford those 'deep' pocket wizards - so... 15 days, huh?- can't wait to get them

[generic]

Originally Posted by generic

I've been wondering myseelf avout the cactus v4's.

A friend and I both got the (hong kong) wireless remote triggers. The batts have died in both. I order 2 batts nmhd and charger, his came back to life but mine has not. I'm thinking it's voltage requirement is slight high cause it 'thinks' its working (appears to be).

So now I'd like to radio the strobes (at least one).

gene

Problem seems to be solved. Not the wireless triggers fault.
The original battery did in fact die so I figured 'shelf life'.
I ordered NMHI and a charger fom another source. This was when I thought the thing had a real problem. This source sent me 2 NMHI batts - 3volt with a 12 volt charger (I didnt know it yet).
After finally looking at the charger to see what was up with it and realizing why the batteries (one of the two died) showed flaky voltage alternating from 4 volts or so all the way to 7volts I threw them away and bought a 3 volt alku locally and the thing works fine.
It was aparently being 'overpowerd'. It seems fine now though.

I have since ordered two hot shoe transmitters and 4 recievers (2 strobe hot type and 2 studio sync type). I expect them in about a week.

While waiting I've assembled power packs from batteries and very small inverters that seem to work pretty good (so far). If they fail it will probably be due to the inverter being too light (175 watts). These inverters are the size and thickness of a pack of cigaretts and I'm hoping the last ok. There are slightly larger ones available at 200 watts if these fail but I really like the physical size/weight of these.

.

[pan]

I just got my V4 trigger set and they passed the initial sanity test. They consistently triggered my Quantarray 383 and Viviatar 283 (76Volt) reliably.

[rob61]

It took about 10 days after ordering for my Cactus v4s to arrive. I've tested them with my 550EX and my Alien Bee strobes and have gotten 100% flash with them. On my 50D, I was able to shoot at a 200 shutter without problem. I've tried on my 5D2, and got a slight black bar which then disappeared by knocking the shutter to 160. Not sure if its something on the 5D2 or slower communication that day. But they fire 100%.