"Cactus" radio triggers??

[dumpy]

Has anyone on here ever used the uber-cheap Cactus or similar (ebay cheapies) radio triggers? For $40 a set, I think they might be fun to play with. I've read some stuff around the interwebz about them, most users seem to like them for the price. A lot of folks are modding them to get more range and make them more reliable. I just trust the maggot photographers more than others and wanted to see what you folks think.

So if ya have used them, how well do they work? What kind of range can you get out of them? Anyone run multiple receivers? Can the hotshoe and PC connection both fire at the same time? Reliability?

[Teague]

No real direct answers to your questions, but if you haven't seen this thread yet, it's got some decent information:
[ame="http://www.tetongravity.com/Forums/showthread.php?p=2249937"]Flash/Transmitter recommendations? - Teton Gravity Research Forums[/ame]

[dipstik]

If you're into tinkering with shit, check out the video below. A photog rigged up a set of walkie talkies to act as wireless trigger w/a 20 mile range:

[Hugh Conway]

Your off camera information source:
http://strobist.blogspot.com/

[dumpy]

Your off camera information source:
http://strobist.blogspot.com/

^^What led me down this potentially dangerous and addictive path in the first place^^

[sixstringski]

Strobist will indeed become addictive, and you'll end up making all sorts of $hit that works great from spare parts in your garage. Like a beauty dish from a salad bowl and a grid made of coffee stirers for example.

But as to the Cacti. The original one's if left stock blew really really hard. The company I used to work for tried them out as a less expensive alternative to Pocket Wizards. You can mod them pretty easily to have a VHF (I think) antenna that makes them work really well. This is the same design as the new V4 models have. Allegedly the V4's work pretty well, but I'd still always carry the stuff to hard wire if nessecary.

[dumpy]

Well (for me at least), the whole debate about poverty wizards (aka Cactus/E-bay triggers, etc) is soon to be a non issue. I ended up ordering a pair of the Cyber Syncs (aka alien wizards). Every review I read said they are great as long as you don't need more than 4-500 feet of range, TTL (ie Radio Poppers) or integration with certain light meters (ie Pocket Wizards). I tend to shoot manual, even on camera, can't imagine I'll need more than 400 feet and do not own a light meter.

For ~$160 shipped with a PC-->hotshoe adapter for the strobe and Paul C Buff's supposedly excellent customer service including money back if I hate them, I think it;s a decent deal. I'd rather do this, buy something (again supposedly) reliable and made in the USA than buy a sub par knock from China for $40 and feel burned.

It's funny, the thought of DIY lighting is what led me to Strobist in the first place. Heard about homemade macro ring lights, wanted to find some plans, found strobist and got on completely new lighting kick. Still haven't made my CD spindle ring light, but found a whole new world. Lots of good information over there.

[sixstringski]

I was going to mention the cybersync's in my previous, which we used after the cacti failed so spectacularly. However, we only used them to trip studio strobes and in that application they require a funky reciever that plugs into the power cord of the strobe.
I really want to know how well they work triggering speedlites.

And I will certainly give Buff's CS a 2x. Every time I've delt with them they've been squared away.

As to, Radio Poppers ect. if anyone knows about them I really really want to know about the RF controlled E-TTL units out there.

For DIY, Dumpy, the Beauty dish design found here, http://davidtejada.blogspot.com/2008...or-sb-800.html, is a great project and worth every penny.

[dumpy]

I really want to know how well they work triggering speedlites.

Theres a lot of people out there using them for this. They do have a battery powered receiver now, but still PC sync only, I guess thats not necessarily a drawback, except my one strobe is hot shoe only.

Once I use it a bit, I'll put a review up on here.

[sixstringski]

except my one strobe is hot shoe only.

This isn't that big of a deal, Adorama produces a hot shot to PC female adapter that works fine. Also it's not very hard to add a PC jack to a hot shoe strobe for a more permanent solution.

[dumpy]

^^Already got one on the way. Not so much of a technical drawback, just another $15 I need to spend for each hot shoe only flash that I want to use.

given the price differential between these units and comparable radio triggers, I shouldn't bitch.

[dangreenberg]

ive heard they misfire sometimes but otherwise they're great and the v4s look neat

[dumpy]

Well I got the Cybersyncs yesterday.

Here's what I know so far:

Tested the range to about 300 feet and ran out of room, no complaints there. I plan on grabbing the GPS and finding a big flat area to test the max range, also plan on test real world range

Feel like they are well built

Accidentally tripped them by hitting the test button on the receiver at least 5 times so far, I need to shave that piece down

Easy to get started on, simple dial to change channels

Will sync to 1/200, where as my camera's rated max sync speed is 1/180, thought that was pretty cool

Transmitter is nice and small, wish the receiver was just a bit smaller, but thats a minor gripe

Still wish that they had a hot shoe connection on the receiver, but I knew this and accepted it going in.

Laying the flash in my yard near the road and walking quite a distance away is a great way to fuck with kids riding by on their bikes (theres a skate park at the end of my street, so this should provide lots of entertainment).


All in all, I'm very impressed so far.