[ Review ] Cactus V5 wireless triggers

I’m gonna start out by saying if you want the best wireless triggers on the market then Pocket Wizards are the way to go (the manual ones, anyway… implementation of their TTL triggers has been a little rocky). The Pocket Wizard Plus II units are extremely solid and used heavily by professionals all over the world.

The only downside I’ve ever found with the PWs is price. Although the price has recently been slashed with the announcement of the new Plus III triggers, a single Plus II will still set you back about 180 USD. Bearing in mind that you need one for the camera and one for each light you want to fire, that cost adds up quickly.

Last year I had banned myself from buying any new gear unless it was completely necessary. My method of triggering flash (even when shooting them manually) was to use Canon’s proprietary infrared wireless setup. Indoors this works OK, but outdoors it’s pretty much useless. There were a few shoots where I would have loved to get more creative with my lights but the limitations of the IR system simply wouldn’t allow it, even with a bunch of ‘workarounds’. So, radio triggers were required.

Pocket wizard investment for the number of lights I have would have set me back about €800, which was a pretty steep bill considering the self-imposed gear ban. So, after a little research, I decided to try out a couple of sets of Cactus V5’s from www.gadgetinfinity.com

The total cost including delivery, taxes and some extra sync cables was under €150. For such a significant saving you’d expect equally significant drawbacks, but I’ve yet to find them.

Pros

• Units are ‘transceivers’, so they can be set to transmit or receive the wireless signal
• Hotshoe mount built in, so you can place a speedlite right into the trigger without using any sync cables
• Units can be used as a wireless cable release for the camera (requires an additional €4 cable)
• Wireless range is far longer than I’ve ever needed to go. The system does not rely on ‘line-of-sight’ to fire, so lights can be placed outside, in different rooms/buildings and still fire reliably 
• Units run on standard AAA batteries. They’re pretty easy on the batteries too, I use mine a lot and they only require charging every couple of months
• 9 wireless channels to choose from 
• Did I mention they’re cheap??

Cons

• The location of the battery compartment is poorly placed, and tends to open when you place the triggers in a hotshoe
• The build quality (obviously) isn’t as nice as a pocket wizard product
• They’re not compatible with other cactus triggers. On the other hand all Pocket Wizards are compatible with one another 

The bottom line here is that in roughly a year’s use these little puppies have never failed me. Ever. Not so much as 1 non-firing frame!

Highly Recommended if on a budget!

More coming soon…

World Backup Day??

I’m not sure what’s involved in creating an official day for anything, but it seems a few digital storage manufacturers and online backup services have gotten together and created ‘World Backup Day’, and it fell on March 31st. 

To me this seems like little more than a group marketing effort, but if it generates some open discussion and reviews of the products and services available (which seems to be the case one Twitter), then it can be looked on as a good thing. 

So for the sake of adding to the discussion, I’ll point out two products that I couldn’t be without:

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Cheap "Professional" Wedding Photographer??

I spotted this video over on fstoppers.com the other day, and while it makes me laugh there are some serious pointers in there for anyone seeking to make a living from their camera…

First and foremost, you don’t need a 1-series Canon to be a “professional” photographer, you can get by with far less. You do, however, need to know what both you and your equipment are capable of. If you oversell your ability you will eventually get stung.

If you rely on strobes for lighting and it’s commonplace for it to be banned where you shoot then be prepared for that! ‘Insufficient light’ is simply not an excuse. 

For all I know Walmart may well have good printing facilities, but it’s not somewhere a professional photographer ought to be frequenting for their prints. The best results simply aren’t cheap, you need to consider color calibration and the appropriate ICC profiles for the media you’re printing on. If you don’t want to spend the time or effort producing great prints yourself (it is time consuming and requires effort) then outsource the job to a good local printer near you. 

Client satisfaction is paramount if you’re growing a business. This pair of “professional” idiots got their arses handed to them in front of a huge audience. I reckon it could have been avoided, even if the images weren’t up-to-scratch. 

Food for thought. More coming soon…

Free eBook!

Craft & Vision have released a new ebook, as they do, but this one is different. While it has the same quality content as most of the titles I’ve read over there, it has no price tag attached… so you can have it for free!

That’s right, it’ll cost you nothing. It’s ideal for reading with your feet up by the fire over the holidays. The book is made up of 11 essays from the C&V authors, and it’s all new content. It ought to help photographers of all levels improve. 

Click here to download it & enjoy!

More coming soon…

Review | Beyond Thirds

Beyond Thirds, A Photographers Introduction to Creative Composition by Andrew S Gibson is the latest release from Craft & Vision. This book sets out to give the reader a deeper understanding of what the author has learned about photographic composition.

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Quick Review | Canon 85mm f/1.8

Since getting to use a Canon 200mm f/2 L a couple of years ago it’s had a place near the very top of my ‘wish list’. I thought it would make a great lens for specific types of portraits, and in terms of the optical quality and characteristics of the lens I was correct. However, there’s a serious flaw; I stood in front of one recently for the first time and immediately felt uneasy, it was like being under a microscope.

When I photograph people I want them to be as relaxed as possible. I don’t think that’s easily achievable if the subject(s) feel that any insecurity they have is being magnified and recorded. There’s also the issue that I wouldn’t have much change from $8000, which I simply can’t afford yet. 

To a lesser degree my 70-200mm f/2.8 suffers the same problem… while the optics are excellent it’s not very discreet, and is pretty intimidating to someone uneasy about being in front of a camera. So I’m currently looking at an alternative portrait lens to add to the wish list. It’s got to be a prime (non-zoom) in order to be compact at the desired focal length (between 80 and 150mm) with maximum control over depth-of-field. 

The lenses I’m going to test for the role are, in order of preference:

• Canon 85mm f/1.2 L
• Canon 135mm f/2 L
• Canon 85mm f/1.8
• Canon 100mm f/2 

To kick things off I was able to get a 1-day loan of the 85mm f/1.8. Because of the huge difference in price between the f/1.8 and f/1.2 lenses, I was expecting to find some major flaws… however I was pleasantly surprised.

With my 5D I shot some quick lit portraits and brought the lens for a trip to the Calgary Farmers Market. Here’s the summary:

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