[ Review ] Cactus V5 wireless triggers
Wednesday, April 4, 2012 at 12:00PM | Post a Comment 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…
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