Cactus V2's

[chrisburke]

I bought a wireless set on Ebay a couple of weeks ago, they are simply marked "RD616" and the word Cactus wasn't used anywhere. The transmitter is identical to the Cactus one but the receiver is bigger and takes AAA batteries, alkaline only, rechargeables don't work.

So far they have been faultless. 16 Channel Wireless transmitter Flash Trigger RD616 NEW - eBay (item 370164608611 end time Mar-25-09 22:43:45 PDT)

these ones are different than the cactus, as they work through PC port only.. the cacti works through pc port or hotshoe, as there is a hot shoe mount on the top of the receivers.

 

[MikeBcos]

these ones are different than the cactus, as they work through PC port only.. the cacti works through pc port or hotshoe, as there is a hot shoe mount on the top of the receivers.

Didn't know that, it explains the price difference. I'm fine with mine, everything I want to trigger remotely has a port or sync cable.

 

[inTempus]

Didn't know that, it explains the price difference. I'm fine with mine, everything I want to trigger remotely has a port or sync cable.

You Nikon people with your PC ports. Canon pulled their head out for the 580, but my 430's require a hot shoe because Canon still hadn't figured out what a PC port might be used for.

At $19 that's a serious bargain. Heck, you can afford to have a couple sets as backups at that price.

 

[Village Idiot]

I just went with CLS, and PWs when I really need them, I know I could have got by with these, but I just love the PWs.

If you do/ever end up shoot/shooting professionally, you'd want something that you know is going to be 99% reliable any ways.

 

[Village Idiot]

You Nikon people with your PC ports. Canon pulled their head out for the 580, but my 430's require a hot shoe because Canon still hadn't figured out what a PC port might be used for.

At $19 that's a serious bargain. Heck, you can afford to have a couple sets as backups at that price.

PC cables such any ways. They can be unreliable. In fact, that's the only thing that's ever caused my PW's to misfire is the end on the PC cable not contacting correctly.

 

[MikeBcos]

You Nikon people with your PC ports. Canon pulled their head out for the 580, but my 430's require a hot shoe because Canon still hadn't figured out what a PC port might be used for.

At $19 that's a serious bargain. Heck, you can afford to have a couple sets as backups at that price.

Actually, none of my Nikon equipment has ports, I've only got the cheap stuff. However, all my old Vivtars etc. do, those and my one studio strobe are what I use remotely.

You can buy hot shoe adapters on Ebay for a few bucks too, I may pick some of them up just to have on hand, I'm going to stick with the RD616 receivers though - the fact they take AAA batteries makes up for the lack of a hot shoe, IMHO.

 

[MikeBcos]

PC cables such any ways. They can be unreliable. In fact, that's the only thing that's ever caused my PW's to misfire is the end on the PC cable not contacting correctly.

I'll agree with this, several of my older cameras have no hotshoe, just a sync port, its always a crapshoot whether the flash is going to fire or not. Once the cables have had a little use they seem to become loose and unreliable.

 

[Cole.M]

I went to radio shack today and bought some "Photo Lithium Battery, For Superior Camera Performance" will these as well as the VARTA batteries?

I bought one receiver a few weeks ago for my sb600. Everything worked great, i was supper happy. So therefore i ordered another receiver for my other sb600 and everything came crashing down. This new receiver works about 1/15 times. I have no idea why, however my 1st receiver works every-time even at far distances. I dont know why this is happening. Any input would be great. Thanks

 

[chrisburke]

^^ send it back and tell them to send you a new one... for some reason there are always duds, but they are good about replacing them

 

[Samanax]

Yeah, send it back for a replacement.

The quality control for the GI Cactus V2s isn't real good (made in China) and about 20% of them will arrive dead or not working properly. Luckily getting them replaced doesn't seem to be a big problem.