Flash photography important trigger update

[@to8664ni]

Mr. Phillip, I am sorry that some people do not appreciate the fact that you are sharing your knowledge for free with the world. My mom and grandmother always told us to not speak if we didn't have anything positive to say. Please look over the ones who hit the "do not like button" or have negative feedback because you have excellent content. Thank you for helping me!!

[@PhillipMcCordall]

Thanks, Phill

[@kashmir705]

Hi Philip going to Valencia my camera will be Cannon 1300 d with cannon 18 Mm x 50 mm ie nifty fifty any tips or tricks would be good. Rick.

[@heidiannemorris]

What a great find phil😀 thank you for making the video and sharing your excitement will definitely take a look

[@PhillipMcCordall]

Glad you enjoyed it Hedi :)

[@heidiannemorris]

Phillip McCordall thank you 😁

[@Badbettypowers]

I love your videos! So helpful.

[@PhillipMcCordall]

Thanks Jacqueline , much appreciated.

[@mandurahchess]

it's worth noting that these use AA batteries, the same as used in speedlights.

[@robertmartinu8803]

Reverse polarity: normally you have ground/0V at the hot shoe and +5(or on older units quite a bit more)V at the center pin. Flip those and the switch in the trigger sees a reversed voltage - something that would require a quite specific semiconductor to deal with. Which hints why no one makes such things since the time the sync ports stopped being simple mechanical switches. Your'e most likely to run into that topic if a studio strobe comes with a reversible legacy sync connector. Quite an oddity in itself though.

[@PhillipMcCordall]

+Robert Thankyou for the info.

[@town3]

LMBO did he say this in now the business, lol i love it. great video

[@allen4505]

Thanks Phill, can you tell me if it has High Speed Synch as an option ?

[@PhillipMcCordall]

Sorry late reply ... It says high speed sympathy , whatever that means, I must try it.

[@GregPretlove]

I'm just in the process of returning some of these to Amazon. They seem good to start off with, but as usual the devil is in the detail. A Cactus v6 is approx £50, they only support TTL flashes so you're looking at another £70 for say a Yongnuo YN-568 bringing it up to approx £120, but of course you need a second v6 as a transmitter so you're up to £170 already, and each additional flash is going to be about YN568+v6 is going to be £120 or you can buy the cactus RF60 flash for approx £120. But you can buy a YN-560 for £50 and a 560-TX controller for £21. Leaving you with at least £100 for another YN-560 and a meal out with the wife. Additional flashes are only £50 if you want to extend. I think the Cactus is good if you already have a variety of TTL lenses kicking around.

[@Australianchessplayer]

I guess the TTL requirement is because these triggers can balance the output of a motley assist of flashes, from Nikon, Canon, Nissin etc. I'd pay the money to not need to visit a flash to adjust it.

[@GregPretlove]

+MandurahChess Thats the beauty of the 560IV they have a receiver built in, and the transmitter is only £20. So you can control the output remotely from the controller mounted on your camera. As I stated the Cactus devices come into their own when you have an existing collection of TTL flashes.

[@OwenLloyd]

+MandurahChess This would be a sensible outcome however there's a more fundamental reason they need TTL flashes: this is the only way for a 3rd party trigger to adjust the power via the hotshoe (the flash units think they are on the camera hotshoe in most implementations for Nikon). Disappointing then, that it doesn't actually interpret the TTL feedback from the camera (like every other trigger system on the planet that allows remote power adjustment). As Greg (and Phil in the video) said - their party trick is working with just about any old flash gun and camera you may already have lying around. I'll stick with my YN622N's they do TTL, tail sync and high speed sync. All my speedlights are either Nikon, or plain old manual YN460's - which no trigger can control the power on.

[@ermadz1685]

+Greg Pretlove but there's a lot of lemon 560IV out there. Good luck with your purchase.

[@Neil-Hanson67]

Hi Phil,i'm just starting out in photography & love watching your video's you simplify things so much,on this Cactus product is it worth buying say 3 units if you have 2 speed lights and the camera as opposed to buying the same flash as your camera,because you will need one unit for every light you have.

[@PhillipMcCordall]

+Neil Hanson It depends , some cameras will control the flash/ flashes from the menu, these must be the same make of course. If not control 1 from the camera and switch the slave on when using the other one the other in this case you only need one of the same make. It also depends if you want auto or manual use. Multi flash can be difficult automatic anyway , as it will always try and expose correctly, even when you want one light darker. To be honest manual is very good and simple to work with, if you are prepared for that , the Cactus flashes have receivers in the so you one need one trigger on the camera. The problem is they will be only manual. If you have two different makes of flash , then 1 controller on the camera and one on each light will allow you to work on auto, if they work in auto of course. Hope that's understandable, even I get confused by this type of flash :) Phill

[@Neil-Hanson67]

Thanks Phil,very useful,keep up the great work. Kind Regards Neil

[@annafennell1273]

Hello Mr. McCordall Thank you so much for all your hard work putting together this information for us! You area treasure trove of expertise and your humour makes it easy for us newbies to learn. My question is - I have a Nikon SB700 (didn't watch your video first or I would have got the Yongnuo for a lot less!) Will the Cactus provide me with the ability to use it in manual mode when it is off the camera? Apparently the Nikon SB 700 only provide TTL flash when off the camera which is disappointing! Thank you

[@PhillipMcCordall]

Hi Anna, I'm sorry but I know very little about Nikon cameras, in fact I've only worked with one and that was many years ago.

[@annafennell1273]

Don't blame you! I did find out that yes, the Cactus does work with the Nikon SB 700. In the future I will reference your videos before purchasing :) Thank you

[@schneeg]

your SB700 will work off camera ether using a SU800 or the cactus V6 triggers or another SB700 on your camera as the commander

[@annafennell1273]

Thanks! I have the Cactus V6 on order

[@runaway2074]

Thank you a lot , Do you have expierence with Mitakon Lens Turbo Adapter? is it good or not

[@PhillipMcCordall]

+run away I've no experience of them I'm afraid

[@puma0065]

great video Phil good to see i have shared this if that's ok :)

[@PhillipMcCordall]

Thanks Shaun

[@lololooo5041]

i like your videos. :)

[@floridahummer]

got some pocket wizzards tt1 and tt5 for nikon of ebay ,took a while to find a good price but i ended uo paying about £55 each and they have never failed yet.

[@eliasrotvigrowedder7638]

Hi Phillip. Herat video, but you should really consider investing in some better audio equipment. This would make your videos far more attractive. 😀😄

[@eliasrotvigrowedder7638]

Great*

[@skakdosmer]

"Cactus V6 does not transmit TTL information wirelessly". Which means: Not interesting to me.

[@PhillipMcCordall]

+Lau Bjerno I'd say we all have different priorities , in a large multi flash setup they are very very good , with one flash I tend to agree that the advantages are totally outweighed by the disadvantages.

[@skakdosmer]

You are quite right, I'm sure. I can easily see that it serves a purpose for some photographers. Well, for myself it's a bit different: For Christmas I had a brand new Metz Mecablitz 64 AF-1. It is so smart that, used as an off-camera slave (in "servo" mode, I think), it is able to receive and understand full E-TTL information from the inbuilt flash of my Canon Eos 70D. I didn't even know that wireless E-TTL was possible, except with the Radio Transmission feature of Canon's own expensive RT flashes, and I'm very impressed with this! (In fact the RT doesn't even work with my inbuilt flash, so I should need to buy the big £400 Canon 600 RT as a master plus at least one other £200 RT slave to even begin.) I hope to some day be able to buy one or two more Metz flashes, and I shan't need any cactuses. Now, my old Canon Speedlite 380 EX is a different story. It's deaf and blind as a post and will receive nothing except through the hot shoe. And for that the E-TTL is quite necessary, because the flash has no manual controls apart from the on/off and High Speed Synchro switches. So I can't really use the cactus there.

[@PhillipMcCordall]

I love the deaf blind expression, like a few photographers I know :) I suppose because I started with flashbulbs, I just like the simplicity of using manual and a flash meter for working but being able to change the power of a flash from the camera is a godsend, especially when it's at the other end of a large building :))