Review: Cactus V5 Flash Triggers

Photography is a hobby for me, therefore, I always strive to find gear that is reasonably priced, if not outright cheap.  This is a category where the Cactus V5 flash triggers fall squarely and here is my review of this remarkable piece of equipment.

Ever since David Hobby made the Strobist style of lighting using small flashes off-camera popular, the market for products that allow photographers to take their speedlights off the hot-shoe and control them remotely has literally exploded.  In particular, we have seen the emergence of a number of transmitters, which take the impulse that the camera sends to the flash through the hot-shoe and throw it, via radio signals, to a receiver that is connected to the flash, thus letting you put the latter wherever you want.

The undisputed kings of this category are undoubtedly the Pocket Wizards, which are considered to be the most reliable, feature-rich, and well-built of the pack.  Especially with the new MiniTT1/FlexTT5 pair, with its ability to transmit the TTL signals employed by Nikon and Canon cameras to automatically determine the correct flash exposure, Pocket Wizards occupy the top tier of the market.

Most hobbyists that would like to do some strobist-type shooting, however, are wary of spending a few hundred dollars on a pair of PocketWizards, which are the minimum required to control a remote flash, or even more than that for controlling multiple flashes.  Therefore, a market has emerged for cheap and simple transmitters and receivers.  While these do not generally offer the features and the robustness of brand-name devices, they can be reliable and reasonably sturdy.

A well-known brand of radio flash-controlling devices is Cactus, which is distributed worldwide by Gadget Infinity.  The latest version of this product is the Cactus V5 transceiver.  A transceiver is a single device that can act as a both transmitter and a receiver.  When you buy a pair of Cactus V5 transceivers, you receive two identical devices that can be configured for transmission or reception via a small switch on their side.  You put the transmitter onto the hot-shoe of your camera, connect the receiver to a flash, set the two to use the same radio channel and, whenever you press the shutter button on your camera, the flash activation signal is relayed, via radio frequency, to the receiver, which in turn fires the flash attached to it.

While the transmitter is mounted onto a camera via the hot-shoe, the receiver can either use the hot-shoe connection method, a PC-Sync cable or a plug cable.  A typical hot-shoe flash can be mounted on top of the Cactus V5, using the female hot-shoe connector that is on top of it.  This is ideal for when you want to remotely trigger a Speedlight.  When you want to trigger a studio strobe, you can use a PC-Sync cable or a plug cable to go from the transceiver to the flash unit.

If you are just starting out, you will need a couple of Cactus V5 devices and possibly some kind of cable.  In this case, your best option is to order the “Duo” package, which contains two units with stands, a PC-Sync cable, a 3.5mm plug cable, a 6.35mm plug adapter, a user’s manual, and a small booklet with samples of lighting scenarios.  This kit will only set you back USD $59.95 and includes four AAA alkaline batteries.   As I would not trust their charge to last for long, I recommend getting some good alkaline batteries, with spares, or a few rechargeable ones.

I also included a shutter cable in my order.   This can be used to connect a receiver to the remote release port on your camera and use a transmitter to open the shutter remotely, instead of firing the flash.  Since the remote port on cameras is proprietary and not standard, you will need to order the correct cable for your camera make and model, if it is available.

The Cactus V5 is a black, sleek object that demonstrates some attention to design on part of the manufacturer; it absolutely will not look out of place on top of your camera.  On the bottom, it has the male hot-shoe connector and a standard 1/4″ female thread for mounting on a stand, thus obviating the need for a cold-shoe adapter.  On the top side, it sports the female host-shoe connector, a recessed button for manual triggering the receiver and a green-orange led.  When used as a remote shutter, the button can be pressed half-way down to activate metering and auto-focus, in which case the LEDs on both units light up as orange, and fully down to trigger, in which case the LEDs turn green.

On the right side, as seen when looking at the unit from the back of the camera, you can find a rotary dial with numbers from 1 to 16, used for selecting the radio channel, which must be the same for transmitter and receiver.  Channels 1 to 5, indicated by blue numbers on the dial, are “special”, in that they can be used for multi-channel triggering.  Basically, when the transmitter is on channel 1, all receivers on channels 1 to 5 will fire simultaneously.  This allows for triggering different groups of flashes, all at once or separately.  My biggest issue with the channel selection dial is that the numbers are very small and hard to read for somebody, like me, who hasn’t got the eyesight of a twenty-year-old guy anymore.

On the left side you can find a small switch that can be used to set the unit to TX mode, RX mode, or switch it off.  This is a very small switch with a short distance between positions.  Not the best design, probably.  Further along the left edge is the female plug connector for cables.  On the back side the battery compartment opens via a pressure-sensitive latch.  It is pretty sensitive, so be careful not to open it inadvertently.

Design-wise, these small switches and dials, and the battery compartment door are the biggest shortcomings of the Cactus V5.  They can, and will be, moved without noticing.  This can be especially frustrating when you have placed your flash a hundred meters or more away and you discover that it is not firing because you changed channels or opened the battery door while mounting the unit.  Always check that the receiver is working before moving away from it.

After receiving my Duo kit, I used the Cactus V5 for some shoots, both inside and outside, with my Nikon D90 and my SB-900 speedlight. They always performed flawlessly and never missed a shot, save for when the SB-900 decided to go in stand-by mode.  When this happens, the receiver will wake up the flash, but there will be a small delay.  If your shutter speed is close to your flash sync speed (1/200s for the D90) the delay will cause a black band to appear on the bottom of the first photo you take after the flash has woken up.  This does not normally pose a problem in a studio situation,  but it can be inconvienent during an event, where it might mean missing that all-important moment.  If you are shooting events and your flash has a stand-by feature, I suggest disabling it.

After doing some real shots from a very short distance, I decided to subject the Cactus V5 to a more demanding set of tests.  The first test consisted of using the continuous shooting mode of the camera to rapidly fire off the flash.  I set the D90 to high-speed continuous shooting, which means a maximum of 5 shots per second, and fired a sequence of 10 shots.  The Cactus triggered the flash without missing a beat, even when I repeated the test a couple more times.

For the next test, I decided to verify how far the units can be and still work reliably.  My country club happens to have a golf practice field, with distance markers at 50, 100, and 150 meters, so I brought my equipment there and did a series of tests.  Each test consisted in a rapid fire sequence of 10 shots and was repeated at every marked distance.

Even in this case, I did not detect any misfires.  Though the test was conducted in the open countryside, with little chance of radio interference from other sources, the Cactus still gets full marks, considering that it largely exceeded the nominal maximum recommended distance of 100 meters.

I finally did a last test, this time using the Cactus as a remote shutter release, instead of as a flash trigger.  As with the previous tests, I performed repeated series of rapid shots and the receiver never missed a beat.  When using a pair of Cactus transceivers for remote shutter control, you have to be aware of the fact that, if you keep the test button pressed on the transmitter for more than two seconds, the receiver locks in the “ON” state and the camera fires continuously, until you press the button again.  This can be useful in bulb mode, much less so when shooting continuously.

To conclude the review, I have to say that I am pretty  impressed with the Cactus V5 capabilities and  its reliability.  Of course, at this price, you cannot expect a device that also supports TTL and high-speed sync, but if you are comfortable with manual settings, you will be fine.  The only aspect where the Cactus gets less than full marks is the design of the switches and dials, which are to small and a bit flimsy.  The shape of the unit is also rather low and wide, so reaching the wheel that tightens the hot-shoe connector can be a bit difficult for people with big fingers.

If I were to rank the Cactus V5, it would get an A+ for price and reliability, A for features and B for physical design.