Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Cactus V6 Flash Remote, Black

Surprisingly versatile and the BEST value among radio triggers.

Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2014

The Cactus V6 wireless radio transceivers are relatively new to the market but are without a doubt the most versatile radio triggers on the market AND are still cheaper than many radio triggers that are less effective (including PocketWizards).

What? How can I dare suggest that the Cactus V6 transceivers are better than PocketWizards? Because I've used almost every variety of PocketWizard made in the last 15 years ... and I've personally found these are easier to use and more reliable*. I put an asterisk by that last comment because the only shooting environment where I haven't tested the Cactus V6 is a professional sports event where there are dozens of other photojournalists using radio triggers at the same time.

The main advantage of the Cactus V6 is that it works with a variety of TTL flash protocols so you can control the power output of wireless speedlights even if they come from different manufacturers or use different TTL standards. That's right, you can mix and match flashes from Nikon, Canon, Pentax, Metz, and others ... and the Cactus V6 controls them all as if they are part of the same flash system.

The setup is a little complex at first because the V6 has to be told what flash has been connected (or you have to set it up so the V6 can "learn" what flash is connected on its own). However, once you've done the setup a couple of times you'll be able to setup the V6's MUCH faster.

I particularly love the V6 system because I use a variety of cameras and flashes from different brands and the V6s communicate with every camera and every flash while giving me the same level of control that is only available with the PocketWizard MiniTT1, FlexTT5 and AC3 zone controller. Keep in mind that the PocketWizard products I mentioned above only give you TTL/ratio control with one type of TTL protocol (Nikon or Canon) and you cannot mix and match like with the Cactus V6.

I use multiple V6 transceivers with Pentax, Sony, Olympus and Canon cameras and a mix of Canon, Pentax, and Metz flashes. These triggers give me amazing control over my off-camera lighting all through the V6 that is connected to my camera. I don't have to walk over to flashes or have my assistant change the flash settings ... I can setup everything in advance and then control my lighting from behind the camera.

As I mentioned, I personally found the V6 to be more reliable than the PocketWizards over extremely long distances. My PocketWizards sometimes failed to fire reliably beyond a distance of about 30-35 feet. The Cactus V6 has ALWAYS worked at distances of up to about 60 feet as long as I setup the V6s correctly. I've never used the V6 system beyond about 60 feet so it may work fine beyond that range but I've never tried it.

Bottom line, this is a BEST radio trigger system currently on the market in terms of both flexibility and value for your money.

Highly recommended.

27 people found this helpful

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Mark

YES YES YES

Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2014

Verified Purchase

I will update this review after rugged use at a wedding or two.

Build quality is not the best but for the price it's decent. The functions are amazing and revolutionary. I recently switched to nikon from canon, and had some left over canon flashes that nobody wanted to buy, and can now integrate them into my nikon system with these! Saved me money on replacing those two flashes.

First and foremost- I had problems upon setting these up initially on my Nikon D750 cameras. The pass through ttl was not working, and was locking up my on camera flash. I went to the cactus website and read through their forums and I was not the only one with this problem.

Apparently the D750 hot shoe is deeper than other models, and so if you slide these triggers in all the way, the prongs do not align properly. To fix this, you must slide the trigger out a tiny bit before locking it down. Once I did that, pass through TTL worked like it was supposed to. I will either make a tiny spacer or hope that cactus releases a premade one to remedy this problem. Then, when pass through ettl (on camera) was enabled, my remote flashes would not fire. I was stumped for about an hour, and then everything started working properly. I have no idea what happened, but I'm going to assume that the hot shoe prongs on camera were still not properly aligned all the way. Now everything is working as it should and they are awesome.

Benefits of these triggers vs others: pass through ttl on camera (though other triggers do this, such as yn622c's, and my buggy as hell pixel king pro's). Change manual powers on remote flashes quickly and easily. The interface is so fast and easy to use, on my pixel king pro's you have to press a million buttons to change flash powers, and on these you simply spin a wheel. If you want to change all the flashes powers at once, you just spin the wheel on the back. If you want to change a single group power, you hold the group you want to change and then spin the wheel. That simple. Having four groups vs three is also very useful, since most rooms have four corners, or, it simply just gives you an extra independent flash.

Another really awesome feature is that these can force lower powers than your flashes can normally be set to. For example my 430ex ii's only go down to 1/64 power normally, but these triggers can force them to 1/128 and even 1/256 in 'lo power' mode. This is extremely useful to me because often at weddings, especially for exit photos or outdoor shots, where I'm at high ISO and wide apertures, even 1/64 power is too bright, and this gives me two stops lower to work with.

These triggers are awesome. I will however, be keeping my pixel king pro's as well, for when I need to use HSS, off camera ttl, or hypersync with strobes. Note: the pixel king pro's are extremely unreliable and buggy with the D750. I'm hoping they update the firmware. That was actually my main reason in getting this cactus system.

10 people found this helpful

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SL

Great product

Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2016

Verified Purchase

So very easy to use and control (Nikon). So very powerful. So very nice to finally have dependable equipment. Only four stars because they are still large and require 4 double-A batts.

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shimmishim

Awesome triggers!

Reviewed in the United States on May 31, 2016

Verified Purchase

**Warning** - If you have a Nikon D750 please be aware that this thing does not fit properly on the hotshoe. It's a documented issue. You'll have to wiggle it a little bit off the hot shoe to get pass through TTL to work properly. Other than that, this thing is one of my favorite triggers to date (outside of the built one that comes in the Canon 600-EXRT). Super easy to setup and works as intended. The best part is... you don't need to buy separate triggers for Canon/Nikon/3rd-party. It's compatible with most flashes.

One person found this helpful

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Ben

I love hate these. I give them both 2 stars and 4 stars, depending on the day

Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2016

Verified Purchase

I've been using the Cactus RF60 and V6 wireless stuff professionally for about a year and a half. I have 6 V6s and 4 RF60s. They are far from a professional build quality, but I knew that going in. The flashes have really been good, the transceivers have been okay.

Bad stuff:
-On one, I had a stud stuck in the 1/4-20 thread on the side. The threaded insert is backed by plastic on the inside, so the whole thing was spinning. I had to do surgery on that flash to get the stud off of the side and even now I just have gaffe on the side so I remember not to use that mounting point again.
-The V6s have all been taken apart multiple times as they screws holding the top and bottom hotshoe mount seem to work their way loose. Last time, I opened all of them and applied an automotive thread locker to the 7 tiny screws. So far so good.
-I have the accessory cable from Cactus to use these as a remote shutter trigger for my Nikon cameras, but this functionality has been iffy at best.
-Wireless reliability is mixed. Using one V6 to control only RF60s tends to be solid. Mixing RF60s and either speedlights (SB900, Yongnuo 568exii) or strobes (via 1/4" to 1/8" mono trigger cable) is obnoxious, irregular, and just plain infuriating.

Good stuff:
-1/4-20 mounting point on the side of the speedlights are brilliant. Other brands are doing this as well and it is great.
-Displays and controls are good, intuitive, clear, and easy.
-Surprisingly robust. I mean this in relative terms. I've banged them up and they've hung in there.
-Cheap. Seriously cheap for remote power control of OCF and TTL passthrough on camera.
-Everything uses AA batteries. Some transceivers use AAA or some odd lithium thing.

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R. A.

I REALLY Want To Give This 5 Sars....BUT...

Reviewed in the United States on December 15, 2015

Verified Purchase

3rd Update Oct 2016 - Downgrading back to 1 star, I now have 6 cactus flashes, only 2 are reliable, the rest have around an 80% misfire rate, these flashes are so bad I literally gave up on properly lighting a photo shoot today and had to fix the exposure in Lightroom. If I did not have so much invested in this system I would just throw them all away and start over with something else.

2nd Update Aug 2016 - I'm going to have to upgrade my review to 3 stars. The Cactus V6 II transceiver came out and it is awesome. Despite all of the flash's faults, having wireless HSS is nothing less than awesome. No other flash maker in the world has this capability which you would think wouldn't be that hard to do. The best part is it works with my existing RF60 flashes. If you are considering RF60 flashes, you must pair them with the V6 II transceiver to get their full potential.

Update: Downgrading my original review to 1 star. Buyer beware, I'm now on my second failure in less than a year of use. One of the flashes has about an 80% failure rate when triggering remotely. Very frustrating to have all of the flashes set up then have one not fire. The worst part is there is absolutely no customer support or warranty. The only contact information for Cactus is a Hong Kong email address and phone number.

I doubt any of these 5 star reviewers actually use their flashes for more than the casual photo op, I'm dumping this garbage as soon as possible and moving back to PocketWizards as much as I hate going back to wires and no remote output control, I can't keep risking failures like these when on the job.

Background

I am a real estate and architectural photographer and ordered 4 of these to use for interior real estate and architectural photography. Up until now I had been using LumoPro flashes with Pocket Wizard transceivers. I got tired of trying to find places to hang the Pocket Wizards, keeping up with all of the batteries, and keeping up with the cables, so I started researching flashes with built in radio receivers. In the end I ordered four Cactus RF60s and two radio transmitters.

The Pros

Being able to control the output of the flashes is awesome, it saves me so many trips back and forth to the flashes, sometimes even a walk up or downstairs, I don't know how I lived without this feature.

These flashes are big, they are bright, and they light large areas very well.

The transmitter is very easy to use and easy to adjust. I set each flash to a different channel and individually control each flashes' output that way.

The flashes have a battery indicator on the back of the flash. This is awesome, no more finding out the hard way that the batteries just died.

Maybe it is just my imagination, but the batteries in these seem to last longer than they did in the LumoPros. I can shoot all day, multiple properties and the battery indicator doesn't even move. I use eneloop batteries in all of my flashes.

The Cons

The biggest con in my opinion is the fact that the flash stand does not have a tripod screw in its bottom. The LumoPro's stands all had tripod screw holes underneath the flash stand so I could use them as a stand or I could screw them into a tripod or light stand without having to remove the flash from the stand and attach it to a cold shoe. I know it seems like a minor con, but when you are setting up and tearing down multiple times a day, having to find a cold shoe adapter, attach it to the tripod, then keep up with the cold shoe, flash stand, and flash adds up quickly. My fix is to use the LumoPro's light stands with the Cactus flashes.

The build quality of the plastic and buttons is nowhere near the LumoPro's quality. The on/off button feels very cheap, and the plastic feels paper thin. Admittedly, you can get two of these plus a transceiver for the price of just one LumoPro so I consider this a minor problem as long as the flashes last; more on that in a minute.

Buttons instead of a thumbwheel. This is a minor con, but it would be nice if you could adjust the flash intensity using a thumbwheel instead of having to press the buttons on the back over and over. A thumbwheel is much faster and if the flash is on a stand, you aren't trying to stabilize the stand while you press the buttons. The transmitter fortunately allows you to adjust the flash intensity using a small thumbwheel, and since I almost always adjust the intensity using the transmitter, the buttons vs thumbwheel isn't that big of a deal.

Now to the biggest con; one of the 4 flashes burned through the lens after only 3 uses. I have attached a picture of the problem. I smelled a strong burning smell and noticed a small burn mark on the flash's diffuser. I triggered the flash one more time and the burn mark grew 3x larger and I smelled a stronger burning smell. I immediately removed the batteries and have not used the flash since. I'm thinking its just a fluke, and I am trying to exchange the flash now, but having one of these fail like this in less than 3 uses / 30 days does not fill me with much confidence.

Also within that 30 days I have had two flashes fail to fire. The fix was to turn the flash off and back on, but once again, I never had a misfire in all the times I used the Pocket Wizards, so I am a little concerned again over the quality.

Conclusion

Overall these seem like great flashes with a lot of features that I didn't even know existed (battery indicator, remote control over the intensity). I'm hoping the misfires were a fluke and that I got a bad flash. I really want to give these 5 stars, if the replacement flash works great, and if the misfires stay in the acceptable range, I will certainly revisit my review and change my rating.

One person found this helpful

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Dan in SC

Really liking these triggers!

Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2014

Verified Purchase

I am most impressed. I switched from Radiopopper when I decided their latest incarnation of variable output triggers (Jr2), while very nice, compact, and esthetically attractive, were priced unreasonably in my opinion. I also prefer the additional features such as TTL passthrough on-camera and the ability to use each unit as a transmitter OR receiver with various hardware profiles for Nikon, Canon, and other speedlight brands already built in. Easy and intuitive menu system, but you'll want to go through the instruction manual first. The manual is thorough and written in clear English, although the teeny-tiny print is a little hard to read. The manual is more easily viewed on the Cactus website and requires only one read-through before you've got it all committed to memory. These units are a bit larger than I expected, but then again I don't think they could be any smaller and still be as functional so it's really not a problem at all. I won't go into all the features here since you can read that on the manufacturer's website, but so far I am extremely pleased. I've already updated the firmware in the units I purchased, a quick and easy process. I bought four of these for starters (one on-camera and three for speedlight attachment), and it's nice to know I can expand even further without breaking the bank.

7 people found this helpful

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Lech Naumovich

Jury is out, but we have some red flags

Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2017

Verified Purchase

Ordered 2 units - one seems great (but I can't really use one alone) - the second is malfunctioning. The battery contacts are not quite right and sometimes it works, then dies. Tried several dif batteries - both recyclables and alkaline. No difference.

As I read previously, the units seem like a great deal... if they work and last. I'm a bit worried about craftsmanship given my experience.

#1 I do agree with other reviewers that the door is flimsy and cheap. Needs a simple design fix to keep it shut - it doesn't sit flush with unit when new, so I expect this will only get worse.

#2 Why such a strange flash latch - there are simpler designs that are just as inexpensive that click into place. This unit you can tighten and overtighten, which is a concern.

#3 Buttons are super friendly and I like the multiple connection options - hotshoe and threaded light stand.

I will try a replacement and update folks. At this point I cannot review connection/function since I only have one unit.

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li'l bamboo

Cactus Wireless WRLS Flash Transceiver V6

Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2015

Verified Purchase

I first ordered just two of these and realized that I would need more of them. So I ordered 2 more of them. I like the idea of being able to adjust my strobes from the camera. I have recently changed systems from Canon to Fuji and the PWs I have will work in the Fuji but without any control
I'm not a pro but I am very serious about the quality of my work.
I've played with them a bit and set up was pretty easy. I followed a tutorial on YouTube and that simplified it rather well so I don't think I'll have any real issues with these wireless triggers in or out of the 'studio'.
They appear to be pretty well made but I don't think so sturdy as PW's Then again I don't abuse my gear. I've had my PWs for several years and they still look brand new, except for the numbers I put on them for reference purposes.

2 people found this helpful

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Kayb64

Not truly HSS, but does work well under normal flash usage

Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2015

Verified Purchase

As much research as I did on this product, knowing it would work with my Pentax K5, I thought it would also be capable of High Speed or Hyper Speed Sync photography. In fact, it is not. It has the HSS "Sympathy" mode which means it can work with an HSS enabled flash, but the RF60 itself is not an HSS enabled flash, it can only work off from another flash unit that is actually HSS enabled. This is one of the many lessons we learn as photographers. Other than that, the unit worked perfectly with my K5 under regular flash usage.

One person found this helpful

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Cactus V6 Flash Remote, Black

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