New Cactus V4 triggers

[Senna4ever]

That's Majin's lens being held by Mananetwork's well manicured hands.

[niforpix]

Originally Posted by Senna4ever

That's Majin's lens being held by Mananetwork's well manicured hands.

lol

[tamago]

That's unfortunate... I thought AB's were a fairly solid product. It's definitely going to make me think twice about picking one up.

Or I could wrap it with bubble wrap while using it, LOL

[Senna4ever]

Originally Posted by tamago

That's unfortunate... I thought AB's were a fairly solid product. It's definitely going to make me think twice about picking one up.

Or I could wrap it with bubble wrap while using it, LOL

Alien Bees are probably the best of the budget lighting systems out there. The materials used for the housings are crap though. It will not stand up to hard use very long. With White Lightning, the high end line of Paul buff, you can drive over them with an SUV, and they will not break.

The Alien Bees ringflash is the worst design ever...if you don't hold the ringflash securely while raising or lowering it, it can go crashing down onto the floor. There is no secondary catch or some kind of safety mechanism to prevent it from happening.

You get what you pay for.

[J____]

^^ u can always DIY small stuff like the safety catch if your somewhat handy. And save $1500 for a safety latch? i'd rather take the risk of dropping 4 AB ringflashes to 1 profoto. I'll stick with my home made ringflash. portable and not need for external battery source. work just as good as the profoto ones i've used. with some loss in output power. for for $2450 cheaper, i dont mind the light loss.

and ur comparison of AB's to white lightings is kinda obsolete... of course the higher priced product is a better build. It wouldnt make sense if they had the same light output/longevity + case durability and 1 is more expensive than the other. I mean thats the whole point of having 1 more cost efficient than the other... to save ppl money.

on another note. do u knw if the 5d mk2's going up in price in a few weeks? if so i might come pick one up before it does go up

[Senna4ever]

Originally Posted by J____

^^ u can always DIY small stuff like the safety catch if your somewhat handy. And save $1500 for a safety latch? i'd rather take the risk of dropping 4 AB ringflashes to 1 profoto. I'll stick with my home made ringflash. portable and not need for external battery source. work just as good as the profoto ones i've used. with some loss in output power. for for $2450 cheaper, i dont mind the light loss.

That's your choice....that's why there is such a large, diverse market out there.

Originally Posted by J____

and ur comparison of AB's to white lightings is kinda obsolete... of course the higher priced product is a better build. It wouldnt make sense if they had the same light output/longevity + case durability and 1 is more expensive than the other. I mean thats the whole point of having 1 more cost efficient than the other... to save ppl money.

I know that, I was responding to Kyle's post....but why is my comparison obsolete?

Originally Posted by J____

on another note. do u knw if the 5d mk2's going up in price in a few weeks? if so i might come pick one up before it does go up

They went up last week, AFAIK. I just got a new pricelist yesterday.

[77civic1200]

You realize they were talking triggers not lights right?

[Senna4ever]

I was referring to both triggers and heads.

[77civic1200]

Well I hardly think any of the Pocketwizard/Skyports/ect are going to be any better built than the AB Cybersyncs. You certainly wouldn't be driving over any of them. Put broken PW foot into google and see how many hits/tutorials you get. You may think you get what you pay for, but I think there can be better choices out there, if you aren't just buying into brand names.

[Ducdesmo]

There's nothing wrong with buying a cheap set of triggers. Theres a market for everything. It's like why do people buy Honda Civic's and not a Lexus.

If you're not a pro and not looking for 100% consistency or require the range/durability, I say go for it.

[Senna4ever]

Originally Posted by 77civic1200

Well I hardly think any of the Pocketwizard/Skyports/ect are going to be any better built than the AB Cybersyncs. You certainly wouldn't be driving over any of them. Put broken PW foot into google and see how many hits/tutorials you get. You may think you get what you pay for, but I think there can be better choices out there, if you aren't just buying into brand names.

I wrote, "high end equipment is generally engineered to a higher standard," as they are, for the most part. I did forget to mention that Pocket Wizards do feel a bit flimsy...almost as if there's a lot of empty space inside. The triggers for Profoto, Hensel and Elinchrom are smaller and do feel better engineered. I think Pocket Wizards just have a good marketing department. I never said Pocket Wizards were the best, just that the more expensive products were *generally* better engineered. I guess I should have mentioned that Pocket Wizards might be an exception to this, as they are more cumbersome than every other wireless trigger on the market, and there seem to be many failures. Now, I don't know if this is due to inherent unreliability, or that there seem to be a lot of failures because so many have been sold. The percentage of properly working units to defective units is unknown to me.

I personally wouldn't buy Pocket Wizard II Plus units. I'd go with mid-range units like Flash Waves, as I think they have as better design for my purposes. When we get the new Pocket Wizard TTL units in, I will give an initial report.

[Senna4ever]

Originally Posted by itsallaboutgz

There's nothing wrong with buying a cheap set of triggers. Theres a market for everything. It's like why do people buy Honda Civic's and not a Lexus.

If you're not a pro and not looking for 100% consistency or require the range/durability, I say go for it.

Most people do not need the 1600 foot range of Pocket Wizards, or even the 200 foot range of the Flash Waves, but consistency is paramount, IMHO. If you have this great momentum going during a shoot with an awesome model, and the triggers start to fire intermittently, or stop working altogether, you will be pissed. It's very frustrating, and it doesn't make you look good, either. Paid job or not. It's happened to me with some borrowed cheap triggers. I say you don't need to buy a Lexus, but try not to buy the Tata.

[J____]

how much r they at beau? broadway cam still at 3099

[Meowjin]

Originally Posted by Senna4ever

Well, no...you wouldn't want to drop any equipment, but it happens all the time (I should know). If you do drop something, you'd want to just pick it up and just start shooting, instead of pick up a broken piece of gear, no? The high end equipment is generally engineered to a higher standard. Stronger, more expensive materials are used, more stringent impact tests are carried out to ISO standards, etc... Why do pros use D3's and 1Ds mkIII's instead of D40's and XTi's? Pros are harder on their equipment, and the lower end cameras would not last as long under hard use or would fail due to environmental variables such as moisture or dust.

The result of just banging a canon 50mm 1.8 against a table. No one would say that particular lens is well engineered. If it was as well made as the f1.2 or even the f1.4, this would not have happened, but of course it would not be as cheap.

LOL MY 50MM

[Boostaholic]

so anyone gotten these trigger?

[niforpix]

Originally Posted by J____

how much r they at beau? broadway cam still at 3099

$3,099??

[J____]

Originally Posted by niforpix

$3,099??

for 5d MK2...

actually they down to 2999 for this week. next week goin up to 3299 apparently

[Meowjin]

who needs a 5d mk II?

[HyperREV]

so i just ordered a set of the v4's. should be here in a few weeks, i'll post up when i get em and if anybody has any questions/anything they want me to try i'd be happy to oblige!

[peazs]

^ good stuff. will be waiting.

[J____]

haha me too. should get them soon as well

[J____]

just got mine in the mail! woohoo. i'd have to say it looks, feels, and performs (so far) like a premium trigger for a $40 cactus set. the packaging is very nice, the foam inside is high density shape cut for the triggers, has a nice manual with a nicely printed booklet with samples of other ppls shots done with the triggers. the unit itself feels very solid, the battery cap feels like it belongs and was made for the unit, not like the V2's where it felt like it didnt really fit and rattled when on. the male hotshoe fit nicely and very snug. So far not 1 miss fire (50 or so shots) and reached my max camera sync speed (1/200s) everytime without banding on a 430ex, havent tried with my 580 yet. at 1/250s you notice banding at the bottom. With the V2's i was getting very inconsistent sync speeds, sometimes at 1/60 i'd get banding, others at 1/125, NEVER 1/200. Range i didnt really test, max so far was 50 feet across my place. gotta try outside. But all in all so far very consistent, no missfires and feels REALLY solid compared to the old ones. The new flatter design for the trigger is AWESOME finally can fit my strobist gear properly with an umbrella/sofbox. One thing i didnt like was the female hotshoe of the reciever is VERY tight. kinda had to force my flash on a bit.... i searched it and someone had their sb800 stuck on unable to take off. Litterally had to disassemble the unit to get it off...

Overall, for $40, i'd pick this over $350 pw's for what i use them for any day. (so far)

[[HuCk DuCk]]

does it sync with v2s?

[J____]

i didnt try, i got rid of my v2's but i remember their site says they dont

[peazs]

is there another place/site that sells these or this is the best store and price? how long did it take to ship?