Cactus V5 review, radio flash trigger by Gadget Infinity

Harvest One Limited, through their Gadget Infinity web store, have been widely known for their Catus brand of radio triggers for "Strobist" use. The Cactus triggers were (are) an inexpensive way to get into off camera flash triggering with radio triggers. The earlier versions operated well enough under many limited range conditions but could sometimes be less reliable than desired. They also could be subject to radio frequency interference from newer flash designs that didn't want to play nice, like the Canon EX series. The basic design went through a number of changes and new models were released in order to address the reliability issue along with making the product more user friendly. While improvements were made the electronic design was basically the same but tweeked with every new version up until now.

The Cactus V5 trigger is a completely new design. Where the previous versions operated on 433MHz radio frequency the V5 uses the 2.4GHz band. Radio triggers that used the 433MHz band could experience interference and false triggering when used with RF noisy flashes. This could limit the already short range of operation for these triggers. In extreme cases (false triggering) they just couldn't be used. So the logical solution to the problem is to move to a frequency band that these noisy flashes don't radiate in. This is one of the reasons most of the recent triggers are now using the 2.4GHz band.

Vintage clothing fashion photo shoot

I did a photo shoot for an online vintage clothing store called shopLIMBS. The requirements were for clean simple images that show the clothing for sale. Shots were to be a front, side and back view. Also closer shots to show specific detail. There were 30 items to photograph.

So I decided to go with a white background to give a brighter cleaner look. Lighting for the models was from a 60" reflective white umbrella to my right and a 60" shoot through umbrella to my left. One flash head on a boom high up lighting the upper part of the background. And two Canon 580EXs lighting the lower half and sides of the background. All radio triggered.

A couple of reflectors were used as gobos keeping the key and fill light from shining into the camera lens.

Adding manual power control to the Canon 200E

So what do you do with an old flash with no manual power control? You modify it of course.

Not such a big deal if the flash in question has an Auto mode sensor, just replace the sensor with a logrithmic pot. But if it is a TTL only flash then you have a lot more work.

In 1990 Canon released a small hotshoe mount flash the 200E. As bare bones as you can get. Controlled by A-TTL only.

It has a power switch to turn it on and a ready light to tell you when it was (you guessed it) ready to fire. Nothing else for controls. It doesn't even have a test button.


While it can be used on an old A-TTL film camera but it is next to useless for off camera work. So I changed by adding manual power control, adding a test button, and an optical slave circuit. Still to come is a 1/8" jacj so it can be triggered by an RF or external optical trigger. As soon as I decide where to put it.

The top image is the front view of a modified Canon 200E flash. The focus assist light was removed and a solar cell used for optical triggering (and other parts) were added. The small yellow pin on the lower left is the new test switch.

Community mosaic/mixed media mural

I was asked by Ursula Neufeld of Glass Garden Mosaics to take some pictures of a mural project she is involved in. The Red Road Lodge and Studio 631 (a drop in arts center) is getting a face lift. And rather than just a coat of paint the facility is getting a mixed media mural.

Lea & Ian's wedding

My niece Lea, and her now husband, Ian, got maried in September. And rather than having a conventional wedding (I don't think they know the word) they were maried out at Minaki Yurt Adventures out in Ontario (the middle of nowhere).

This was the view behind the spot they got maried. See, a Yurt. In the picture is the proud father David, grandmother Helene (my mother), and brother Andrew.

Waiting for the couple to emerge. Feels like groundhog day.

Ian La Rue & the Condor

Been a while since I have done any band photography. So when I was asked to photograph Ian La Rue & the Condor I didn't know what to expect. Last time I did this there were no such thing as digital cameras. But hey photography is photography. Just point it in the right direction and push the button, right?

Well some things have not changed with digital. The lighting sucked just like it did when I shot film. But this wasn't the band's fault. The venue was in control of the sound and lights. Sound was pretty good though.

Truthfully the lighting wasn't that bad. (unless you were photographing the show) Cameras don't have the same abillity to make things look right compared to our eye/brain combination. There was a hot spot on Ian when in front of the microphone. The rest of the stage was quite a bit darker as you can see in the above image. And unfortunately the drummer was I what i called The Black Hole.

DIY Optical Slave trigger

So I have a number of ebay radio triggers for triggering off camera flashes. After modifying the transmitter to get reliable operation I have been quite happy with them. The problem I have with the receivers is that I keep forgetting to turn the power off on them when I done with them.

I also have a Canon A570 IS point and shoot camera and I would like to be able to use off camera flash with it. It has no hot shoe and no other flash trigger output. So I figure I could use some optical triggers for my flash use. I can set the P&S camera for minimal flash output (not that it has a very powerful flash) and optically trigger some remote flash units. Or I can still use an radio transmitter on the camera to cause a a remote flash to fire and that flash can trigger the optical triggers firing additional flash units.

So do I head out and buy a bunch of optical slaves? No way, not me. Instead I make my own. So I take a look on the Internet to see what others have done. Very little out there and I was not happy with the little I found. The better design required a battery to operate the circuit. But I didn't want to have to bother with batteries and power switches that I forget to turn off. So I come up with the following (for those with an electronic background and just wanna know).