Jim Heine Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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I bought a few Cheetah 850s over Black Friday. Should be the same as 860s, but without TTL. I used them for a few weddings and largely agree with Tony's comments. Batteries, recycle time, value are awesome. The flashes cost less than the minimum cost to repair one at CPS.
One reason I wanted to try them is the ease of adjusting power remotely. There's no menu system to change power as on the Canon 600s. I also liked the idea of using them in conjunction with the phottix strato II transmitters to turn groups on and off very quickly (I do this during speeches, first dance, dancing, etc a lot - the 600 menu system drives me bonkers).
The main issue is there is the radio system is not a transceiver. So you're stuck with a separate transmitter on your camera. Or if you want longer range and no cables, Yongnuo 622s or Phottix Stato IIs are your best options. This is where the system is a fail for me. After using the all in one Canon 600s for so long, the extra transmitter/receiver, extra batteries, hitting extra switches, checking I didn't bump buttons on the receivers, etc all seems cumbersome and slow. If I had room in my bag, I'd leave the transmitters/receivers on the flashes all the time and gaff tape all the switches. Then it wouldn't matter so much.
Overall a great product (and imo better than everything out there except the 600s/Mitros), but with a few limitations.
Tony - you could try the Yongnuo 622s for AF assist. Or just use the Canon 600 on camera
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