I received CACTUS V5 and it is not being consistent. Need your help on if there is any different procedure I need to follow OR any equipment fault that is causing this inconsistency.
I used the equipment 3 times so far.
First time when I started using it, it didn't work. Somehow it started working after lot of struggle.
Second time it didn't work and fortunately without changing anything it worked at the right time.
Third time, it is not working.
The problem I am facing is, I connected one transreceiver to my Novatron1500 battery pack (Rx) and another to my Nikon 300s camera on the hot shoe of the camera (Tx). When I press the trigger on the transreceiver(Tx), the receiver on the battery pack is recognizing with a RED indicators on both the transreceivers (Rx) and the strobes connected to Novatron1500 battery pack are being fired. When I do the shutter release on my Nikon D300s, the strobes connected to Novatron1500 are not being fired.
Found out no issues. When the transreceiver is not tightened enough on the camera hot shoe, the communication is lost.
It is working perfectly now except that the tightening is little hard to do.
Yup, electronically it works fine, but the mechanical design and manufacturing is really cheap. As a hobbyist, I can't pay $230/unit for PocketWizards. But I wish I could.
Cactus is an inconsistent product line.
For instance v4 and v5 has reversed polarity on the sync cord input - Sunpak 120J with cable works fine on v4, but fails completely on v5. The v4 gives banding noise on EOS 5D (they claim they fixed it, but makes you wonder how much faulty stock they keep selling).
There is another issue with corrupting Nikon D200 settings, but I need to investigate it further prior to making the claim.
I had the same issue with my V5's. You could try using a mini-jack connection instead of the hotshoe--to do this on the camera hotshoe, or on a flash without a PC/mini port, you'd need a universal hotshoes adapter with a mini port...
