Cactus V5 Duo Review

I have to say that the Cactus V5 are some pretty sexy transceivers. I am a big fan of how they look and feel.



The Cactus V5 transceivers work on the 2.4GHz radio frequency and have up to 16 selectable channels. They have a max sync speed of 1/1000s, depending on your camera's max sync speed, and have a maximum working distance of 100 meters. They are pretty light and take AAA batteries. The units shipped with two table top stands for the transceivers, one 3.5mm cable, one PC sync cable, one 6.35mm plug adapter, batteries for both transceivers, a copy of “When light dances”, and the manual.



The layout of the Cactus V5 is very intuitive. On the top of the unit you have the test button next to the status LED along with the female hot shoe. On the left side you have the X-sync port and the mode switch that you power the unit on and off with and also use to change between transmitter and receiver. On the other side you have the channel dial and can choose any one of 16 channels to work on. On the underside of the unit there is a standard tripod mount, hot shoe, and lock to secure the transceiver to the cameras hot shoe.

Cactus V5 transceivers do not transmit TTL information nor are they backward compatible with older Cactus units. They do have a pass through signal via the top mount hot shoe, so you can piggy back other units on top.



With an optional shutter release cable you can use the Cactus V5's as a remote shutter release. All you need to do is connect one transceiver to the top of the camera and hook up the shutter release cable to the camera and the hot shoe mounted transceiver. Place the camera mounted unit to “Receiver” mode. Set the second off camera transceiver unit to “Transmitter” mode. When you push the button down half way down the camera will auto focus and then when you push the button down the rest of the way the shutter will release and take the picture.

The top mounted LED provides a lot of very helpful information. Green lights on good power and shutter release, Orange when you half press to auto focus, red on the transmitter when you have a low battery there and the LED will flash red when you have a low battery on the receiver. There is also a trouble shooting menu in the instruction manual that will use the LED display to help figure out what is wrong.

You can also use multi-channel triggering on these units, but I just don't ever use this option. For more information on that you can see your instruction manual.



The Cactus V5 units are light, but not flimsy feeling. When they are mounted on camera they lock down very well and stay that way even when you mount a flash on top of the unit. I will often mount my Lumopro LP160 on top of the camera mounted transceiver and I do not worry about it coming off.

These units have been nothing but reliable. There was a small amount of the Cactus V5s that had a problem with Nikon cameras and flashes, but Gadget infinity made this problem known and will ship out replacement parts to fix this issue.

As I mentioned before the design is fantastic. Very well done and nice and sleek. However, I do have a few issues with the Cactus V5 transceivers. The first issue is that the transceivers do not have a hole for the lock down pin on Nikon flashes to fit into, and as a result on two different occasions my flash unit has fallen off from the transceivers.



They use AAA batteries, but there is more than enough room inside of the transceivers to accommodate AA batteries. If I can figure out a way to modify them to take AA batteries I totally will.

The only other issue that I have with these units is the lock down wheel, and it is just a very minor gripe. The wheel could be just a bit bigger. I find it just a bit awkward from time to time loosening the lock down wheel.

All in all if those are the only pseudo complaints that I have about the Cactus V5s then they are doing a great job. If you are looking for some very reliable triggers that are reasonably priced then you should give the Cactus V5 a very good look. At only about $60 for a set it is well worth it to pick up a set and give them a spin.

Moo.com

My stickers have arrived! Moo.com is awesome!

I use them for my business cards as well and they do a fantastic job. If you need something printed give them a look.

Down Shifting Your Gear

In photography it is very easy to get wrapped up in the technological side of the business. As I have been doing more product reviews I have been finding myself guilty of turning into a gear-head. I have found a whole bunch a great equipment out there. I love to talk about it and I love to take it out on shoots. However, at some point it turns into not being about the photos anymore and all about what you used to get that photo.



When I see myself starting down that path I open up my camera bag and take a mental inventory of what it contains. I then ask myself if everything in there is necessary. For the most part it is, especially when I am going out on a client shoot. I love having as many options as possible then. For me, though, every now and again I like to just strip it all down and go out and make some pictures. Camera body and a 50mm f/1.8 lens and I am set. I find that heading out with just the basic kit helps change your perspective on shooting and all of the gear that you use in general. Keeping it simple is more often than not the best way to go in order to grow as an artist. It is not about quantity, but quality. Every piece of gear in your kit should be there because it is the best option for your needs.

So the next time you head out to work on some personal projects try using the bare bone basics and see what you can do. Exercise your mind and ability, not just your bag of tricks. Not only will you become a better photographer, you will be that much prouder of your outcome.

Mixing it up – Oh aperture ring how I love you!

Every now and again it is a good idea to try something new, or in this case, something old. I shoot Nikon and when I first started using their gear I looked down at the aperture ring and thought who the hell would use this, and why do they still put them on?

Whats funny is that I love to shoot with old manual cameras and lenses. I have a few different adapters I use in order to put the older lenses onto my Nikon bodies. Then after all of this time the thought finally came to me to give the aperture ring on my new lenses a shot. When I turned the option on in camera I fell right into step with it. As a matter of fact, it felt far more natural to me to use the ring to adjust the aperture than it does to use the sub command dial.

Now this super feature is not available in all Nikon bodies. Grab your manual and check out the custom functions and see if this is an option for you. If it is, give it a try!

Now go on out and take some pictures!

From the Vanished Twin Family.

There are going to be some new features on the Vanished Twin Blogs! We have a ton of product reviews coming up this summer, along with a few new features like: Tips and Tricks, Shooting Set Ups, guest bloggers, and a question and answer section.

With the new question and answer feature you can send your questions to: info@vanishedtwin.com or use the Contact page at www.vanishedtwin.com and we will get to them ASAP.

How I see it

When I set up my shots I tend to not think about what I want lit, but where I want my shadows. I build my images by punching holes in darkness, or obliterating it with light. For me it always comes down to darkness and shadows.

I am very organic in my approach to shooting. The client and I will have our pre-shoot meeting and discuss expectations we both have for the session, and what needs to be done to accomplish our goals. I make sure that we also take some time before talking business to get acquainted, especially if the pre-shoot is our first face to face meeting. Pretty straight forward stuff there, but it is the little things that can make a huge difference on the day of the shoot.

On the day of the shoot I do my best to keep the atmosphere as lite and relaxed as possible. When I am photographing children I will always let them check out my camera before I start shooting, and let them touch some of the buttons. Usually once they see a picture of themselves on the back of the camera they get excited and want to take more photos.

Normally when I photograph children I use a small soft box and Nikon's CLS so I can let the shadows take over the background. I hand hold the soft box in my left hand and the camera in my right armed with a 50mm prime lens wide open. With the soft box close in, the aperture at f/1.8, and the shutter speed around 1/8000, you can let the background be swallowed by shadows and have a very shallow depth of field on top of that. I will use this approach often when I need to work around a cluttered background.

Using high speed sync to push the shadows off the face is one of my favorite lighting techniques. My two go to modifiers to help shape my shadows are the Westcott 60” convertible umbrella and the 28” Apollo soft box. Both of which are very versatile light modifiers with High speed sync.

Cactus V5 now works with Nikon flashes

The wait is over for Nikon flash users! The Cactus V5 on sale are now equipped with the new hot shoe plates. The previously mentioned Nikon SpeedLite models are now compatible with the Cactus V5: SB-28, SB-80DX, SB-600 and SB-700.

For current V5 users, we will ship you the new hot shoe next week. An email will also be sent to you confirming the number of hot shoe(s) required. The replacement of the new hot shoe is simple. If in doubt about the installation please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thank you again to your understanding and patience in this matter. If you have any questions or concerns, be sure to contact our CS at service@gadgetinfinity.com.

Blown out Ash

Meta Data
Camera - Konica Minolta 7D
Lens - Tamron 90mm f/2.8
Exposure - 1/45 @ f/2.8
Focal Length - 90mm

Lighting - Brand X strobe
Light Modifier(s) - 60" Westcott shoot through umbrella, and large diffusion panel.
Trigger - Pocketwizard


For this shot I set up a large diffuser for the background and placed a strobe behind it to blow out the background and also to give some back light through her hair.

For the key light I used another strobe shooting through a Westcott 60" shoot through umbrella.
With her looking down her hair fell forward a bit and i increased the power from the light behind her to let the back light eat up some of her hair.

I wanted to capture a high key image of Ashlee and the honesty in her expression.

Ashlee In Profile.

Ashlee Profile., a photo by Vanished Twin: Photography on Flickr.

This shot was taken in a studio that my friend John Keel and I rented to shoot together and to just play with light and shadows

. In this shot I used a Nikon sb600 in a Westcott 28" Apollo. It was placed camera left and I turned Ashlee straight on into the light.

I placed Ashlee close to the wall to get some of the light to spill onto the wall to create a bit of a vignetted background. Other wise the light was pretty close to straight on for this profile shot.

Setting up the shot

Bobby "Fatboy" Roberts

For this shot I wanted to have the focus on Bobby's eyes. It is a pretty simple set up. We did this in a living room with a portable black fabric back ground. I then set up a single light close to the floor and aimed up almost parallel to the floor. Bobby then just leaned into the light and I took the shot.

My weekend of music, mayhem, and murder

Just like the title says, I had a great weekend filled with music, mayhem, and murder. It started out with me shooing the In Repose concert down at the Tiger bar in northwest Portland on Saturday night. Great show! If you missed them you can catch them playing at the Ash St. Saloon on April 2^nd. Head on down and see a great live show.

On Sunday it was pretty much a day shoot for the band Sweet Teen Killing Machine. The band is

Scott Chapin - Vocals, Guitar, Bass, Keys Paul Becker - Guitar Cheo Larcombe - Drums Kevin Ellis – Keyboards. Sweet Teen Killing Machine is a recording project dedicated to rock and horror 

I am making a short film, of sorts, to play behind the band at their music video release on Saturday, March 19 · 8:00pm – 11:00pm at The Globe, 2045 Southeast Belmont Street

Release of their new cd and the premiere of the video "City of the Shrieking Dead" Video Premieres @ 9pm accompanied by a "making of"montage and @ 9:30 is the debut performance of Sweet Teen Killing Machine

So, where does one shoot a mini horror movie in Lake Oswego? Why, in the creepiest crawl space I have ever lived above, of course. Our condo is built on the side of a hill, (a volcano, technically) and the crawl space under it goes from about ten feet deep to close to twenty. Just a little bit of light fights its way in through the foundation vents, but that is no where near enough to see by.

Paul from STKM comes by the house, as does Brett from In Repose. Brett makes a fabulous villain on the screen, so I asked him to come over and play crazy man. We were initially going to head out into some wooded areas nearby to get some chase footage first, but just before Brett arrived a huge rain storm hit with super wind and we lost power.

With that much rain it didn't make sense to shoot outdoors. We decided to try and wait it out. Power-less, we headed down into the freaky crawl space to get the horror footage first. What could possible go wrong? There was water streaming into the area from the storm, and lots of cobwebs, but it went great. We had to create enough light to get my cameras to focus in the dark, so thanks to a few Lazer-Brite lights, we got some crazy stuff.

After a healthy dose of Flying Pie Pizza, the power returned and the rain settled. We headed outside to get the last part of the chase scenes, and shot into the night. Now comes the fun part: editing it all down into a twenty plus minute nail biter.

I love my job!

Flora continuous lighting system

The Flora continuous light system is the newest lighting kit from Linco Inc. It offers 2040 watts of 5500k daylight balanced power from a single unit, and can be easily used for both video and still capture.

The Flora has a convenient compact size head that is made of flame retardant nylon. Its off set tilt mound helps keep the over all size of the unit small, and with the large handle on the back of the unit you will have no problems making adjustments.

The light is very simple to set up, with the only time consuming part being screwing in the 6 large 85 watt compact florescent bulbs into the head after installing the soft box. The hexagon shaped soft box is incredibly easy to set up and install. It is built much like an umbrella where all you have to do is pull back on the rear cord and the box opens up and locks into place. Then place it onto the Flora head, tighten down the holding screw, and you are set. There is also an internal mount for an umbrella to add more versatility to the system.

On the back of the Flora you will find two power switches. Each of the switches controls three of the lights so you can cut your power output by half if needed through an on/off/on combination.

The only downside to this unit is the bulbs and transporting them. I ended up keeping the original shipping boxes and using them to pack up and transport the bulbs to the studio, and then to another location. It would be fantastic to have a bulb carrier to go along with these lights with some kind of foam in bag. I don't think that it would be to difficult to put something together, either, if you find yourself needing to travel with them more frequently. If you're going to be keeping them in a studio the majority of the time, then this will not be an issue at all.

As I mentioned before, these lights are also very good for video work. We took them over to a commercial shoot and used one of the Flora units for lighting an interior. Another option to help dial in your light is to remove some of the bulbs if they are giving too much light output. All in all, there are many lighting options from these units.

One thing I must point out is the stands that came with these lights. The 8308 compact light stand retails for $39.99 from Linco and they are one of the best stands I have ever used. They have a tight foot print when collapsed down, and can extend up to 8'. They have a holding weight of 19.8lbs., and weigh only 4.4lbs each. These stands are are tough and take up less space in your bag than many others.

The Flora lights themselves have the versatility to take care of your lighting needs especially when using modern hybrid cameras that are used for both still and motion capture. I think that these lights will find a very comfortable place living in studio. I might not take these lights out to locations on a regular basis, but these would be my first go to system for all of my video work with out a doubt. I recommend them to anyone who is looking for a light system for both still and motion capture.

Trigmaster Plus from Aputure

A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate enough to receive a few of the Trigmaster plus transceivers from Aputure for review.

These units ship with 2 AAA batteries, Remote cable to hook to your camera for remote shutter control, PC cable, Sync cable, and Sync output converter. They retail for about $60.00 and, needless to say, you are covered for most of your uses right out of the box.

The Trigmaster Plus transceivers have a nice feel to them. They do not feel cheap and easily breakable in your hand. They operate on 2.4G instead of 433Hz like previous models. The button layout is simple and logical. You have a function switch to go from transmitter to receiver, illuminated channel selection via the small channel button to the right of the channel display, and a large trigger button. The power switch is located on the user's right side next to a very beefy antenna. On the other side of the transceiver are three ports: Studio flash sync, camera remote shutter port, and a PC in port.

The units have a sync speed of 1/250^th of a second and a range of about 260 feet. They have plastic feet without a locking ring. At first I thought that this was going to be an issue. I do like metal feet, but these have a set of tabs on the side of the feet that do a great job of keeping them in place. There is also a hole for accommodating a locking pin from my Nikon flashes.

These transceivers can also be used for shutter control. There are two ways to do this: the first is to use the remote cable and connect it to a transceiver, turn the mode switch to tx, and you're set. The second is to use a second transceiver mounted on the top of the camera and connect with the same remote cable. When you have the triggers set for remote triggering you can use the continuous shooting mode. Just hold the trigger button down for 3 seconds and when you release the button the camera will continue to fire at a fairly fast pace. Touch the trigger button a second time and the continuous shooting is canceled. I find this a fun function for both sports and children.

The only issue I have had with the layout of the Trigmaster Plus units is the test button. The main trigger button on the unit is used for remote shutter firing, and not as a test button for your flash. Instead you have to hold the trigger button down half way and then press the channel button. That is how you test fire your flash units. It is not an impossible task, but is does get a little cumbersome when you are holding a flash meter in one hand and trying to test fire your strobes. Overall, if that is the only issue for the Trigmaster Plus units then they are doing well.

All in all, the Trigmaster Plus transceivers are a great transceiver, easy to use, very reliable, small, and use common AAA batteries. All of that along with a small size makes them a great buy. If you are in the market for triggers I highly recremend taking a good long look at the Trigmaster plus transceivers from Aputure.

Bounce Flash

One of the most discredited lighting set ups is on camera flash. However, I am a big fan of it, especially when it comes to photographing children and families in their home. My go-to light set up for children is a TTL on camera flash bounced off the ceiling.

If the ceiling is too high, sometimes I will use a second flash set up on a bookshelf or nearby table for a key. I find that with this set up, a bounce card on the flash works well. 

Another technique that I add to the mix is bouncing the flash off the wall, but I usually switch to wall bouncing only when the subject is playing next to said wall. Hallways work wonders for bouncing light around.

The only issue that you will encounter with this idea is the color of the walls. Make sure that you use a gray card to set your white balance in each set up that you do.

 

One of the reasons that I go with TTL in these situations is the the children tend to move at the speed of light, and more often than not you will only have one chance to capture whatever they are doing. Having lighting set up in the most versatile way possible and letting your subject do what they do in their home environment will give you great results.

 

 

Fourth Annual Emerging Pro Photo Competition

Congratulations! You're a finalist in the 4th Annual Emerging Pro Competition.

Woot!

Cactus V5 Duo Review

Photographer Brian Hursey has a review of the new Cactus V5 Duo up on his site. You should head on over and check it out.

Cactus V5 video

Here is a little preview video for the new Cactus V5.

A.Z. The Return of the Dead

2011

Westcott 60" Convertable umbrella

Today I am going to write about one of my favorite light modifiers: the Westcott 60” convertible umbrella. The versatility from this umbrella is fantastic, and if I can only use one modifier out on location it is this one. I find it very capable of handling medium sized groups as a bounce umbrella or as a shoot through with no problems.

Cactus V5 teaser

I came across these teaser images from photographer Brian Hursey. He is in the process of writing a review on these yet to be released trigger transceivers from gadgetinfinity.

You can see some more of the images at Brian's Flickr page here.