Compatibility with Nikon D750

BishopVR6

Hello all,

Today I received a pair of Cactus V6 II, being very happy with that.

After two hours of testing on a D750 I didn't managed to make them fire the flash, in any combination (TTL on camera or out of the camera). I tested them on a D610 and everything was ok, then I tested them again with the D750 and nothing.

The conclusion, they don't make a good contact with the hot-shoe of the camera (it works only if I push slowly on the Transceiver, on the front side - near the lens). After realising that, I searched on the internet and I got here, seeing that the same problem was with the V6 I.

Anyone has this issue with the V6 II? Is there any chance, if I change them, to receive a pair who may work with D750?

Thanks!

Antonio

Hi BishopVR76,  Your observation is right on. 

https://www.facebook.com/Cactus.Image/posts/1239374886073347
x-post from Facebook: 

Recently a few Nikon D750 users inquired about #hotshoe connection issues with the #CactusV6ii. It is a problem with this particular Nikon camera as studied by Fstoppers. 

https://fstoppers.com/originals/stop-fighting-hot-shoe-your-nikon-d750-110295 

Recently a few #Nikon #D750 users inquired about #hotshoe connection issues with the #CactusV6ii. It is a problem with this particular Nikon camera as studied by Fstoppers. 
https://fstoppers.com/originals/stop-fighting-hot-shoe-your-nikon-d750-110295   

On the original V6, this D750's problem only affects you when you mount a Nikon flash with TTL Pass Through on the V6. But on the new V6 II, because it runs on digital TTL protocol (V6 is analogue only), connection with the camera on all hot shoe contact pins is required at all time.  

To fix the gap on the "slightly different" Nikon hot shoe, you may put one or two layers of masking tape at the front of the hot shoe to offset the distance so all the contact pins are correctly aligned.  

FYI, in early 2015 we modifiied V6's bottom hot shoe to have a better fit with the D750 but it is still not 100%.  
http://www.cactus-image.com/community/discussion/comment/588/#Comment_588  

We have kept the same bottom hot shoe on both V6 and V6 II, but there seems to be a slight deviation across different copies of the camera. So the masking-tape-trick would be your best bet to keep a consistent hot shoe connection between the camera and the flash device.
 --- 




Here's a sample DIY masking tape job. You may also use a small piece
of thin cardboard and tape it with masking tape.. Or apply 2-3 layers
of masking tape as needed.


Hope this helps!

ryanroux

Antonio, we just got a D750 this past week and after having the problems described above with the Cactus V6 II, I found this post.  I was checking to see if there were any updated to fixing this problem rather than having masking tape on the hotshoe?  We also mount our SB-900 to the camera and I wasn't sure if the tape would affect the flash mounting or if the flash would affect the tape and I have to keep changing out the tape?

What I'm concerned most about is that the tape will wear and we will find out on a shoot that the Cactus doesn't make good contact, then we are SOL.

ryanroux

I saw on an old forum post http://www.cactus-image.com/community/discussion/comment/588/#Comment_588 that you all were working on a new hotshoe for the V6.  The thread ends without ever saying if the issue was resolved for the V6.  Can you tell me if the V6 II units can be sent back to be retrofitted.

Antonio

V6 and V6 II uses the same hot shoe hardware.

We already tried out best tweaking the hardware to accommodate the D750, which on some copies of the camera the alignment was fine. However on other copies of the D750 it is now. 

So even if you sent yours back to be retrofitted, it is not 100% due to the tolerance levels on the camera.

There will not be an update on the V6 / V6 II hardware as this is probably a special case in the history of NIkon cameras.

Thank you.

ryanroux

Have you heard anything if Nikon is going to be fixing the issue?  I had to put 4 layers of masking tape on last night before it finally worked consistently.

Antonio

Hi @ryanroux,

Have you heard anything if Nikon is going to be fixing the issue? 

Not that I have heard of and I doubt they would, but you may check with Nikon?

.

.

.

... I had to put 4 layers of masking tape on last night before it finally worked consistently.

Good to hear it worked, I hope you cut your tape a bit nice looking than ours!

On a similar note, lately flash manufacturers are changing their hot shoe plate specification, albeit a small difference to the eye, but when fitted on the V6 II, it already misaligned the contact pins. 

Recent examples where a recent flash model differed from previous models are the Fujifilm EF-X500 and Olympus FL900R. 

On Cactus' Multi-system Shoe, only so much can be adjusted otherwise it won't work on another camera and flash system. I see this trend will eventually lead us to release system specific devices. Naturally not our cup of tea but in order to provide reliable flash triggering.

ryanroux

Thanks for the info.  I going to either try a piece of black duct tape or electrical tape to see if that will hold and it will look a little better.  Any reason why you chose masking tape over other options?

ryanroux

Antonio, I'm going to have to see if B&H will take these back.  The units worked fine testing in the house, but when my wife took them out to use them on a shoot this evening, they weren't working.  I really liked these units and they work flawlessly with our D800, but they are reliable with my D750.

Antonio

... Any reason why you chose masking tape over other options?

Because masking tape is readily available in the office and that it can be taken off easily and won't leave much sticky residue.

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Antonio, I'm going to have to see if B&H will take these back.  The units worked fine testing in the house, but when my wife took them out to use them on a shoot this evening, they weren't working.  I really liked these units and they work flawlessly with our D800, but they are reliable with my D750.

Sorry that it didn't work out for you. Did you switch to black electrical tape at the end? Or kept the few layers of masking tape?  

ryanroux

I didn't switch to the electrical tape yet.  My wife is the photographer and I'm her "technical consultant" being that I'm in IT.  Looking around, there is nothing that has the feature set like the Cactus, without some crazy convoluted setup like in some of the advanced PW models.  I'm really torn about what to do.  I know 2 other photographers that use the regular V6 without a problem on their D750.  That's what makes it worse. I'm going to try my units on their camera and see what happens.

Antonio

Thanks for the update @ryanroux, please keep us posted. We will do what can to help.

ryanroux

Ok, so I went to friends house to do some testing. He's the one that turned me on to Cactus and he has the V6 and the RF60 flashes and a SB-910. My V6 II units seemed to work good with the RF60 and the SB-910. My SB-900 would not work on my V6 II nor on his V6. So, I think the culprit is my SB-900. I'm very relieved to find that out. I was planning on buying one or two RF60X's, but we need to save a little bit more money, even though they aren't very expensive. In the meantime, he is going to loan me one of his RF60 units. Oh yeah and I took the tape off and everything seems to work fine too.

Thanks for working with me through this and answering all of my questions. I'm very relieved to be able to keep my V6 II. Like I said earlier, there isn't anything else on the market that has the same features in one small unit and the same quality.

Antonio

I am relieved also to hear this. 

So will you send your SB-910 for service? It's a decent flash that you can keep for a long time. 

On the other hand, the RF60X is a simple answer to your off-camera flash needs. Just get one without to worry about another V6 II transceiver. 

And thanks for your encouraging words. We will continue to work hard and create what photographers need.

ryanroux

So will you send your SB-910 for service? It's a decent flash that you can keep for a long time. 

On the other hand, the RF60X is a simple answer to your off-camera flash needs. Just get one without to worry about another V6 II transceiver. 

It's the SB-900 that is the problem. It's an old flash, so it's probably not worth it to send it in for service. It works perfect on camera, so that's what we will use it for and I will get two more RF60X to use on our softboxes.

Antonio

Thumbs up!  :-)

Thanks @ryanroux

agcphoto

This thread may have this information already, but I have 4 Cactus V6's and I purchased a D650 2 moths ago. I was a bit perplexed when it seemed the camera did not recognize the D750, as I have had no problems with my D600, or D7200. As has been pointed out, the area of the D750 hot shoe causes the problem, which is to say that the shoe of the Cactus goes to far, and the contact points pass over those on the D750 hot shoe.

My solution was to start inserting the Cactus, partially tighten it, then to slide it in some more. There is an audible "click" when the pin on the Cactus foot drops into the receptacle on the D750. Finish tightening the Cactus to the hot shoe, and voilà! problem solved.

If you look at the bottom of your Cactus, and turn the tightening lever, you will see the pin I am talking about. You don't need to partially tighten it until the pin and receptacle are close to aligning.

I hope this helps. I save me adding spacers, and tape and all other manner of horrors to my D750 body.

raychan

Thank you @agchoto. It's really informative.

Cheers!