Whew. 7 MONTHS on the road with Cactus IIs and RF60

ozsuguitan

Hello hello!

I have been on the road for 7 months with the Cactus V6 IIs and RF 60 and this is my experience:

I LOVE THEM. They have been a reliable set for me and I have taken thousands of great outdoor and indoor portraits with the set. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND them. I work as a photojournalist for a large military wing and have relied on my two RF60 and mix of three V6 II transmitter/receivers as my primary gear for a long 7 month tour.

My cons:

- I have to reset the a7rii and IIs after about 200 shots because it bugs out. not a hard thing to do but sometimes messes up the flow of a shoot

- the battery doors are fragile on the IIs and II. With heavy regular use, all of them are loose or broken and have gaffer's tape holding in the batteries

- the lens on one flash is cracked, probably because it didn't entirely fit right in the flash (too tight) the other one I have is just fine but the battery door is loose

- sometimes a flash or two will randomly fire and startle someone, usually me

My pros (i did pros last because i want everyone to know that I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this kit)

- price/performance is phenomenal

- able to adapt most flashes that were lying around with my extra II units. I use a mix of II and IIs

- works on inexpensive plentiful AAs and reliably shoots "enough" on one set of batteries

- display is easy to understand and navigate, drop dead simple config of transmitters

- RF60 became really reliable with different configs after the last firmware update

- HSS works as expected

- great customer service from Antonio and crew

The only other issue I had was replacing one of the units early on that had a bad selector wheel. The process to return was not smooth. Cross-ship is a MUST when you have people working on a schedule. Ship first then wait is UNACCEPTABLE. I have no issues paying first then getting reimbursed but those warranty related RMA need to be FAST.

Ok, that's all. THANKS MUCH for a great product. Now I have to contact warranty support about these broken transmitter doors! Any help with this, Antonio? I am bracing for impact with contacting support.

BTW: long time no talk it's been a long time out in the field.

BTWA: I would wear a Cactus Tee anywhere if you sent me one. haha

-Oz

Class A

- sometimes a flash or two will randomly fire and startle someone, usually me

I noticed that as well. It is a bit of a shame because with earlier firmware versions that never ever happened.

- great customer service from Antonio and crew

Yes, the Cactus crew are fantastic!

I agree with all your other positives as well.

Antonio

Thanks so much for your words of encouragement, both the positive and negative points. We appreciate them all. 

Cactus is on a continuous pursuit for creating better products so we thank you very much for taking the time to write up this mini review / feedback.

Should you need any assistance please do not hesitate to ask.

Cheers!

ozsuguitan

!!!!

I got back after another tour and found my nice fan package! I'm an extra small shirt, but I wear it proudly! I'm a big big fan! WOOT! Will attach a photo once I get my haircut! ! Twitterlicious!

Antonio

Hi @ozsuguitan, glad to hear you received the package. 

I look forward to your new haircut on Twitter.

Until then, wishing you a happy new year!