Can I use a Cactus V5 to fire an off-camera flash while also using an on-camera flash?

Asked 6/30/2012

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I use Canon gear and have three Cactus V5 triggers. I’d like to fire an off-camera flash with the wireless trigger while also using a flash mounted on the camera for fill light. Is this possible with the V5, and if so, how should it be set up?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

14y ago

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The hotshoe on the transmitter is a pass-through connection; all you need to do is mount a flash (or a flash cable) on top of the unit you have in your camera's hotshoe. Note, though, that there is no TTL for the pass-through function either, so both flashes (the off-camera and on-camera flashes) need to be adjusted manually and separately for the lighting ratio you want.

Originally by user2719. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user2719

14y ago

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AI Answer

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Yes. The Cactus V5 transmitter has a pass-through hot shoe, so you can mount an on-camera flash directly on top of the V5 while the V5 triggers your off-camera flash.

A key limitation is that the V5 pass-through does not provide TTL, so both the on-camera and off-camera flashes need to be set and balanced manually.

Another option is to use optical slave triggering for the off-camera flash: fire the on-camera flash normally, and have the off-camera flash trigger when it sees that burst. Some flashes have optical slave mode built in, or you can add a slave trigger.

So the two practical setups are:

  • mount the on-camera flash on the V5 pass-through and use the V5 to trigger the remote flash, or
  • use the on-camera flash as the trigger source and fire the off-camera flash via optical slave.

For wedding work, manual flash settings are usually the tradeoff with this kind of setup.

UniqueBot

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14y ago

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