Cactus RF60, User Manual

Page 1: ...User Manual Wireless Flash RF60 ...

Page 2: ...8 7 Getting Started 08 8 On camera Operation 18 Local Mode 9 Wireless Flash 20 Master and Slave Modes 10 Group Aliases 25 11 Advanced Operation 27 12 Personalizing the RF60 39 13 Working with Cactus 43 Triggers 14 External Power 45 15 Forming the Capacitor 46 16 USB Connection 47 17 Optional Accessories 47 18 Troubleshooting 48 19 Notices 51 20 Warranty 53 ...

Page 3: ... also functions as a commander to control other RF60s The possibilities are endless Please take the time to explore all the features in your new RF60 Built in wireless commander and receiver Remote control of power and zoom levels Group control of up to four groups with configurable Group Alias Optical Slave with delay feature High power up to Guide Number of 56 meters Compatible with Cactus V6 Wi...

Page 4: ... not in use 3 Use only the batteries specified in this instruction manual 4 Do not permanently store the product in a high temperature environment i e under strong direct sunlight near cooking stoves or oven 5 The flash should not be submerged in liquid or exposed to heavy rain unless it is properly protected 6 Do not operate the device in the presence of flammable gases or fumes 7 Do not fire the...

Page 5: ...s Modes Local L Master M and Slave S Working radio frequency 2 4GHz Number of channels 16 Number of groups 4 Maximum wireless effective distance 100 meters 328 feet Built in optical slave mode S1 straight triggering S2 pre flash ignored triggering Power input 4 AA batteries LR6 alkaline or Ni MH rechargeable Ni MH for best performance Flash count per battery cycle 100 at 1 1 power 2000 at 1 128 po...

Page 6: ...6 4 Package Contents Flash RF60 Carrying Case FC 3 User Manual Flash Stand FS 2 ...

Page 7: ...R CONNECTOR CONNECTOR COVER MOUNTING FOOT CONNECTOR COVER 3 5mm CONNECTOR HOT SHOE CONTACT BOUNCE ANGLE INDICATOR LCD PANEL MODE BUTTON MENU BUTTON BUTTON NEXT BUTTON BUTTON ON OFF SWITCH TEST BUTTON FLASH READY INDICATOR BATTERY COMPARTMENT DOOR MULTI HSS BUTTON GROUP BUTTON USB PORT HOT SHOE LOCKING WHEEL ...

Page 8: ...partment door and slide it open in the direction shown by the arrow 7 1 GROUP PANEL OPERATING MODES CHANNEL BEEP INDICATOR OPTICAL SLAVE DELAY INDICATOR BATTERY LEVEL HIGH TEMPERATURE WARNING POWER LEVEL POWER LEVEL INCREMENT HSS SYMPATHY MODE TEXT AREA SELECTION INDICATORS ZOOM LEVEL STATUS BAR ...

Page 9: ...f the same brand and type When replacing batteries replace all four at the same time 2 AA sized alkaline Ni MH or lithium batteries can be used Use only one type of batteries at a time Do not mix battery types 3 If you change batteries after firing many flashes continuously be aware that the batteries may be hot 4 For alkaline or lithium batteries the battery level indicator on the LCD will show w...

Page 10: ...e to Ni MH battery 5 When the flash is not in use remove the batteries to prevent possible damage from battery corrosion Attaching to and detaching theflash from thecamera 1 To attach the flash slide the flash s hot shoe mounting foot all the way into the camera s hot shoe 2 To secure the flash rotate the locking wheel on the mounting foot to the left until it locks 7 2 ...

Page 11: ...ng foot to the right until it is loosened Turning the Flash on 1 Switch the On Off Switch to ON The flash starts charging 2 Check that the flash is ready The flash ready indicator blinks in red indicating that the flash is ready for quick flash see Section 12 3 7 3 ...

Page 12: ...lash s power turns off automatically However the flash still consumes power and batteries discharge over a long period of time which may damage the battery contacts of the flash Therefore shut off the flash power if the flash is not in use 2 If you fire more than 20 continuous flashes at full power in short intervals the inner overheating prevention function may be activated to prolong the recycli...

Page 13: ...rtical angle of 90 with click stops at 30 60 and 75 Horizontally it can be rotated up to 180 to the right and 90 to the left with click stops at 30 60 90 120 150 right and 30 60 left Tip When using bounce flash try to avoid hitting the subject with direct flash light Make sure the flash head is sufficiently angled away from the subject ...

Page 14: ... Bounce Card 1 Point the flash head upward by 90 2 Pull out the wide angle diffuser The bounce card will come out at the same time 3 Push the wide angle diffuser back in The bounce card will be ready for use Tip The bounce card is useful in bounce flash applications to direct some of the light toward the subject in order to create catch lights and or soften strong shadows from the bounced light 7 ...

Page 15: ...ck in The flash will illuminate at 18mm coverage Choosing the Operating Mode There are three operating modes in the RF60 namely Local Master and Slave Upon switching on the RF60 press the button to choose the appropriate mode The mode indicator turns in the following sequence Local Master Slave Modes Where to place the RF60 With wireless control on camera X on camera off camera 7 6 ...

Page 16: ...to go back to the main screen The selected channel will be shown on the LCD panel Navigating the Menu There are a number of configurable menu options on the RF60 To change a menu option 1 Press the button to access the first menu item 2 Press the button to change the menu subject in the sequence 3 Press the or button to see each option of a menu item The configuration of the menu item will change ...

Page 17: ...H 1 16 Delay Timer 0 999ms DELAY 0 999ms Optical Slave Off S1 Straight Triggering S2 Pre flash Ignored OPT SL OFF S1 FIRST S2 MAIN Quick Flash Off On QCK FL OFF ON Beep Feedback Off Fn1 Quick Flash Fn2 Full Charge Fn3 Insufficient Power Warning BEEP OFF Fn1 QCK FL Fn2 READY Fn3 WARN Sleep Timer Off 3min 5min 15min 30min 60min SLEEP OFF 3min 5min 15min 30min 60min LCD Backlight Off 5sec 15sec Conti...

Page 18: ...is shown on the right The selection indicator will be shown at either the power level or zoom level Press the button to switch the selection indicator in order to adjust a setting of an item Adjusting the Power Level To adjust the power level press until the selection indicator is pointing to the power ratio value i e the left figure in the central row Press to increase or to decrease the power le...

Page 19: ... 3 1 2 0 7 1 4 0 7 1 8 0 7 1 16 0 7 1 32 0 7 1 64 0 7 1 128 0 7 Adjusting the Zoom Level To adjust the zoom level press until the selection indicator is pointing to the zoom value i e the right figure in the center row Press to increase or to decrease the zoom level The zoom levels available for adjustment are Zoom mm 24 28 35 50 70 80 105 8 2 ...

Page 20: ...ts in Slave mode Setting up theRF60 Slave 1 Make sure that the RF60 units that you want to control through the Master flash are set to mode see Section 7 6 2 Set the units to the same RF channel see Section 7 7 3 Assign RF60 Slave units to either group A B C or D Press to select the group for each RF60 Each press of the Group button in Slave mode will change the group in the sequence of A B C D Th...

Page 21: ...up panel Only activated group s will be shown as A B C or D boxes Changing parametersof theMaster flash 4 On the RF60 Master you can change the power level and zoom level of the Master flash itself and the RF60 Slave flashes in groups A B C and D 5 The default group is the Master RF60 In the display the text area will show MASTER No group is selected in the group panel though it still shows the gr...

Page 22: ...elect the next group i e group B Each press of the Group button will select the next group in the following sequence Master A B C D 8 Adjust the power level of the Master flash or of a particular group using the or button Press to adjust the zoom level You can also adjust the zoom level with the or button Note The power and zoom level will only apply to the group being selected ...

Page 23: ...sequence of Master A B C D will be chosen as the reference group 11 Adjust the power and zoom levels as you would for a single group The relative changes in both settings in the reference group however will apply to all active groups including the Master flash For example by adjusting the power level of the reference group from 1 4 to 1 8 i e a decrease of 1EV the power levels of all the active gr...

Page 24: ...roup Once turned off the RF60 Master will not fire but it will still command the RF60 Slaves changing their settings and firing them accordingly 14 To turn on a group again select the group see steps 6 and 7 and press and hold the button The power level and zoom level last used for the group will be shown in the center row again 15 Press the shutter release button on the camera and the RF60 Master...

Page 25: ...group panel The group alias will display whenever the group is selected The group aliases available for selection are KEY FILL SPOT RIM HAIR LEFT RIGHT BACK FRONT 1 To set a group alias select the group you would like to set an alias for then press the and buttons simultaneously 2 The selection indicator and group letter will be shown in the text area Press the or button to scroll through the avai...

Page 26: ... steps 1 3 to set aliases in all the Cactus RF60 units To prevent confusion make sure that you have set the same alias for the same group in all RF60 units 5 The alias of each group will appear in Slave mode or Master mode whenever the group is selected ...

Page 27: ... frequency per second in Hz Power level Zoom level The number of flashes represents the number of flashes firing in a series caused by a single trigger event The flash frequency Hz represents the number of times the flash fires per second Together with the flash series duration you have in mind you can determine the appropriate value for the number of flashes and flash frequency Flash series durat...

Page 28: ...necessary to use a longer shutter speed that exceeds the flash series duration in order to expose for ambient light Alternatively it may be necessary to use a shorter shutter speed and a slightly longer series duration as a safety margin Refer to the table below for the maximum number of flashes and flash frequencies supported by each power level Maximum Number of Multi Flashes Hz Power 1 2 3 4 5 ...

Page 29: ...hes in a series you can set up the flash in Multi mode 1 To enter Multi Mode press once and the LCD screen will show and 2 Press until the selection indicator points to the number of flashes i e the value before the hyphen Notes 1 Multi flash is most effective with a highly reflective subject against a dark background 2 Multi flash is not supported at power level higher than 1 4 3 The Multi flash ...

Page 30: ...fter the hyphen 5 Press to increase or to decrease the flash frequency per second 6 To adjust the power level press until the selection indicator points to the power level see Section 8 1 7 To adjust the zoom level press until the selection indicator points to the zoom level see Section 8 2 8 To exit Multi mode press twice to return to the main screen ...

Page 31: ...nd Both Master and Slave units are now in Multi Flash mode 3 On the RF60 Master follow the steps in 11 1 1 to adjust the number of flashes and flash frequency per second Hz The flash frequency will apply to both Master and Slave units in all active groups 4 To exit Multi mode press twice to return to the main screen Notes 1 When the number of flashes is larger than that supported by the power leve...

Page 32: ...RF60 set at power levels higher than 1 4 will only flash once in Multi mode 3 Multi mode and HSS Sympathy mode see Section 11 2 are mutually exclusive options Pressing the button changes the flash modes in the following sequence Normal Flash Multi Flash HSS Sympathy Flash 4 On the RF60 Master Multi mode flashes can only be configured in the Master group The selection will apply to the RF60 Master ...

Page 33: ...efore different than that of a normal flash 1 The flash output power in HSS Sympathy mode is different from that of a normal flash To compensate 1EV exposure loss in your camera setting you need to increase the power level of a HSS sympathy flash by 2EVs Check the GN table below for comparison PowerLevel GN meter at105mm ISO100 Normal Flash HSS Sympathy 1 1 56 28 1 2 40 23 1 4 28 20 1 8 20 17 1 16...

Page 34: ...ver changing the shutter speed you also need to adjust the flash power level if you want to maintain the same contribution of the flash Using the RF60 in HSS Sympathy Mode To use RF60 in HSS sympathy mode you need a TTL flash with HSS Auto FP capability 1 Mount the TTL flash on the camera s hot shoe 2 Switch the RF60 Master to HSS sympathy mode by pressing the button twice The center row of the LC...

Page 35: ... The optimum delay time that works with a high shutter speed should be within the range of 10ms to 100ms Setting the Delay Time for HSS SympathyMode Consider the following when setting the delay time for the HSS sympathy mode Flash mode on TTL flash if the TTL flash is set to M Manual mode the delay time should be within the range of 0 10ms If the TTL flash is set to TTL mode you would have to set...

Page 36: ... is very useful in capturing pre flash signals that are being emitted earlier than the flash sync Setting the pre flash optical trigger with the delay timer see Section 11 4 can be used to set the exact time for the flash to start firing Two optical trigger modes S1 and S2 are available for selection S1 FIRST Triggering on the first pre flash or on the main flash if there is no pre flash S2 MAIN I...

Page 37: ...s been turned on 3 To turn off the optical trigger press the button and then the buttons until the text area shows OPT SL Use the or button to choose OFF Press or to confirm Delay Timer Every RF60 is equipped with a delay timer that can be configured in either Master or Slave mode The delay timer delays the trigger response for the time period set If you wish to fire the flash a bit later than the...

Page 38: ...rom 1ms to 999ms i e close to 1 second 3 Pressing and holding the or button will automatically speed up the key effect and make faster changes Pressing and holding will reset the delay time to 0 4 The delay timer indicator will show on the main screen status bar whenever a delay timer has been set 5 To turn off the delay timer follow steps 1 3 to set the delay time to 0 The delay timer indicator w...

Page 39: ... backlight duration press and press until the text area shows BK LGT Then use the or buttons to choose from OFF 5sec 15sec or ON 2 The option ON will instruct the LCD to be on constantly 3 Press to confirm and configure other items or press to confirm and leave Sleep Timer To conserve energy when you forget to switch off the RF60 after use the sleep timer will switch the RF60 into sleep mode after...

Page 40: ...and leave 4 To wake up RF60 from sleep mode press any button once Quick Flash The quick flash option enables firing the RF60 even though the flash capacitor is not fully charged However the flash output may be lower than specified on the RF60 menu Enable the quick flash option when speed is more important than the accuracy of power output Disable the quick flash option when accuracy is your primar...

Page 41: ... built in buzzer of the RF60 can also notify you when the flash is ready according to your custom settings Choose from the following options to best fit your shooting requirements OFF RF60 does not beep in any circumstance Fn1 QCK FL Quick Flash RF60 beeps when the flash is ready to emit light albeit not yet at the specified level Fn2 READY Full Charge RF60 beeps when the flash is ready to fire at...

Page 42: ...option press and press until the text area shows BEEP Then use the or buttons to choose from OFF Fn1 QCK FL Fn2 READY or Fn3 WARN 2 When choosing the options with the or buttons the abbreviation for each option will be shown in the text area 3 Press to confirm and configure other items or press to confirm and leave 4 The beep indicator will appear in the status bar whenever Fn1 Fn2 or Fn3 is selec...

Page 43: ...and RF60 flash can trigger and command each other in either Master or Slave mode 13 1 1 RF60 as Slave With a built in Cactus V6 RF module the Cactus RF60 can be remotely commanded and triggered by the V6 TX 13 1 V6 V6 CAMERA RF60 V5 EMITTER SENSOR V5 Note Cactus V6 can specify up to 1 10EV stop and communicate it with the RF60 however the RF60 would only display the nearest 1 3EV stop ...

Page 44: ...n the camera s hot shoe and let it trigger and command other RF60 Slave and V6 RX units While the RF60 Master can control the power level and zoom level of the RF60 Slave zoom control is not supported when working with V6 RX units Check the table below for the features supported in each pairing option TX Master RX Slave Note V6 RF60 Triggering Slaves RX in 4 groups Changing the power level and zoo...

Page 45: ...RF60 can work in pairs with the Cactus V5 or LV5 They all share the same 2 4GHz 16 channel platform Since the V5 and LV5 do not support groups and remote power control the RF60 Master will trigger all V5s independent of which group it considers active Similarly both the V5 and LV5 will trigger any RF60 Slave independent of what group it has been assigned to 14 External Power The external power sou...

Page 46: ...tor When your flash is new or when it has not been used for a certain period of time the capacitor may have lost its full potential to store electricity When this occurs you can form the capacitor as follows 1 Switch on the RF60 in Local mode with fresh batteries 2 Adjust the flash to full power 3 Allow the ready light to glow 15 seconds to 20 seconds first 4 Fire the flash using the button 5 Repe...

Page 47: ... program will then recognize the connected RF60 and start the up grade Please visit www cactus image com rf60 html for more information 17 Optional Accessories 1 Cactus Wireless Flash Transceiver V6 2 Cactus Wireless Flash Transceiver V5 3 Cactus Wireless Laser Trigger LV5 4 Cactus 60cm Foldable Soft Box CB 60 5 Cactus Diffuser Cap DC 60 6 Cactus Mini USB cable MU 1 7 Cactus External Battery Pack ...

Page 48: ...re installed in wrong direction Install batteries in the correct direction Batteries are nearly depleted or have already been used up Replace them with a new set of AA batteries Temperature warning signal appears in LCD screen Too many flashes have been fired in a short interval Allow the flash to rest for at least 15 minutes 2 Flash power turns off by itself SYMPTOM POSSIBLE CAUSE SOLUTION LCD tu...

Page 49: ...et Slave flash to the same channel as the Master flash Group mismatch Make sure the group assigned to the Slave flash has been activated on the Master flash Background radio interference Set all units to another channel Change setup location as interference may come from other equipment in the surrounding area Master and Slave flashes are placed too close to each other Place the Master and Slave f...

Page 50: ...mer or adjust the delay timer to correct sync time 6 Flash misfires Unexpected flash firing SYMPTOM POSSIBLE CAUSE SOLUTION Local or Master flash misfires Poor hot shoe connection Adjust tightness of hot shoe contact Clean the RF60 s hot shoe contact with a clean cloth Slave flash misfires Background radio interference Set all units to another channel Change setup location as interference may come...

Page 51: ...A Federal Communications Commission FCC Radio Frequency Interference Statements This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation This equipment generates uses and can radiate radio frequency energy ...

Page 52: ...receiver is connected Consult the dealer or an experienced radio TV technician for help HARVEST ONE LIMITED AND THE MANUFACTURER OF THIS WIRELESS FLASH IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY RADIO OR TV INTERFERENCE CAUSED BY UNAUTHORIZED MODIFICATIONS TO THIS EQUIPMENT SUCH MODIFICATIONS COULD VOID THE USER AUTHORITY TO OPERATE THE EQUIPMENT FCC ID VAAFLARF60 MADE IN CHINA This device complies with part 15 o...

Page 53: ...uct must be disposed separately at the end of the product cycle Do not dispose thisproduct with other municipal waste 20 Warranty The limited warranty set forth below is given by Harvest One Limited with respect to the Cactus brand Wireless Flash purchased with this limited warranty Your Cactus Wireless Flash RF60 or other contents when delivered to you in new condition in its original container i...

Page 54: ...n Harvest One Limited or authorized dealers d Without limiting the foregoing water damage sand corrosion damage battery leakage dropping the flash scratches abrasions or damage to the body or damage to the hot shoe or PC cables will be presumed to have resulted from misuse abuse or failure to operate the Wireless Flash as described in the operating instructions NO IMPLIED WARRANTY INCLUDING ANY IM...

Page 55: ...LEGED DAMAGE WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING YOU ASSUME ALL RISK AND LIABILITY FOR LOSS DAMAGE OR INJURY TO YOU AND YOUR PROPERTY AND TO OTHERS AND THEIR PROPERTY ARISING OUT OF USE OR MISUSE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE CACTUS WIRELESS FLASH NOT CAUSED DIRECTLY BY THE NEGLIGENCE OF HARVEST ONE LIMITED THIS LIMITED WARRANTY SHALL NOT EXTEND TO ANYONE OTHER THAN THE ORIGINAL PURCHASER OF HARVEST ONE L...

Page 56: ...www cactus image com ...