I always seem to have a bad habit of being an early adopter of technology, and once again, I just couldn’t help myself. When I heard the Quantum Trio was recently released (it was originally supposed to be released in December), I tried to kid myself. “I’ll wait until it’s out for a little while first ,” I thought. “It’s probably a little buggy still because the release was delayed.” But the coolness was too much to resist.

Here’s what got me here. I recently started using a Qflash 5d-R, which I love as a portable light for weddings and on-location portrait sessions. To trigger the 5d-R, I have used either Cyber Cyncs or Quantum’s Freewire transmitter. Both of these are reliable triggers, but using the Qflash off camera meant exclusively manual mode (which I could deal with) and it was a little difficult to use in combination with a flash on the camera. Yes, Quantum does have an option to send TTL information with their D-adapter, and I could velcro a Freewire to the top of my 580EX II to use them together, but these require a lot of extra wires and are much less elegant than the Trio. The trio brings together these capabilities in a nice on-camera flash.

For those not familiar with the Trio’s capabilities, it is a hot shoe flash–just a bit more powerful than a 580EX II–that offers wireless control of other Quantum Qflashes. It can also trigger non-Quantum strobes with a Freewire receiver. It’s a bit smaller than a 5d-R and requires Quantum external batteries; I tested it with a Turbo SC. Its modes include variations of QTTL, Auto, Manual and Advanced Multi. I haven’t used the auto mode yet (which uses the light sensor on the front of the Qflashes), but I did experiment with QTTL and Advanced Multi quite a bit. The QTTL modes will let you set up lighting patterns in a variety of different ways: QTTL on just the Trio on-camera, QTTL with ratios between the Trio and remote Qflashes, and QTTL on just the remote flashes. While it’s a little more complicated, I found Advanced Multi mode very useful. It will let you do any combination of QTTL, Auto, and Manual settings on the Trio and remote flashes. With all of these modes, you can adjust the settings of remote flashes right from the on-camera trio. There is also a very convenient Program mode that lets you store up to 8 different configurations. As a wedding photographer, I can see myself using these preprogrammed settings a lot. Manual settings for portraits, QTTL when either I or my subjects are moving quickly.

The images below were created with two different variations of Advanced Multi mode, both stored as settings in the Program Mode.

I created this image with the 5d-R and a shoot through umbrella. The manual settings for the 5d-R and triggering were controlled by the Trio, which itself did not fire.

My daughter was very patient posing for me as I played with my new toy this weekend.

For this image, the Trio was set to fire the 5d-R in TTL mode. The Trio also fired on camera in TTL mode at -2EV for fill.

Overall, my first impressions of the Trio are very positive.

Pros:

• Great light from the Trio.
• Excellent integration with remote Qflashes. It’s easy to adjust remote flashes from the camera.
• Option for TTL when I want it. If find Quantum’s TTL to be reliable.
• I haven’t tried this yet, but it will also fire strobes set up as room lights with a Firewire receiver on the strobe.
• Quick recycle time. I have two Turbo SC’s I’ll be using it with, and it’s quick and powerful. Some may consider an extternal battery a disadvantage, but I already use Turbo SC’s with my 580′s, so this isn’t an issue for me.

Cons:

• Expense. They are expensive even if they do have Quantum’s QTTL and Freewire system built in.
• Size. They are bigger than a 580EX II.
• Some firmware issues still need to be worked out. While the Trio can do high speed sync, it won’t be able to do HSS with remote Trios until a firmware update later in this spring. The Trio has also locked up on me occasionally in Advanced Multi Mode. Firing a shot from the camera clears it. My LCD also flickers a bit (don’t know if this is just with my Trio or just the way these things work). Quantum was closed today because of the storm, but I’ll be calling them tomorrow to get their take on this.

The Verdict: So far, so good. I love the light it produces by itself, and it makes using my Qflash off-camera a breeze. It will definitely make photographing weddings and events much easier for me. I will be using it for a wedding next weekend, and I will report back after giving it a full workout.