Quantum Radio Slave 4i

ColColt · Jul 4, 2016

Long years ago I use to subscribe to a magazine called "Studio Photography and Design". Looking through an old Nov 1999 copy today I saw so many items in ads that are no longer available. Case in point was the great Quantum Radio slave 4i. I had tow of those and they worked superbly. I used them at weddings, bridal settings, portraits and family reunions without nary a hitch. You mount the sender on the camera and the remote on your light stand, hook it to your lights and they would be triggered by the sender.

An excellent piece of dependable equipment to fire several lights if you wanted that. I don't know what may have happened to Quantum over the years but that sure was a fine piece of gear...so was the Paul Buff White Lightning lights as well.

MartinCrabtree · Jul 4, 2016

QUANTUM is still around and sells a lot of lighting products.

ColColt · Jul 4, 2016

Yep, but the radio slaves are gone...at least the ones I had. Do they still sell the Turbo battery?

MartinCrabtree · Jul 5, 2016

Yes. They sell several batteries in addition to it. Click on the name in bold above and it'll take you to the site.

ColColt · Jul 5, 2016

I see they're still making some good equipment...shame about the Radio slave 4i. I gave it high accolades as it worked dependably as designed. I still have the Quantum Battery 1+ power pack that clipped onto your belt for the Vivitar 283-285 but it won't charge anymore. Probably due to inactivity over the years.

mweintraub · Jul 5, 2016

I wonder if the Radio Slave was over shadowed by the Pocket Wizard system.

If anyone's looking for a battery system, the Godox /Adoram Flashpoint battery (power pack) system is great.

ColColt · Jul 5, 2016

I wonder if the Radio Slave was over shadowed by the Pocket Wizard system.

No idea but I'd be curious about it. I know this, it got me through a lot of weddings and portrait sittings with nary a hitch and worked great. You had four channels you could choose from as to not interfere, nor anyone else interfere with your lights and trigger your setup.

gone · Jul 5, 2016

Now appearing at The Deli Deeva Dive II, Quantum Radio Slave 4i and friends. One nite only, no cover.

Some of the best band names I have ever seen keep cropping up here.

ColColt · Jul 5, 2016

Photogenic
Quantum
Westcott
Art Leather Albums
...just to name a few.

M Carter · Jul 6, 2016

mweintraub said:
I wonder if the Radio Slave was over shadowed by the Pocket Wizard system.

I was indeed. In the early 90's, most of the pro shooters I hired (I was an AD for a major US retailer) used the Quantum, and I used it when I moved to commercial shooting.

The Wizard did kill it for pro shooters though. The Quantum had a cigarette-pack-sized transmitter and limited tech compared to the wizard. You hot-shoe'd the xmitter or clipped it to your belt with a PC cable. Plenty of people would set the camera down and walk away, dragging the camera to the floor (I did it once myself).

I bought a 2nd set on Ebay for $30 recently, since modern tiny transmitters won't fire my RB lenses.

ColColt · Jul 6, 2016

I had two transmitters, one was mounted on the camera, which was on a tripod and I wasn't moving the camera from place to place, but the entire tripod. That was studio or weddings. I had another one on the belt I used to fire the lights, take a reading and back to the camera.

TheFlyingCamera · Jul 6, 2016

ColColt said:
Photogenic
Quantum
Westcott
Art Leather Albums
...just to name a few.

Other than Art Leather Albums (which I don't know about) the others are still around and still making plenty of quality products.

I never used the Quantum Radio Slaves, but in comparison to the PocketWizard setups available today, they are bulky and limited (you can set up multiple channels to trigger multiple flash units remotely with the PocketWizards, and having multiple channels means you don't have to worry so much about someone else's wireless signal of some sort accidentally triggering your strobes out of sequence. And the newest, fanciest versions will also work TTL with at least Canon and Nikon hotshoe flashes when used off-camera (maybe Sony as well, don't recall). That's why the Quantum slaves fell out of use.

ColColt · Jul 6, 2016

You had multiple channels with the 4i as well...four of them, best I recall, A, B, C or D. The Pocket Wizard from your description doesn't do anything the 4i couldn't. No one elses flash would fire your lights if other people were taking pictures of your bride/groom at a wedding. I don't know how they would work today with the digital marvels around but it worked extremely well with the Pentax 6x7 I used it primarily for back then.

TheFlyingCamera · Jul 6, 2016

Today the PocketWizards operate in a different frequency range, so less likely to catch interference. And instead of four channels, you've got 16 (and on some models, 32 iiRC). And you can set groups. It's all very fancy and for most users, overkill.

ColColt · Jul 6, 2016

Sounds like a bit of overkill for sure but, I guess time and technology marches on.

MattKing · Jul 6, 2016

Definitely better than the Wein IR transmitter/receiver I have, which I learned to my amusement I can trigger with my television remote control.

ColColt · Jul 7, 2016

Now there's an interesting phenomena.

M Carter · Jul 7, 2016

ColColt said:
You had multiple channels with the 4i as well...four of them, best I recall, A, B, C or D. The Pocket Wizard from your description doesn't do anything the 4i couldn't. No one elses flash would fire your lights if other people were taking pictures of your bride/groom at a wedding. I don't know how they would work today with the digital marvels around but it worked extremely well with the Pentax 6x7 I used it primarily for back then.

Ehhhh... you had to BUY a trans/receiver set and CHOOSE A, B, C, or D at purchase - and the set was something like $450 in the 90's. If you wanted more receivers, you had to make sure you got the correct letter to match your transmitter. Each pair had 2 switchable channels and a fast/slow switch. (for instance, I bought a "D" set new decades ago, and recently bought another "D" from eBay - I really just wanted another receiver but found a full set for $30 - but I had to dig through all the listings to find another "D").

The Wizard did lots of things the Quantum couldn't do, particularly be small and unobtrusive on your camera, use tiny batteries vs. 9v's and quads of AA's, and had far more channels and features. You could buy more receivers without needing a specific channel. And they had fewer misfires (though the Quantums were pretty dependable). But it was the size and channel features that really sold them.

When ProFoto took over the pro market, many packs had built-in Wizard receivers - by then there was really no other serious pro choice. They didn't destroy Quantum's market for no reason. They were a big leap in technology.

Nowadays, you can get a chinese wireless trigger set for $20 - they actually work pretty well but line-of-sight's a huge issue. (And the ones I've tried won't fire my RB lenses, but will fire from everything else, even 4x5).

mweintraub · Jul 7, 2016

M Carter said:
Nowadays, you can get a chinese wireless trigger set for $20 - they actually work pretty well but line-of-sight's a huge issue. (And the ones I've tried won't fire my RB lenses, but will fire from everything else, even 4x5).

Which triggers did you have that didn't fire from the RB?

ColColt · Jul 7, 2016

I had two receivers, both Channel B, and two transmitters-one for the belt to test my setup and f-stop with the flash meter. I bought that back around 1993-95, IIRC but don't recall the cost. It didn't' matter. It was something needed and the best on the market. No problems ever with it firing as intended. I still have the boxes but no price on them. I sold them long ago after I stopped doing weddings and studio portraits.

M Carter · Jul 8, 2016

mweintraub said:
Which triggers did you have that didn't fire from the RB?

One of those Amazon/Cowboy Studio cheapies, 4 channels via DIP switch, very tiny, something like $20-$25. Works reasonably well with most of my gear, the occasional no-fire - you really have to make sure the receiver is in good line-of-sight, vs. fallen behind a pack on the floor. I usually rig it up to a small stand and get it in the air. But... it won't work with my RB lenses. Maybe one in a dozen actuations will trigger it, but only at 1/60th or slower and only on one or two of my lenses. Someone on a different thread postulated that the RB synch setup is big and clunky and could have some corrosion. But they fire every time with the Quantum. I haven't tried a Wizard since I've never bought one.

mweintraub · Jul 8, 2016

M Carter said:
One of those Amazon/Cowboy Studio cheapies, 4 channels via DIP switch, very tiny, something like $20-$25. Works reasonably well with most of my gear, the occasional no-fire - you really have to make sure the receiver is in good line-of-sight, vs. fallen behind a pack on the floor. I usually rig it up to a small stand and get it in the air. But... it won't work with my RB lenses. Maybe one in a dozen actuations will trigger it, but only at 1/60th or slower and only on one or two of my lenses. Someone on a different thread postulated that the RB synch setup is big and clunky and could have some corrosion. But they fire every time with the Quantum. I haven't tried a Wizard since I've never bought one.

I've used the CTR-301P with my RZ without issues. It's also spec'd to sync up to 1/500s. I recently got into the Godox system and tested it with RZ, but not with high shutter speeds.

houstonphotographics · Jul 13, 2016

Interesting this is a recent thread... I JUST pulled out my 4i trigger and 2 receivers (all channel D) last night to make sure they functioned. Still working, although one of my synch cables needs to be replaced from one of my flash units .I am still thinking about getting PW's instead, and letting go of this setup.

ColColt · Jul 13, 2016

If it's still working, why?

mweintraub · Jul 13, 2016

ColColt said:
If it's still working, why?

If you can't expand the system, you'll have to swap anyway.

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