Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

This isn't my real job but it is becoming one. I have Nikon's and have a wonderful Einstein with the Vagabond Mini, beauty dish, etc. This works great for everything except the events I do. Shooting many high school and college commencements and a few weddings limits using the Einstein on location.
I recently purchased a Quantum Turbo 3 battery to use with my Nikon SB-800. I love the quick recycle time but the lighting could be better. I recently rented a Quantum T5D-R for a wedding and was impressed with the range and quality of light it generated over my SB-800 and SB-600's. I'll never shoot another wedding that under powered.
I am seriously considering buying a T5D-R with the QTTL for the hot shoe but am really confused as to how the Q Flash will "play" with my Einstein in situations where I can use both, such as high school senior photo shoots. This is critical that I can use both together on occasion.
Does anyone have experience with this mix and steer me in the right direction. There is FreeXwire, Paul Buff, Pocket Wizard, and then Nikon's option (which isn't one).
If I go with a Quantum T5D-R on a bracket what do I need to trigger the Einstein in a fast, pure, clean, easy, simple solution without a lot of cables, setup, etc.?
Thanks to all for any response.

The Einstein is not an ETTL lamp. With that understood, you can use the CST. It comes with a a pc adapter cord, so you do not have to mount it in a camera shoe. Plug a CSXCV into the Einstein, or simply trigger the Einstein(s) with the optical slave. Einsteins with VML's are nice for keying backgrounds (to eliminate shadows from an on axis flash). Put a Cyber Commander in your shirt pocket and strategically clamp mount "steins" with grids in the reflectors. Use a 2 or 300 mm lens and be less intrusive. ETTL is waaaay over rated. It never takes more than 3 cliks to get it right.

In these events, I would recommend avoiding an optical trigger method, as the preflash of your QFlash will trigger the Einstein too early, as would any other photographer's flash. It is possible, but can be tricky to mix TTL and manual flash. If the manual flash is lighting the background or to essentially bring up the ambient, then you should be OK. If one is for key and one for fill, then it can be trickier. If not done properly, it can lead to over exposure, as the preflash will base its calculation without the manual flash's contribution taken into consideration. In any case, the camera should be set manually, especially aperture and ISO.

The TD5r can be used as a full manual strobe, remotely, and with the right cable, you can use a CSRB receiver. Then you have a fully remote set up that will play right in with your Einsteins. It is, of course, fully manual.

If you do want to mix it in while using the auto modes of the Qflash, then that will be problematic.

Which causes me to wonder out loud: I have Lumopro 160s, and they have an optical slave mode that can be switched to ignore ttl preflashes. If there is a third party optical trigger unit that could do the same thing, then this could be easier to do (within the general limitations of optical triggers themselves)

For the money I would buy another Einstein and Mini Vaga and trigger with what ever your favorite radio trigger is I use PW's and MC2's and love the setup