Arca Swiss system

welshwizard1971 wrote in post #17939909
To be honest I'd love the branded kit, of course I would, I'm a snob, but the knock off stuff I've bought recently has been a real eye opener, I've bought a macro rail, the arca swiss stuff, three Yongnuo flashes, flash controllers, and it's all been superb, I can't believe how good some of this stuff is. The macro rail cost £20 compared to £300 for the real deal, and it's great, I simply cannot fault the arca swiss stuff, it genuinely oozes quality. It really isn't like me to go cheap, from experience buy cheap buy twice etc, but this stuff, wow...........

Yongnuo's actually more reliable on their transceivers than Pocket Wizard in my experiences. I'm not too into their lenses, those are real knock-offs (at least in form)! I met the new CEO of PW the other day. Hopefully she can breathe some new life into that company!

Which macro rail and arca swiss gear did you get? Is that the same as a nodal rail?

Alveric wrote in post #17939916
Your Royal Snob's club membership is hereby revoked, sir.

Says the guy with German in his sig.

Can I keep the club tie??

I bought a few swiss clamps to test them out, this one I was genuinely impressed by the quality, for £15!

http://www.amazon.co.u​k …oh_aui_detailpa​ge_o01_s00

I can't find the macro rail, it was an ebay purchase, but I did some research and I know the model it was obviously copying was about £200, and it cost less than £20. Not as nice a finish as the clamp above, but function wise, very solid, smooth, confident in it's use, and 4 way as well.

I don't have the time I'd like to devote to my favourite hobby at the moment due to very young kids, and lacking any photography buddies I don't get to play with other peoples kit, so this is very much buying cheap to explore the options and test the water, but I'm finding the water is pretty good with no desire to get out

Few months ago I changed a ballhead because the old one became annoying. I decided to buy new one supporting Arca Swiss system. Additionally, I bought L-bracket plate which is extremely useful, if you like shooting panoramas.

I didn't want to spend a fortune for a small piece of metal plate, so I bought L- bracket plate by Andoer. It costs around £10 and works really well. Branded plates are at least 10 time more expensive.

welshwizard1971 wrote in post #17936368
Just converted my tripods to the Arca swiss system, how did it take me so long to hear about this system, why isn't it an industry standard, why don't people talk about it more? I'#d have changed years ago if I'd known! So much more versatile and logical, and I much prefer the solidity and confidence of tightening everything up myself rather than relying on the Manfrotto quick release clamp, always worried it hasn't worked properly. Very happy I've changed over

I actually never knew that there was anything other than the Arca-Swiss system. The first tripod head I bought works with the system, and so I never saw anything different. In fact, I can't recall ever seeing anything being used out in the field other than the Arca-Swiss thing with the speed plates.

Just what was it that you used before you discovered the Arca-Swiss system?

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Based on a recommendation here for newbies, I started out with a Manfrotto RC2 quick release system. What a disaster.. at least, for me. I ended up converting everything I owned to Arca Swiss. It cost way too much.

Eventually, I bought some RRS gear and I couldn't be happier. It's expensive, but such a pleasure to use.

welshwizard1971 wrote in post #17939879
They're not quite as branded as they could be

I used to be a CNC programmer(machinist). I bought through Ebay an L bracket for my 6D and a couple of mini AS clamps for a project, I think I paid $15(US) for the bracket and about $11 per clamp (all items included free shipping). I am very pleased with the quality (fit & finish) of the Ebay items. At one point I actually made several plates and macro stages for my cameras and even sold some through the Internet, this was back in 1998 or so.

seres wrote in post #17937992
I have several Sunwayfoto items (clamps, rails, etc), and they are high quality. But I didn't know about the Sunwayfoto GH-Pro. Thanks for posting this!

It's discontinued and will be replaced with a new version, no date set.

While i agree sunway makes good products (own several of them) some of their ballhead designs are plane stupid.

CyberDyneSystems wrote in post #17938413
The GH-Pro head mentioned above appears to be unavailable now.

Not if you know where to look. I bought about 4 months ago and at that time I found 4 sellers; 2 on eBay, 1 in Sweden and 1 in Hong Kong. I got mine from YingKee Trading in Mong Kok, HK and they're still selling them. It took about a week to arrive here in New England. I replaced the panning clamp with a RRS clamp and so far it has worked well, although it's not for heavy gear. I agree with your thesis that some familiar Sunwayfoto products are apparently disappearing but I think that's the result of product churn rather than a failing company. Time will tell.

fotopaul wrote in post #18045603
It's discontinued and will be replaced with a new version, no date set.

Yes that wouldn't be a surprise. It's a really blatant copy of the Arca-Swiss D4 and I'm sure Arca-Swiss went after them, as far as I know you can't buy the ballhead in the US. It's entirely possible that Sunwayfoto have ceased manufacture and I was anxious to get one before they ran out. I was surprised to see them still on sale a few minutes ago.

Is there a true Arca-Swiss "standard"?

I got an RRS BH-55 ball head with the quick-release lever and also a RRS QR plate for my 7DII with the Canon battery grip ($70). The QR plate locks in nice and tight, as it should. I also got an Arca-Swiss (says so on the plate) QR plate from Amazon ($53) and while it locks into the ball head just fine, it doesn't seem to lock in with quite the same authority as the RRS plate does. I'm not too worried about it, but I did order the RRS screw-lock plate to replace the quick-release plate for the ball head. Makes me feel better...

stevewf1 wrote in post #18046665
Is there a true Arca-Swiss "standard"?

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In reality there IS NO single, uniform 'standard' for the A-S type components with well specified minimums and maximums of dimensions for plates and locks...so really everyone should be listing products as 'Arca Swiss type mounting', and while the screw-tightened locks are pretty interchangeable, the lever-type locks sometimes will and sometimes will NOT lock sufficiently tight with another brand of plate, as you have discovered.

stevewf1 wrote in post #18046665
Is there a true Arca-Swiss "standard"?

No, there's no generally agreed dimensional standard. The original Arca-Swiss dovetail design was copied by US companies like Acratech, Kirk, RRS and Wimberley. Those copies are dimensionally pretty identical. There are many other US and East Asian companies that also make copies, some of which are identical to the major US manufacturers and some not.

There is a theory that US companies' products are slightly different from the East Asian versions, see this blog post from a couple of years ago. My own experience is that Markins clamps (of which I've used many) are dimensionally very slightly different from the RRS/Wimberley products, and that includes the dovetail in both angle and depth. I've never had an accident, but my own experience lends some credence to the blog post.

I now stick to Acratech, RRS and Wimberley clamps, plates and L-brackets as they're all well made and completely interchangeable.

stevewf1 wrote in post #18046665
Is there a true Arca-Swiss "standard"?

I got an RRS BH-55 ball head with the quick-release lever and also a RRS QR plate for my 7DII with the Canon battery grip ($70). The QR plate locks in nice and tight, as it should. I also got an Arca-Swiss (says so on the plate) QR plate from Amazon ($53) and while it locks into the ball head just fine, it doesn't seem to lock in with quite the same authority as the RRS plate does. I'm not too worried about it, but I did order the RRS screw-lock plate to replace the quick-release plate for the ball head. Makes me feel better...

Yes and No,
There was up until RRS invented the "Arca Compatible" lever release clamp.
Prior to that most "incompatibility" was relegated to a half turn more on the clamp knob.

Perhaps ironically, the one specific "standard" that seems to have evolved is not 100% Arca Swiss, it is Wimberley. Wimberley with it's once unique massive Gimbal head and it's impressive US machine work was making the best most improved Arca plates to use in their heads long before any of the others came on the market. When RRS joined the fray, they adopted the Wimberley standard. As did Kirk soon there after, and so on.

At the time, the Wimberly and Arca's own would work in the same screw clamps, but they were not identical.