Hi folks -
I'm on the ferry home from France after a fairly exhausting trip down to Arca-Swiss. All told my travel time on this expedition was more than 50 hours, although it being a ferry I was able to sleep for the two nights involved.
For all that, I had three and a half hours at their facility before having to race back to Cherbourg. I wish it had been longer, Martin Vogt is a fantastic guy and very passionate about his products. I didn't get a chance to see the factory - there simply wasn't time.
I asked him again about the website and why it's taken them this long to get it online. The stated reason was that they wanted to do the job themselves, in-house. This is very much a family business - Martin himself checks all lenses for correct calibration before they leave the factory - so I can understand the desire to build the website without reliance on an outside contractor.
It's been delayed because the person assigned to the job had to go on leave for personal reasons and the project stalled. Martin was somewhat sheepish about this, as the whole idea of doing it in-house was to make it a faster and easier process.
However, the website is in a state close to completion - Martin showed it to me and it looks to be well-designed and thorough, although I only had a few moments to see it.
My opinion is that even though they're working on it, this project should have been started and finished years ago. It does show a certain short-sightedness that it's taken this long. I don't for a moment believe that - as some people in this thread as well as others have hinted - that they're in any way elitist about it. Just that they were short-sighted and chose to put it on the back burner.
As to the comment of photographers being one-man operations and having websites - a photographer's website is a lot easier to maintain than one where many different physical products are produced, and most/all of which can be used together. It does really produce a staggering weight of images required for any change or addition to the line. This isn't an excuse for not having done something before now, but it's certainly not a trivial operation to produce and maintain a good comprehensive site of this type. Take it from someone who knows, having worked in that sector for many years.
Anyway, due to time constraints, I didn't visit ALPA as planned. I visited Arca-Swiss instead as I felt that it was the system that most closely fit my requirements - the fact the camera has tilt and that they're based in the EU were big considerations (I didn't have to pay VAT, which would have been necessary if I'd bought from Switzerland). I left there yesterday with an RM3D and Schneider 24mm & 35mm Apo-Digitar XL lenses. I sort of took Martin by surprise as he didn't expect me to buy then and there (as he knew of my original intention to compare with ALPA). As a result, they didn't have an E-Module I could take with me, nor was there a Cube ready. Those will follow me by courier.
As far as focusing the camera goes, it's really not feasible to do so on the ground glass and they don't recommend you try. Focusing is done entirely by distance measurement, and the extremely precise helical focus ring makes this a pleasure. So the E-Module and/or a laser rangefinder are really required. The reason the E-Module is ultrasonic rather than a laser is twofold - primarily it's a safety issue (Martin had visions of portrait photographers blinding their subjects with a laser), but secondarily it's because on a bright day it's difficult or impossible to see the red dot of a laser pointer in the landscape.
I'm in two minds about the E-Module. Having seen it in operation, you can make up for the lack of spot readings (it has a 15 degree arc of measurement) by scanning it across the composition - this will show you the range of distances involved. I'll use it for a while by itself, but I see a laser rangefinder in my future to supplement it.
The Cube was something of an impulse buy. Martin was using one for his demonstrations of the camera and I was hugely impressed by the ease of use and precision it offered. It's also a beautiful piece of engineering from an aesthetic point of view. My one concern was how it would fare in dusty or sandy environments and he said it wouldn't be an issue. Because the moving parts are not spinning fast like an engine, and that it's made of hard metal - there's really no damage that sand can do to it. And because in the fully open position all gear meshes are accessible, it's trivially easy to clean if sand does get in the works. Just hose it down.
One problem I see is that my Really Right Stuff L plates are about 1mm wider than the standard Arca plate, so with the Cube adjusted properly for those plates, the RM3D might not be fully secured. This could be a real pain, although I won't be able to ascertain how much of a problem it is until the Cube is delivered. At worst I'll have to ditch the RRS plates in favour of Arca plates - which I don't want to do.
What's the point of having a standard plate design if third parties don't stick to the specification? Anyone from RRS care to comment?
Anyway, that's the long and short of it. I'll be posting a review online in the weeks to come after I've had a chance to use the camera in the field. I'm off to Iceland next week on my
volcano workshop, for which I plan to use the RM3D as my primary camera - so there'll be plenty of real-world use to talk about.
Cheers,
Peter
