Some questions on the Arca Swiss M-Line Two.

[E_Edwards]

I am thinking of buying the Arca Swiss M-Line 2 for taking on locations where I shoot still life with a digital back. Though I love my Sinar P2, it is a bit heavy to transport. The light weight and robustness of this Arca camera interests me.

A few questions for those who have this camera please:

-Is the Orbix geared? Is the geared mechanism made of metal, and not teflon? Is it self-locking and smooth to operate?

-Can the Orbix knob be moved to the right hand side of the camera? Ditto with the swing knob.

-I assume the swing also happens on the lens axis. Is the swing mechanism precise, geared and self locking, similar to the orbix mechanism on the tilt?

-How do you find the focus mechanism in terms of fine precision adjustments? Does it have quick focus and micro focus on both the front an the back standards, all self locking?

Many thanks.

Edward

[gazwas]

I am thinking of buying the Arca Swiss M-Line 2 for taking on locations where I shoot still life with a digital back. Though I love my Sinar P2, it is a bit heavy to transport. The light weight and robustness of this Arca camera interests me.

A few questions for those who have this camera please:

-Is the Orbix geared? Is the geared mechanism made of metal, and not teflon? Is it self-locking and smooth to operate?

-Can the Orbix knob be moved to the right hand side of the camera? Ditto with the swing knob.

-I assume the swing also happens on the lens axis. Is the swing mechanism precise, geared and self locking, similar to the orbix mechanism on the tilt?

-How do you find the focus mechanism in terms of fine precision adjustments? Does it have quick focus and micro focus on both the front an the back standards, all self locking?

Many thanks.

Edward

I own a M2, my first didital LF camera and been using it for about a month and I'm extreamly impressed with it. So to your questions:

-Yes, the orbix is geared, indented at every 3 degreesand and self locking as are all the movements. The mechanism is indeed made of metal........ Come on, this is Arca Swiss!

- The orbix and swing can't physically be moved to the RHS of the camera but I don't see why you couldn't just reverse the function carrier to achieve this.

- The swing is on the lens axis and indented every 7.5 degrees I think. Very smooth, geared and self locking.

- The focus mechanism is very fine and I can quite easily find focus using it. There is no quick focus like on the Sinar but its not needed IMO. The M2 has a friction adjustment that I set loose to find focus the tighten the friction wheel to fine tune. Again all sef locking.

The M2 is a very well made camera and is a perfect companion to a digital back. I've started to use mine to shoot interiors and its as happy doing that as it is for product shots.

[E_Edwards]

Thank you for your answers, Gazwas.

The reason I would want the Orbix and swing knobs on the right hand side of the camera is that I could then easily reach them with my left arm whilst looking at the Live View on the desk monitor on the right of the set-up.

Looking at pictures of the camera, it looks like it may be possible to simply place the whole front standard facing the other way round, provided its axis is symetric and provided the bellows and lens panel can be fitted on either side of the front standard.

This is something I can clear with the guys at Arca before I place an order.

One thing I would be missing from the Sinar is the facility to rotate the camera around the rail, so I guess I would need some sort of geared base (I don't like ballheads) to make levelling adjustments, clockwise and anticlockwise. I would prefer something as low profile as possible, as I wouldn't want to raise the height of the camera too much. Any ideas? (The Cube seems perfect for this, but it's maybe overkill)

[gazwas]

Hi Edward.

If you mean symetrical being the swing and tilt are based around the centre of the lens axis then I'm pretty sure that is the case. As for reversing the function carrier the method of attachting the bellows is identical to attaching the lens panel so this won't be a problem. The format set can be mounted either way around on the function carrier as I did when I first got my camera so you'll have no problems.  

As for the centre rail, I totally hated this on the Sinar when I shot 5x4 and when you get used to the Arca rail you"ll hate the Sinar way. I use the Manfrotto 405 with mine and I'm very happy with its stability and precision but wished it had the Arca mounting system.  The new Arca D4 geared head looks very impressive though and I might upgrade once Arca get around to finally releasing it.

[E_Edwards]

That's brilliant, thank you Gazwas. I too dislike the central clamp on the Sinar rail. That Arca d4 geared head looks exquisite!

[gazwas]

What I also never liked about the sinar rail was that its round and needed so much force to secure it in the centre clamp. If you then needed a slight adjustment and unclamped the centre everything moved. The flat Arca rail and friction securing method is much friendlier to use.

Yep, the d4 does look great.