The New Hotness

[CBarrett]

Well, the Rm3d has arrived this afternoon and I have to say, it's as lovely as I remember from working with the demo.  The factory was kind enough to fabricate a cold shoe adapter for me to sit atop the VarioFinder mount and give me a place to put my Radio Slave.  One of the things I love about the R is it's ability to swap lenses with my M Line 2.  

It came with the Schneider 35 and I also purchased their R Mount to 110mm plate adapter.  When mounting the 35mm in this plate, the existing recess of its R mount plate allows the 35 to be focused on The M2's sliding back with no issues.  Brilliant.

Martin also included one of their brand new L Brackets for dslr.  If you haven't seen it yet, the body consist of dual rails that slide within the mounting plates, allowing the bracket length to be adjusted along both axis.

The R sits beautifully atop my new Cube Head and I can't wait to get more lenses fitted so that it can get a proper workout.  Now I just need some down time.

Cheers,

CB

[DanielStone]

damn Chris,

you're a lucky bloke. Gettin all this sweet gear. Well, we all know you work your ass off for it, and as you state on your website "photographers get gadgets, I like that". I like that part too .

more soldiering on with my f2 and epn. what works works, but I don't have the budget; nor the credit limit, or the experience yet to warrant a p65+ and a slew of digi lenses.

one day, one day

cheers!

-Dan

[HarryHoffman]

Any pics to drool over

[Harold Clark]

Well, the Rm3d has arrived this afternoon and I have to say, it's as lovely as I remember from working with the demo.  The factory was kind enough to fabricate a cold shoe adapter for me to sit atop the VarioFinder mount and give me a place to put my Radio Slave.  One of the things I love about the R is it's ability to swap lenses with my M Line 2.  

It came with the Schneider 35 and I also purchased their R Mount to 110mm plate adapter.  When mounting the 35mm in this plate, the existing recess of its R mount plate allows the 35 to be focused on The M2's sliding back with no issues.  Brilliant.

Martin also included one of their brand new L Brackets for dslr.  If you haven't seen it yet, the body consist of dual rails that slide within the mounting plates, allowing the bracket length to be adjusted along both axis.

The R sits beautifully atop my new Cube Head and I can't wait to get more lenses fitted so that it can get a proper workout.  Now I just need some down time.

Cheers,

CB

Chris,

I am curious as to the lens mounting system on the Rm3d. As I understand it, focussing is done via the helicoid on the camera, therefore eliminating the need for each lens to have its own. Is that correct? This design should theoretically reduce the cost of lens mounts compared to some of the other manufacturers.

Harold

[Steve Hendrix]

Chris,

I am curious as to the lens mounting system on the Rm3d. As I understand it, focussing is done via the helicoid on the camera, therefore eliminating the need for each lens to have its own. Is that correct? This design should theoretically reduce the cost of lens mounts compared to some of the other manufacturers.

Harold

This is true. Compared to a Cambo RS, an Arca RM3D system may wind up costing about the same, depending on how many lenses you ordered (and which ones), as well as accessories, etc.


Steve Hendrix

[CBarrett]

Actually, the lens I bought with the Rm3d, Schneider's 35mm Digitar XL priced out the same as in Cambo mount, still less than Alpa?  It cost about $1k US to have existing lenses mounted and I just sent my 55mm and 70mm Rodenstocks today.  Martin mentioned that my Schneider 43mm arrived at Arca yesterday (Yippy).

So... take my 70mm... I bought that from Badger at $1550.  Add 1000 for mounting.  $2550.  The Cambo goes for $3200 and the Alpa goes for about that too.  Seems like I did well, there.  This stuff is all expensive enough that I just bought what I'm most comfortable working with.  I don't believe there are any real bargains in the world of MFDB shooting.

Cheers,
CB

[JoeKitchen]

Actually, the lens I bought with the Rm3d, Schneider's 35mm Digitar XL priced out the same as in Cambo mount, still less than Alpa?  It cost about $1k US to have existing lenses mounted and I just sent my 55mm and 70mm Rodenstocks today.  Martin mentioned that my Schneider 43mm arrived at Arca yesterday (Yippy).

So... take my 70mm... I bought that from Badger at $1550.  Add 1000 for mounting.  $2550.  The Cambo goes for $3200 and the Alpa goes for about that too.  Seems like I did well, there.  This stuff is all expensive enough that I just bought what I'm most comfortable working with.  I don't believe there are any real bargains in the world of MFDB shooting.

Cheers,
CB

Pretty cool, got to hand it to the people at Arca.  And your getting the new 43mm, I have been dieing to see images taken with it.  Can you post any along with some 100% crops?  

Also, I see you have a Arca Cube, do you think it is worth the investment?  It looks like a nice head, but its so expensive.  Also, the knobs look small, does that ever make it difficult to use?

[Harold Clark]

Actually, the lens I bought with the Rm3d, Schneider's 35mm Digitar XL priced out the same as in Cambo mount, still less than Alpa?  It cost about $1k US to have existing lenses mounted and I just sent my 55mm and 70mm Rodenstocks today.  Martin mentioned that my Schneider 43mm arrived at Arca yesterday (Yippy).

So... take my 70mm... I bought that from Badger at $1550.  Add 1000 for mounting.  $2550.  The Cambo goes for $3200 and the Alpa goes for about that too.  Seems like I did well, there.  This stuff is all expensive enough that I just bought what I'm most comfortable working with.  I don't believe there are any real bargains in the world of MFDB shooting.

Cheers,
CB

I presume the mounting by Arca involves calibrating each lens for focus accuracy due to the helicoid system. Otherwise it seems you could just mount in a lens board and slap it on a view camera, using the bellows to focus.

Harold

[CBarrett]

I presume the mounting by Arca involves calibrating each lens for focus accuracy due to the helicoid system. Otherwise it seems you could just mount in a lens board and slap it on a view camera, using the bellows to focus.

Harold

Yes, all lenses are mounted in a small flat board that then gets mounted in the tube that holds them at the correct focal distance from the sensor.  This is calibrated lens by lens to their helical focus system.  For view camera mounting you remove the lens from the tube and insert it in the R Mount adapter board...  I'll do extensive photos and a full review at my blog when things slow down a bit.

CB

[archivue]

calibration is expensive because it includes :

a set of two calibrated tubes (one is to be remove when you are using the rotaslide)
so at the end you have 5 mounts (1 on the lensboard itself, 1 female + 1 male / tube)

they also change the lever, and the sync plug

and the calibrated round lensboard.

[NROCH]

I managed to get hold of one and use for 3 weeks last month. Absolute joy to work with, so much so that I will be switching to it from my f-line metric. In fact, I will be switching to the RL3D, so that I can have tilt or swing without having to rotate the camera, and also a 5-10mm extra shift movements.

I was at the factory with Marc last year and had a quick play with them. The RL3d is actually only about 1 inch bigger in size. I was looking at the m-line two for a while, and perhaps if funds allow then I will get one of those somewhere down the line. The R-line cameras are such a great way of working on location, very good for interior work I found, and for landscape work you can find infinity in no time. I generally shoot untethered, only doing so with lighting setups. I also found that the once the DB is on, its just stays on and you just switch lenses and shoot...pretty much!

So, I've got an f-line metric for sale if anyone is interested. exactly one year old. I'm based in London.

N