Arca Swiss Support in the Americas

[JoeKitchen]

I was recently talking to a salesman about getting an Arca and his complaint was that the service and support in the USA does not exsist, especially compared to Alpa. Now I personally believe Arca to superior to Alpa, and this guy is an Alpa distributor so I do not know where the merits of his comments are, but it is an important question. 

How do you Arca users in the Americas feel about Arca's support?  If you needed a part or repair, how confident are you it could be gotten done in a timely fashion? 

[JonathanBenoit]

I'll chime in.
I've had talks with a couple dealers about Arca cameras in the past. I think your best bet is to find a dealer that has many years dealing with Arca. For instance, Capture Integration doesn't seem to need or want to carry Arca-Swiss cameras. For some reason they are aligned with Cambo. I hope this changes because of the obvious superiority of the m line and r line cameras. I think dealers have been a little less familiar with their cameras. View/Tech cameras are relatively small niche too. It seems most dealers have a focus on slr type. It's a similar story for rentals. I think it is still impossible to rent either one of those cameras in the US. I have no idea why.

[JonathanBenoit]

Related questin:
Did I read that mounting existing copal lenses into the helical focus mount is $1000 per lens?

[ChristopherBarrett]

I believe that's about what I paid.  Same or more for Cambo and Alpa mounting.

[Doug Peterson]

I've had talks with a couple dealers about Arca cameras in the past. I think your best bet is to find a dealer that has many years dealing with Arca. For instance, Capture Integration doesn't seem to need or want to carry Arca-Swiss cameras. For some reason they are aligned with Cambo. I hope this changes because of the obvious superiority of the m line and r line cameras. I think dealers have been a little less familiar with their cameras. View/Tech cameras are relatively small niche too. It seems most dealers have a focus on slr type. It's a similar story for rentals. I think it is still impossible to rent either one of those cameras in the US. I have no idea why.

In the past we have found Arca-Swiss to be less easy to deal with Cambo regarding purchasing, shipping timelines, repairs, technical questions, etc. It also can't be understated how much of a stumbling block it is for them not to have a website. However at Photokina we (Dave Gallagher, owner of Capture Integration, and I) met with Arca-Swiss and feel confident now that some of our earlier concerns have been addressed and that Arca is striving to be as responsive, flexible, and open as some of it's competitors.

As a consequence we've ordered some demo items for further testing/evaluation and expect several sales in the next two months.

Also I don't know about "obvious superiority" - the RM3Di has some big (distinctive) advantages over the Cambo Wide RS and other options. The e-Module and it's ability to accept a calibration value to account for minute (but important) differences between specific backs, and then provide a digital-oriented DOF calculation without effort is really stellar and in many ways exceeds any other option out there including live-preview Canon/Nikon for consistent establishment of sharp infinity while taking advantage of the increase in DOF provided by hyperfocal focusing. The forward/backward compatibility of many of the accessories in the AS line is also stellar. The viewfinder is very likely best-in-class. Etc Etc.

Likewise however the Cambo Wide RS (and other options) have their distinctive advantages. No reason to get carried away and say that any given line has "clear superiority" (except for saying that it has "clear superiority" for your specific needs/wants). Each has their advantages and disadvantages.

See also:
http://www.captureintegration.com/2010/09/21/hands-on-the-new-arca-swiss-rm3di/



Doug Peterson (e-mail Me)
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