What's With 141mm Standards on Arca Swiss F-Lines?

[Pete Roody]

Hi,

Does anyone know if the 140 Standard was designed to accept Sinar boards?

[Emmanuel BIGLER]

Does anyone know if the 140 Standard was designed to accept Sinar boards?

Peter. I do not think so. New 140mm A/S boards differ from Sinar's. Whether an adapting board could be possible or not is an open question.
With 171mm boards you could easily adapt most existing boards including Sinar's. In order to adapt a 140mm Sinar board to a new 140mm A/S board you would have to loose some wide-angle capabilities, loosing one or two centimetres of bellows compression by fixing the Sinar board in front of the A/S board with an intermediate holding system. This is probably not an issue for long focal lengths ; however for best wide-angle movement capabilities with short focal lengths, I would use original A/S boards, either the new 140 mm or the traditional A/S 110mm for which a 110->140 adapting board already exists ; or the new circular 100 mm bayonet board that fits both 110 and 140 A/S boards.

[Scott Fleming]

Thanks again Glen and Emanuel,

You two are always answering my questions. Don't know what I'd do without you.

This thread seems as good a place as any to bring up another AS topic on my mind: We all marvel and fume over this company's information blackout. It truly is appaling and they should be ashamed of themselves. It is almost enough to make me turn away from their product. One would naturally think they are hiding something or that they are a company that could go bankrupt at any moment. I've been assured by those in the know this is not true. They are indeed stable and growing.

So the only conclusion I can come to is that they are truly disrespectful and contemptuous of their customers. That is truly a shame. But their product is so exceptional that most of us lay down and take it. Well we may not lay down but we take it. I cannot for the life of me think of a single product other than AS where I would stand for this. I have looked at many products and when I found that they had a poor website and or a general failure to get good info into the marketplace about their product I dropped the idea of patronizing them like a hot rock. It just makes me mad. There are few things in life that piss me off more than disrespect from someone who wants to put their hand in my pocket ... especially when they want to reach as deeply as does this outfit.

Maybe I'll take another look at Sinar after all. I got mad all over again writing about it.

[Frank Petronio]

I hear you Scott. Plus the fact that it is really absurd to pay $3-5000 for a camera that maybe shaves a pound or two off the weight of a less expensive model. Arca's are really a luxury item more than a necessity, so I guess they can get away with lousy marketing as long as we keep encouraging people to buy them.

For $800 you can find a clean Sinar Norma or Linhof monorail and learn how to fold it into a compact package...

[Glenn Kroeger]

While the lack of a web presence if frustrating, I can't agree it arises from a disrespect for customers. I have always found Arca very supportive. They just haven't entered the "web" age. They rely, perhaps too heavily, on tradional support by their dealers. They are also very available by phone. I can always call and get a question answered quickly and precisely. Although not perfect, I will take this company situation over the alternatives of good websites and poor product or no product delivery!

[Scott Fleming]

I hear you Glen. One would think though that they could get a simple cut-sheet out to their distributors of new products that could be photocoppied to prospective buyers. It's an amazing situation however when you see all the word of mouth going around about this camea. Once you search out all the links there is actually very good info out there. All supplied by buyers at no cost to the company.

Frank, I dunno. Have you played with one? It WAS luxurious I have to admit but it was also the most functional LF unit I would care to carry into the field I've ever experienced or can imagine.

[Frank Petronio]

I haven't seen the 141 in person but I have a 171 F-Line and find it hard to fault, other than its size, and even that isn't too bad especially when I can hang a huge Copal 3 5.6 lens off the front without any difficulties - and you can't say that about any of the lighter cameras.

That's the problem I have with Arca-Swiss, their cameras are too damn good it is hard to work up a burr against them, even if they don't communicate very well.

[Pete Roody]

Does anyone know if the 140 Standard was designed to accept Sinar boards?

Peter. I do not think so. New 140mm A/S boards differ from Sinar's.

Thanks Emanuel. I was hoping to hear the opposite (that it was designed for Sinar boards). Many manufacturers (Ebony, Phillips, Canham, etc.) have settled on Sinar and Linhof Tecknica boards as standards for large and small boards. Arca should have done the same. Arca should have also settled on Sinar's bellows frames for their bellows. They could have then concentrated their product line on innovative products that could have also been purchased by Sinar/Horseman users. I believe their leather bellows, long bellows and unique lensboards (such as the 100mm bayonet type) would have been big sellers to owners of other make's of cameras and these sales would have more than offset a loss in sales from Arca users using Sinar products. I just hope they keep supporting their 171 products such as 8x10 bellows.

I have both 4x5 and 8x10 AS cameras and would love a super lightweight 8x10. The Misura would seem like a good bet but their pricing just doesn't seem to justify buying one. Phillips makes a better camera for me, 1/2 the cost and light. Unfortunately, Phillips doesn't have a website either and they are sold out on their 2005 production run. I can wait!

[Frank Petronio]

Working with Linhof boards and Sinar standards would be fantastic, but these are camera companies, not software companies. I'm sure there is a lot of ego involved...

http://www.icon.co.za/~panfield/ The Panfield always seemed like one of the ultimate cameras to me - Sinar parts in a super light body. Shame they aren't popular - has anyone ever actually seen one in the flesh?

[Jonathan Lee]

Does anyone know if AS is planing to make the Discovery format frames 140mm as well? I asked at badger but their Discoveries are still 171mm.