Arca Swiss Focus 'Creep'

[Scott Rosenberg]

good day...

i have owned 2 arca swiss f-line cameras and noticed a similar phenomenon on both. i shall refer to this strange behaviour as focus creep. i am wondering if it is my actions that are to blame of if this is something inherent to all f-line cameras. i had gotten into the habit of focusing with the rear standard. however, i noticed that when i lock down the rear standard to ensure that nothing moves when the holder is inserted, the standard will creep, or move slightly, as the locking knob locks down. as a workaround, i now rough focus with the rear, lock the rear standard, and fine focus with the front, which i then leave unlocked.

just wondering if any of you F-Line users have experienced this and what you have come up as a suitable workaround.

regards,
scott

[Leonard Evens]

I don't know about the F-Line, but my camera has a bit of wobble in the standard when the knob is not tightened down. Tightening down can shift the position because of the wobble. You should be able to detect such wobble by pushing back and forth on the standard. My solution is to tighten down so that the standard can just barely move but doesn't bind.

[Steve Hamley]

Scott,

I looked at an Arca at Quality Camera years ago and noted the same phenomenon. The locking knobs are not really locking knobs - there's supposed to be enough friction to hold things in place without using the knobs as conventional locking knobs. Arca calls them self-locking I think. I confirmed this "focus creep" with Tom Westbrook, who's a long-time Arca user. I may still have the e-mail around somewhere.

In Jack Dykinga's book "Large Format Nature Photography", he recommends rechecking the GG after shooting to make sure nothing's changed. I thought this an odd remark at the time, but it's understandable if the camera standards are not truly locked down 100% because focus shifts if you try. It doesn't seem to be much of a deal with Arca users and probably isn't a problem - but apparently you can't use it like a camera with conventional locking knobs.

Steve

[Scott Rosenberg]

hey steve and leonard... thanks for the inputs. the standards do in fact hold their position pretty well without locking them at all. however, before inserting the film holder, i always locked the rear standard... wasn't comfortable doing it without tightening it. once i observed this focus creep, i started to lock the rear standard and simply focus with the front and then not lock it at all. even when tilted, the front standard has enough tension not to go anywhere under the weight of my lenses.

i was just wondering how others deal with the arca focus creep.

[Steve Hamley]

Scott,

I think you've got it down; fine focus with the front standard. However, this technique won't work if you are using long lenses like 19" or 24" lenses that are common with 8x10. You can't REACH the front standard while focusing.

Well, I'm off to Roan Mountain, so wish me luck!

Steve

[Scott Rosenberg]

safe travels and good light steve! be sure to post some images when you get back!

[Steve_5645]

The focusing creep comes from the way the locking knob works. After you focus, you have to hold the focusing knob while you lock the standard with the knob on the opposite side of the rail. Otherwise, locking the standard actually causes it move forward a bit.

I've had an Arca Swiss for years and have always just worked around the problem, but seeing it here actually makes me wonder why, on such an expensive and otherwise well built camera.

[Lloyd Lim]

What I do is set the tension on the focus so that I get just the right amount of locking down even when focusing. In this way, I do not have to further tighten the focussing and introduce any focus creep. Once I have focussed properly, the standard is in place, even when inserting a grafmatic.

[Richard Schlesinger]

I have a fairly recent vintage Arca Discovery and was much distressed to read the foregoing posts. So I ran to ge my Arca out and set up to see what the problem is and how to work around it, as the Discovery lacks the ability for focusing with the front except in a relatively rough manner. The focus lock on my Discovery seems to work perfectly. While I can fairly easily push the rear standad around without turning the focus knob, when I lock it down I cannot get it to move short of using a hammer (I haven't tried that as yet!) Is the newer model different -improved?

[Dave_5647]

I too can confirm Scott's original observations about "focus creep". It bit me on the butt a couple times last week in Yosemite. I started using the front focus knob for final focus after composing and locking down the rear standard. Apparently the friction of the locking collar is just enough to move the focus knob as you tighten it down. However, since you can lock the focus knobs by turning the locking collar either "in" or "out", I'll have to confirm if the "creep" happens using both locking methods.