Hi there,

I'm in the process of buying an Arca Swiss F Metric 8x10 with orbix micrometric to
replace my 1960's Sinar Norma 8x10 which I used about 3 years now. I took my about a year do decide which camera to get
and after looking at Canham, Toyo, Deardorff, Ebony, and many others I finally decided I like the F-Metric the most.


I hope there's someone out there that had been this camera for a while and might answer some questions and maybe give some tips for the configuration and setup. Portraits is what I mainly do, using a 300mm but also sometimes other stuff with a 240mm. I'm gonna WALK with the equipment.
(not climbing any mountains, just strolling through cities)

so here goes..

1.
Does it make sense to get an "asymmetrical" telescopic monorail ?
By that I mean, 40cm for the base optical bench and then instead of two 20 cm rail units getting one 15 cm and one 30 cm.
The advantages would be;
a. I can push both standards together on the short 15 cm unit, remove it (standards +unit) from the optical bench and store it that way in my backpack, saving 5 cm in height, which is probably a huge deal for a backpack.
b. I get 45 cm extension before moving the units out of the optical bench.
Obviously at the price of them not being aligned to the bench - they're 5 cm longer together.

2.
What tripod heads are you using / which ones do you think really fit well ?
I know Arca Swiss' Cube and is great for it but I can't afford 2000€ for a head while also buying this camera... so maybe you had good experience with more simple ones.

3.
Any advice on backpacks and the like where this cam + 300mm lens + 2 or 3 holders would fit is very welcome as well.


Thanks !

Dan