Could someone explain Arca Swiss' Orbix to me?

[Mike H.]

Make sure you buy the ARCA-SWISS with the geared Orbix. First, it may take months if you ever want to convert from no orbix or manual orbix to a geared orbix. Secondly, it takes two hands to work the manual orbix, and you need SOMETHING with which to hold the focusing aid. It used to take me forever to focus without orbix. And then it sped up with the orbix, but was very akward because it was manual. Now that I have geared orbix, it is a breeze. I love it. For ALL kinds of images. AND, if you come over to visit Rod and see everything, get him to put you in touch with some of us locals and maybe we can go out and take some images - or maybe just meet over lunch and talk about photography. There are LOTS of us here.

[Scott Fleming]

Mike,

Thanks. I was leaning that way.

Glen Kroeger in San Antonio was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule to show and demonstrate his AS 6 x9 Metric with geared Orbix for me. What a dream unit!! I should have listed to Jack Dykinga two years ago. Live and learn.

Thanks for the invite. I will definitely take you up on it.

[Richard Martel]

Scott, when I received my F-line field with metric orbix, the Orbix control was on the left side. On the right side was the front standard focus and tilt knobs. It was an easy DIY ( use Loctite) job to switch the Orbix control knob to the right side. It sure makes focusing easy with one hand.

[Matus Kalisky]

I am again picking up an old thread, but for a good reason I am eyeballing one auction where the latest model of Arca Swill F-field with micrometric Orbix is being offered - but I realized I am not able to actually tell if the camera has the micrometric Orbix or not - because I have never really seen one.

So - would it be possible for you guys to post a snap of the front or rear standard on your Arca F Field with or without the Oribix (or micrometric Orbix)? It would be really helpful. I did not manage to find any reasonable photo of this feature where one could actually see it.

thank you.

[Matus Kalisky]

Beat me to it - I have just found this on the arca-shop.de webpage:
Micrometric Orbix:

micrometric Orbix 3D animation.

EDIT: Is the Orbix or micrometric Orbix actually available for both standards, or only for the front one?

[Geoffsco]

EDIT: Is the Orbix or micrometric Orbix actually available for both standards, or only for the front one?

It's only on the front standard.

[Robert Jonathan]

Matus, I'm no Arca expert, but I believe it's only available on the front. I have never seen an Arca with rear center tilts.

And the picture you posted is for the M-Monolith series, not the F, though the mechanism is the same (tilt located in the carrier frame, not the function carrier like on Sinar, etc).

[Matus Kalisky]

Thank you. The seller confirmed the same thing.

[Ken Lee]

Is it similar to the Sinar yaw-free movements ?

[Sevo]

Is it similar to the Sinar yaw-free movements ?

Almost - that is, both are yaw free, but there is a difference in the tilt axis. As far as I can make out, the Orbix is slap central, while the Sinar is offset at about 25% of the image height - the reason apparently being that that permitted the immediate use of their DOF/swing calculator without recomposing for subjects with a roughly golden section composition (i.e. the vast majority of commercial shots).