Help with new Arca Swiss F-Line Field

[Julian Boulter]

Hi all,

Just received my new Arca Swiss Field from Robert White in the UK. I live in the UK and have been after the field version with 110 front standard and folding rail for ages. Unfortunatley the field version was never available in the UK until now. I was just about to buy the square version (141 standards front and rear) and then the field version appeared on their website.

Anyway its just arrived and there is one photocopied sheet of instructions, very poor! the rail is in its folded state but I don't want to force anything to unfold it and the instructions are non-existent on the rail. Can someone tell me how to unfold it?

Thanks

[Rory Roopnarine]

Hi Julian,
Yes, the instructions are awful. To unfold the rail, just pull the knob at the end of the rail. The latched rail will swing free. Straighten the rail and push the 2 pieces together while, at the same time, turning the knob at the end of the rail clockwise. The rail will now be ready for use. - Rory

[Glenn Kroeger]

Julian:

At one end of the folded rail is a round knurled knob. Pull outward on that knob, it is spring loaded, and it will release the catch that holds the rail in the folded position. Now you can swing the rail around, push the two sections together, and tighten the knob to compress the two rail sections together as one.

Glenn

[FpJohn]

Hello:

The folded rail is held together by a magnet. Pull the bars apart and straight out. The screw at the end will draw the two rails together. Reverse the screw motion to loosed and fold.

yours
Frank

[Glenn Kroeger]

Julian:

I did not plagiarize Rory, he just types faster!

Frank: no more magnets with the new style rails.

Glenn

[Julian Boulter]

Guys, this is great, thanks ever so for the quick response, rail seems to work really well.

I am very suprised that a company renowned for its precision engineering can include such poor documentation with the equipment.

Packing is awful too.

Thanks again

[Glenn Kroeger]

Julian:

They put all of their efforts into their web site! :-)

Glenn

[Frank Petronio]

Why should they build a website or write instructions when you guys do it all for free?

[FpJohn]

Hello:

They assume prior experience with Meccano, Erector or Lego sets.
A description of the pieces is provided here

http://www.precisioncameraworks.com/Pages/arca_core.html

yours
Frank

[Julian Boulter]

OK so now I'm having difficulty attaching the function carrier to the rail and getting a bit fed up that I have no assembly instructions. Mabye I'm being a bit cautious but I don't want to force anything without knowing what I'm doing.

Firstly I can't work out which is the front and which is the rear carrier from examination but the picture shows tilt/shift controls on the right so by orientating them as shown and checking other pictures on the net it looks like I have this bit sorted.

So I've tried to put the rear carrier on the rail but from which end? the profile of the rail appears the same at both ends and at the collapsible rail when split. It appears to go on via the split easiest but is incredibly stiff. The little plastic runners inside the carrier appear too small for the rail and also look to be the wrong shape, so I unscrewed the non-geared friction control knob right out (which also appears to lock the geraed focus), and it opens up a little allowing me to force it onto the rail but its very tight making me wonder if the plastic runners need to be removed altogether! I checked some of Tom Westbrooks pictures and the runners appear to be in place on the rail as I would have expected. I don't want to force the carrier onto the rail, I'm concerned that I could damage the gears as it appears they can only go on one way. Also once I push the carrier on as far as the gear wheel, the wheel appears lower than the rail so I don't want to push anymore. Can anyone confirm the order / orientation of mounting the carriers on the rail?

Finally can others confirm that the 'manual' is literally one photocopied sheet showing the assembled camera with no assembly instructions at all? That's all I have or is there a page missing?