Well after struggling with the assembly of the camera after it arrived without any assembly instructions (see previous thread: http://largeformatphotography.info/lfforum/topic/505507.html ) I want to relay my inital experiences with the camera, here are my dislikes and likes in order of importance to me:
DISLIKES
Keep in mind I had no opportunity to try out an Arca before purchase. I was coming from having used a Wista which is easy to use but not extremely precise or rigid, my goal in spending the money was to purchase a rigid and precise large format camera which I would never want to replace. Everything I'd read about these cameras cited silky smooth controls and precise rigidity:
1. Detents - The worst thing I find is that the rear tilt has some play in it at the zero detent, I also note that others including Tom Westbrook have found this too. It means at the detent it is not perfectly parrallel to the front standard and is hardly what I would call precise. I need to wobble it on use to ensure the back is parallel - for a camera with a reputation of precision I find this to be a big disappointment! have others come across this? is it possible to fix / adjust?
2. Focussing - Having assembled the camera with difficulty as the function carriers were extremley hard to get on the rail I find almost everything on this camera is very stiff and hard to use. The geared focus even with the friction control untightened is still very coarse and stiff, hardly what I would call 'silky smooth', in fact it feels very coarse and somewhat cheap. The carrier appears to contain plastic runners which seem to shave off leaving little bits on the rail when the standards are racked. The front carrier is much stiffer than the rear so no consistency here. I have tried toghtening and loosening the friction control but it appears to make not much difference except when screwed right in then this makes focussing even stiffer but still moveable.
3. Tilts and Swings - again very stiff, I tried altering the plane of focus on a standard landscape subject this afternoon, something very easy to do with the Wista, I found the tilts so difficult to move that they jump on initial movement and are impossible to set with any accuracy. The whole rig moves unless the B1 head is very tight when making these movements. Also the tilt lever catches the bottom of the standard when pushed upwards and if the standard is tilted back it will close the lever again. None of the knobs appear to function very well. This is not what I expected!
4. Swings - same as above
5. Film holder - Changing the orientation of the fim holder, something that I would be doing often in the field, seems difficult and of poor design. There are no instructions with the camera so I assume I am doing this right and have not damaged anything (my peeve from the original thread). Once the thumbwheel is turned the top pops out and then I seem to have to pivot the back down at an angle until about 75 degrees and then it can be pulled out. Putting the back back on appears much trickier as I have to feed the back into the lip at the bottom and then push down quite hard until it clicks. As the lip apperas to be fairly thin metal, this process does not give me much confidence. What are the componenets of the back? there appears to be some sliding levers on either side but not sure what they are for.
6. Shifts - Fiddly to use, it seems to me to be a poor design, I can imagine the duck bill clamps will wear overtime and cause the back not to sit parallel.
7. The thumbwheel on the lens board standard is very stiff to open and close, I'm going to have a go at it with an a alan key later today to see if I can adjust it as I can see me dropping a lens fighting to open it.
8. Rise / fall - not too bad on the rear, fairly smooth but still somewhat stiff, on the front though its almost impossible to move even with knobs fully loosened which frankly makes not much difference. I have to yank / push very hard to move the front rise / fall
LIKES
1. The camera is very rigid - perhaps too much so as everything is just so stiff!
2. The foldng rail and rail clamp appear very well engineered, perhaps too well, they are very solid and sturdy and is in my opinon the only parts of this camera that meet expectations.
3. The B1 head is fantastic, everything I expected, silky and smooth, a feeling of quality and precision which I expected from the camera
Thats it! you can probably gather that I'm none to happy with the camera at the moment but were my expectations too high? I expected silky and smooth, a feeling of Swiss quality precision engineering as others have testified. Have I been unlucky? has the camera been shipped without lubricant? Have the manufacturing tolerances dropped since the new 141 standard sizes.....am I just too fussy!!!
Is it just that the camera is so new that use of the camera overtime will cause everything to become silky and smooth? can others share their experiences as right now I'm considering sending the camera back and to carry on using the Wista.
Julian
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