***Update – Tragically, Martin Vogt passed away in early 2019.
On January 27, 2011, Martin Vogt, part of the Vogt family – owners of Arca Swiss – journeyed to our Atlanta location and spent 2 days at our Atlanta location. This was Martin’s first visit to our Atlanta office and the most sustained exposure our company has ever had with Martin.
It was enlightening. For many reasons, most prominently the lack of a publicly accessible company website, Arca Swiss products, while universally respected and admired, are a bit mysterious and often misrepresented in terms of the available information.
While Arca Swiss manufactures excellent view cameras, and a complete system of tripod heads and adapters for many cameras and applications, we spent most of our time over the 2 days on the R System family of products, including the RM2D, RM3Di, and RL3D.
The R Series of cameras compete directly with the Cambo Wide products, and cameras from Sinar (Artec) and Alpa, and are probably the most misunderstood of Arca Swiss products. The R Series of cameras are deceptively simple. I say that because they have the reputation of being complicated and visually they appear that way. However, our time with Martin has illustrated how simple the system really is.
**The primary differences between the R Series cameras can be summed up as follows:
RM2D: Smallest and lightest of the R Series, horizontal and vertical shift.
RM3Di: Horizontal and vertical shift, tilt and swing
RL3D: Horizontal and vertical shift, tilt and swing, accepts 4×5 film, largest amount of movement.
The viewfinder for the RM3Di might be the brightest and clearest I’ve seen. It’s beautiful. Each lens comes with a magnetic steel mask that you attach to the front of the viewfinder. These masks have strategically placed holes that allow you to align them based on the amount of shift you are employing. This then reveals the adjusted composition. It also has a built-in center view aid. When you are looking through the viewfinder at anything other than a straight on view, it distorts. So, you cannot see anything other than a super clear, accurate view of your composition.
The RM3Di has the most precise focusing system of any camera I am aware of. The helical focusing ring is mounted on the body, very large and easily accessible. When you turn the focus ring approximately one inch, you have only adjusted focus by 17 microns. This allows for extremely precise focus adjustments.
Each lens comes with a tube that nests in the viewfinder and displays aperture and distance scales with a resulting position of the large focusing ring based on those preferences. In addition, the scales show the near and far points for the expected depth of field for that setting. So, at say, f11 and a distance of 8 meters, your depth of field is already calculated.
The gearing on the R Series cameras is smooth and firm, and all movements are positioned on the rear of the camera for convenience. The grip for the R Series is a unique conical shaped grip with no finger slots. This had us wondering, but when you consider that no two hands are the exact same size, we can see the logic. The grip is certainly comfortable enough, though if your intention is to handhold, there is an extended grip that should feel very secure in a variety of hand sizes.
One of the coolest features of the R System is the E-Module, which is a device that can calculate circle of confusion and measure distance via ultrasonic wavelengths, and confirm focus at a given distance as well as near and far point depth of field as you turn the helical focusing ring, all from the back of the camera.
True to Arca’s tradition, the R Series is a modular system, nearly all components – lenses, viewfinders, etc, are compatible across all 3 R cameras, as well as even the 6 x 9 view camera system.
There are a lot more details that are fascinating about these cameras. We’re so impressed with these products and encouraged by the efforts from Arca Swiss to work closer with us (they also have a new USA Distributor and are indeed working on a website), that we’re dedicating a complete stand alone product page to Arca Swiss that should be completed soon.
In the meantime, we have demonstration versions of the Rm3Di, and the M-Two MF and M Monolith View Cameras, all with a variety of lenses for anyone to try out and see why Arca Swiss enjoys the reputation they do.