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Arca Swiss Photokina 2014: dEx, FP, CS, DM

dougpeterson

Workshop Member
A slew of new products from Arca:

Arca Swiss FP - A modular Focal Plane Shutter option compatible with every Arca R and Arca M body. This is not a new separate body; it is an optional accessory for the current bodies.
Arca Swiss CS - A modular, portable, Central Shutter option compatible with every Arca R and Arca M body.
Arca Swiss Cloud DM - A modular, wireless distometer.
Arca Swiss dEx - The brain/hub of all above accessories with wireless remote control.
Arca Swiss Canon/Nikon Lens Mount - More info coming soon.

You can find more information at the links above. We, Digital Transitions, will be at Photokina with Arca Swiss and will be glad to provide answers to any questions you have. Please post them here or email me at [email protected].

 
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torger

Active member
Wow! I was expecting that they would come up with an Alpa FPS-like body, but this seems more interesting!
 

dougpeterson

Workshop Member
Wow! I was expecting that they would come up with an Alpa FPS-like body, but this seems more interesting!
You've been bugging for a viable portable, battery powered, electronic shutter solution to replace the still-viable-but-you-can-see-the-sun-setting Copal option. :)

Leaf shutter has always been valued for it's flash sync speed and for providing extremely little (effectively zero) vibration, enen on a lightweight tripod.

Arca has listened. They are very very rarely the first to the market with something, but when the come with something it's almost always very forward/backward/inter compatible.
 

jagsiva

Active member
The FP looks so much smaller than the ALPA solution, and if the cloud DM works as advertised, would be just sweet.

The Universalis also looks very interesting.
 

torger

Active member
Yep... this could be it in the abscence of DHW's HS-1000. It shall be interesting to see pricing and if it will be adaptable for other systems than Arca-Swiss. Anyway, even if it's not "it", seeing progress is great.

For us budget-sensitive users I'm guessing that focal plane shutter is the way to go for all longer lenses, and possibly using a CS for one or two wides where the FP take up too much space. Only for Arca-Swiss users then of course. I'm guessing that the FP is thinner than Alpa's FPS? Knowing exactly how wide one can go with it is my main question.
 

stngoldberg

Well-known member
Doug,
Would you supply more detail, more pictures of the new FPS
When will you have one in your hands for a demo?
Stanley
 

alajuela

Active member
Hi

Will this work on a "F" camera, or only the Mono?

I would assume you mount a barrel lens and this goes on the back standard like a Sinar shutter - is that correct?

Also how does it trigger?

Has a price been assigned yet?

Thanks

Phil
 

Paul2660

Well-known member
This is a huge announcement for Arca users, glad to see it finally made the press. Just hope they can ship this year. It's been in the works a looooong time.

Sign me up for the FP, just hope Acra figured out any vibration issues.

Adding the leaf shutter to existing Copol lenses will probably add some cost, but long term may be worth it.

Love the fact the FP is a module and fits all existing cameras. More pics please.

I also wonder just how the FP shutter communicates to the back, hopefully it's not limited to just USB as that would limit tethering in the field (i.e. your USB is taken by tethered connection). I see they have a wifi controller, hopefully it will be possible to use this or the PC connection on the back.

Paul
 

gerald.d

Well-known member
This all looks very cool.

One thing I'm struggling to get my head around - the FP is a module that can be attached to all existing cameras, yes? Does that not then change the flange distance?

In the ALPA world, that (slightly) limits the lens choice at the wider end, and is solved for focal lengths from 32mm and up by utilizing shorter barrel lenses.

How does this solution work in the Arca world?

Kind regards,

Gerald.
 

Paul2660

Well-known member
This all looks very cool.

One thing I'm struggling to get my head around - the FP is a module that can be attached to all existing cameras, yes? Does that not then change the flange distance?

In the ALPA world, that (slightly) limits the lens choice at the wider end, and is solved for focal lengths from 32mm and up by utilizing shorter barrel lenses.

How does this solution work in the Arca world?

Kind regards,

Gerald.
This is a great question, I am assuming the user will remove one R mount ring from the lens, which brings the lens closer to the sensor. If you use the rotating back adapter or the sliding back adapter this is how you accommodate the extra width.

Each R mount lens has ring that says "remove for rotaslide", so if you take that ring off the lens comes closer to the sensor, but the sensor is pushed back the same distance by the rotaslide.

If that's not how it works, it will be interesting as like you point out, the ultra wides will not work, i.e. 28, 32 Rod 35SK, any maybe the 40 Rod.

It would have been nice for Arca to release some more info, more than just pics. Possibly a tech sheet that answers this question and also how the shutter makes the connection to the back?

Paul
 

Frederic

Member
This all looks very cool.

One thing I'm struggling to get my head around - the FP is a module that can be attached to all existing cameras, yes? Does that not then change the flange distance?

In the ALPA world, that (slightly) limits the lens choice at the wider end, and is solved for focal lengths from 32mm and up by utilizing shorter barrel lenses.

How does this solution work in the Arca world?

Kind regards,

Gerald.
Last time I heard of it, it required existing R mounted lenses to be modified.
Price was said to be in the 2000 EUR range, but I'm not sure which unit, FP or CS.
 

gerald.d

Well-known member
2000 Euros sounds about the ballpark for a Copal/electronic shutter swap, not for a change to barrel length.

Will be interesting to see this at Photokina. It's good to see another great MF company giving options to their customers, but lots of questions still to be answered.
 

Frederic

Member
That was for the unit, not the mount change...

Doug didn't mention them, but there will be 3 new flavors of "light" view cameras too (universalis).

++ When I say "mount change" I actually mean a new barrel length for existing R mounted lens, not a whole new mount system!
 
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rupho

New member
Exactly what makes me wonder
How to maintain focus to infinity without new lens mounts
I think electronic shutters are the way forward in tech lenses so this idea looks great but why is there no real explanation on the implementation I wonder
?
How
This all looks very cool.

One thing I'm struggling to get my head around - the FP is a module that can be attached to all existing cameras, yes? Does that not then change the flange distance?

In the ALPA world, that (slightly) limits the lens choice at the wider end, and is solved for focal lengths from 32mm and up by utilizing shorter barrel lenses.

How does this solution work in the Arca world?

Kind regards,

Gerald.
 

jagsiva

Active member
This all looks very cool.

One thing I'm struggling to get my head around - the FP is a module that can be attached to all existing cameras, yes? Does that not then change the flange distance?

In the ALPA world, that (slightly) limits the lens choice at the wider end, and is solved for focal lengths from 32mm and up by utilizing shorter barrel lenses.

How does this solution work in the Arca world?

Kind regards,

Gerald.
Gerald,

As the other poster said, looks like you'd remove the spacer ring that is in place when not using the Rotaslide or Rotamount. From what I have read, the FP allows rotating the back so it would not require the rot amount anyway.
 

Frederic

Member
Gerald,

As the other poster said, looks like you'd remove the spacer ring that is in place when not using the Rotaslide or Rotamount. From what I have read, the FP allows rotating the back so it would not require the rot amount anyway.
The FP was slightly larger than the rotamount/rotaslide/spacer (and can' be used with it), so R lenses had to be remounted anyway. Again, things may have changed since Martin told me about the system last June.
 

jagsiva

Active member
I'll keep my fingers crossed, but looking at the picture on DT, it looks like it combines the adapter plate as well. So it would be the combined thickness of the adapter plate and the spacer ring.

Not sure how the mount could be changed as there is very little room between the rear element and sensor for WA lenses as it is. Beyond my knowledge level, but perhaps the Copal shutter comes out and saves some room? On the other hand, if the FP is for non-Copal-0 lenses like DSLR lenses, then the flange distance would be more anyway.

Will have to wait and see.
 

stngoldberg

Well-known member
Wow,
I don't understand any of this!
I have 6 lenses that are compatible with my Rm3di. My copal shutters are working fine, but assuming that I wanted to convert the lenses to FPS...what are my next steps...do I send in the lenses for a remount????

Stanley
 

Frederic

Member
:D

I guess the next step is we wait to be told if a remount is needed... I sure hope none is needed.

Also it'd be interesting to know the size/bulk of the power/control unit.
 
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