I know this post isn't responding to any other post in particular and my particular Actus is presently using a 35 mm body, not a medium-format one, so I'm technically posting this in the wrong forum, but I have mentioned it here before without any objections and since it has been pressed into service again recently, I thought I would provide a brief update as to its status, if only for grins and giggles.
As the photo above shows, I haven't tidied-up the cosmetics from this latest round of modifications, but I will be tackling that tomorrow or maybe the day after. In the meantime, though, it's fully functional (at least with regard to those functions that remain ... lol) and I've now done a handful of test outings with it around my neighborhood to confirm everything is setup properly and working as expected.
Although the Actus B is quite light compared to most cameras of this type, I photograph on foot -- no "drive-by shooting" for me! -- and often cover several miles on an outing, so the less weight I have to carry around, the better! As such, one of my goals in modifying my Actus is to reduce its weight as low as possible without compromising its functionality
for my purposes. YMMV, of course!
The bare camera -- with lens panel, but without a lens, camera body or monitor attached -- now weighs just 1 lb., 12.3 ounces. Of course, by removing the front standard and shortening the rail, it now has only rear rise / fall / shift movements, but this is fine for my purposes (urban and suburban street and alley scenes photographed at night.) It also solves the pesky problem of taking photos using unintended and unnoticed tilts and swings once and for all time!
I also removed the fine-focus adjustment knob, because once I have the FFD set correctly for the family of lenses I'm using, I don't need it and if I ever do need it, it's a very simple matter to reinstall it. Likewise, I have replaced three of the four locking knobs with screws because once everything is adjusted properly, I have no reason to ever loosen them, so why carry the extra weight? (FYI, when one is trying to reduce the weight of a camera, one has to take advantage of every possible opportunity, no matter how small the amount of weight is saved, because a large weight reduction is comprised of lots of small reductions.)
One nice aspect of the Actus' design is the Arca-style dovetail on the bottom of the base rail, which makes it easy to, say, hang from it a mounting bracket for an external HDMI monitor. Although this does add a fair amount of weight -- 1 lb., 3 ounces for the monitor, mounting bracket, HDMI cable, and battery box containing two 18650 cells -- I find the convenience of working with a 7" display more than compensates for it ... again, YMMV.
Perhaps surprisingly, with the exception of cutting the base rail shorter (which can be easily and relatively inexpensively replaced, if it's ever necessary), nothing I have done has permanently modified the Actus in any way and it can be returned to its original, OEM form in a matter of minutes. Future plans include replacing the aluminum lens panels with DIY carbon fiber panels (which my calculations suggest will save ~ 2.0 ounces) and replacing the bellows material with Monokote, a plastic film that's used for covering model airplanes, which should save another ~2.0 ounces. Mind you, neither of these modifications are absolutely necessary, but I enjoy tinkering with cameras, so why not?