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New camera from Arca Swiss: the Pico

cunim

cunim

Well-known member
I think the pico has a very specific use case but the weight and size come with limitations. In particular, the inability to mount 110 mm boards means this body is out for me. However, there may be an upside in the pico lens control unit. What if that control unit + 110 mm board lens holder could work with a universalis or M2? I expect that is the plan. Combine that with a rear mount that accepts the latest GFX bodies (supposedly available) and you have something that will let you use Arca's small and full size view cameras in a very broad variety of configurations. Tell your dealer you want it. That might encourage AS to actually move forward with applying the control unit to more bodies.
 
J

JeffK

Well-known member
Hoping the adaptor for SK P1 lenses is a success and it encourages Cambo to develop one for the Actus users! Or maybe I'll just sell the SK P1 lenses. Use the money for another Leica lens?
 
A

akaru

Active member
Thanks for sharing. Arca Swiss marches to the beat of their own drums, and I love them for it.
 
P

Paul Spinnler

Well-known member
Not sure of the value proposition for existing pancake tech cam users, especially if you own Rodie / SK glass already and a digitel back. In addition to a bigger form factor, you don't get access to SK / Rodie wide-angles if you don't use a back in which case you can just get an R or Alpa.

The traditional benefit of a view camera is that you can use "cheaper" lenses, e.g. adapt copal LF stuff, etc. and here this is perfected in terms of precision at the cost of loss of film compatibility.

IMHO the main benefit is if you want to use a Leica M or L camera as a digital back, but the bummer is that you can't use wide anlges from SK / Rodie. That’s most likely why they introduced their own line of modified TS lenses as essentially Rosenstock glass is limited for anything below 50mm which is a normal focal length on 35mm and a medium wide on crop MF.

So digital back it is ... I guess. In which case it makes sense to keep the existing camera setup.

And the GFX? Well it has irs own killer TS lenses now, so that negates a bit the need to TS via an intermediate setup.

There's one nifty thing though - the P1 Macro can now be tilted ... that's cool, I guess.

So for whom is this the perfect solution? Mainly for entrants with a mirrorless camera and no cash for a digital back I think - which might be a large market as the entry price for digi backs is still a hindrance for many intrigued by shifting wide angle lens systems.
 
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corvus

corvus

Active member
Phase V said:
So, what´s the difference to a Cambo Actus? And to be honest, it looks like a ugly duckling:rolleyes:
Click to expand...
In terms of functionality, I don't see any significant differences in principle. However, when we tried out the camera yesterday, it seemed much more precise and rigid in its movements. All adjustments have detents and you can work with them very intuitively. You can easily find your way back to the zero position by touch. The parallelism of the standards also seems to be perfect if you want to stitch, for example.
I think the Pico is interesting for people who don't already work with Actus or F-Universalis (I myself use the F // I had Actus for testing 3 years ago).
 
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Paul Spinnler

Well-known member
For tabletop and "cheap" digibacks via mirrorless cams that you own already its great IMHO - else the R is already rather perfect if you have a vintage or current oer Hassy back? If you don't own a back then the optics limitations on the wide end means you need to buy theri optics which is like: 5k EUR for the system + 4k EUR per optic.

Problem: Rodies like the 40 HR can be had for 4-4.5k EUR on the used market already.
 
corvus

corvus

Active member
The movements for tilt and swing are somewhat more comprehensive. But if the focus is mainly on shift, I would also prefer the R-Line. Yesterday I also saw a solution for GFX on Rm3di, but then again it can only be used with retrofocus medium format wide angles.
 
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Paul Spinnler

Well-known member
This with the P1 120 LS Macro BR is the killer app. The T/S was the main missing piece for the 120 Macro for it to be extremely useful for table top. You lose step focus, but tilt is arguably more efficient for most cases ...

The other killer app is L11M IMHO. The poor man's P1 achro.
 
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V

vjbelle

Well-known member
The main advantage, for me, of the Pico is its weight. It sheds two pounds as compared to an M-Two. It allows me to use all of the lenses I would usually use including my 138mm float. However I'm not sure if the tilt mechanism is strong enough to hold tilt when all of the forward weight of the 138mm float is attached. I have yet to see a bellows camera that can. I sent them a question regarding this via their messaging system and will see how they respond.

Victor B.
 
FloatingLens

FloatingLens

Well-known member
The Pico is very much reinforced at the front. That is also why it has such an odd shape. We discussed it yesterday with the people from A/S. I think it makes a lot of sense as cameras tend to get lighter and bayonet mount lenses can get quite front heavy. Never had a 138 in my hands, but they offer a purpose-built adapter ring for the 138 that they showed yesterday. So I reckon the Pico is capable of fully supoorting that lens.
 
M

marc aurel

Active member
Does anyone have more information about the 24mm and 50mm lenses for the system?
I suspect rehoused Canon TS-Es. The available apertures match. The 50 is a 1:2 macro (based on infos from the arca swiss usa website)
 
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