Rollei 6000 series Arca-Swiss adapter plate questions

The questions:

 

1. Do you think there's enough of a market that if I paid for a

production run of 200 or so adapter plates from Rollei 6000 series

to Arca-Swiss tripod head that within a year or two I'd be able to

sell them all for US$45 or so each?

 

2. The prototypes I had made for myself have the Arca-Swiss dovetail

running perpendicular to the path light takes down the center of the

lens. If I do get a bunch made, do you think I should get half or all

of 'em made with the dovetail running parallel to the path of the

light?

 

The Story:

 

A little over a year ago, my old tripod wasn't working too well, and

partly because I read tripod choosing articles on photo.net to inform

my decision, I opted for the Arca-Swiss tripod head. I bought the

Hasselblad / Rollei 6008 adapter plate that Really Right Stuff

sells and screwed it onto the camera, but every time I looked at it, I

got that fingernails on a blackboard feeling in the engineering part

of my mind, so I tried to find something that works better. I talked

to Joe Johnson at Really Right Stuff, but he didn't think there'd be

enough of a market for him to develop a new product. I tried to find

out if the adapter plate that Arca-Swiss makes is any better, but I

never did hear back from them. So, finally, I took some measurements

from my camera, drew a picture in a modeling program and took it to

Steve, a local machinist who has a CNC mill in his garage. I left him

a camera body for a couple of months while I was working at sea; H.j,

Hartung with Rollei was kind enough to fax him some drawings of the

compound dovetail, and he made me three prototypes which I had to

modify a little bit as a result of lack of forethought on my part.

Those prototypes are now doing a fine job for me. I'm very happy with

them. Steve has plans to make five or six more so that I can take

digital photos of them (Mine are not longer beautiful.) to post and

send them out as samples to retailers to see if there's any market

interest & etc., but it's been since the Springtime and he hasn't

gotten around to it. From talking with him and with another machinist

I met, I've learned that with a job like this, such a large part of

the work is in the set-up that I don't think I'll see this project

come off that back burner unless I buy at least a couple hundred or so

of them. Anodizing the aluminum is also much cheaper to do in a

timely manner if it's being done to a large number of things. I had

the plates I'm using made with the dovetail running from side to side

so that I can share the same flash bracket between the Rollei and my

35mm camera, but I got an impression that some people might rather it

ran the other way so that it could have the possibility to be used as

a sort of low tech macro slider. When I talked to Steve in the

Springtime about running it the other way, he said it's a very easy

change to make in his CNC controlling software. I'm freshly back from

fishing king crab, and I've got the money to fund this project, but

I'd rather just let well enough alone if I'm the only person

interested.

 

Thank-you for taking the time to read all this.

 

John

I prefer using the Linhof quickfix adapter over the Arca style plates for my Rolleis. It's convenient and IMO more secured than the plates. The real challenge to me as a Rollei user is to find a perfect adapter for the long lenses (300mm to 1000mm). Rollei's own adapter looks funny when sits on top of a ball head. There seems no matching lense collar that is available. Wimberley adapter is very expensive, since I have already purchased Arca B-1 and B-2. I guess this is where a plate may be suitable, will anyone be interested in building a batch for us? Regards.

I would be interested if the plate was designed to be mounted on the ball head along the light path axis. Does your design take care of the problem caused with the RRS plates when tightened down? I am refering to the lens mount being pulled out of round if the mounting screw is tightened very much. From your description, it seems that you are using the dovetail in the camera which is a good thing.

 

As far as offering advice on if you could sell a few hundred, I can only say I would buy 1, which is not much help. Post something here if you decide to go ahead with this project.

The Novoflex Qplate 6x6 fits the Novoflex Q=Base quick release as well as Arca bases.

It allows you to place the camera on the plate in 4 directions and has positioning pins

to eliminate twist.

Bobby,

 

I can't say for sure if it would pull a lens ring out of round as

the only lens I have with a tripod mount is a Schneider 300 mm lens,

and the mount is screwed to the barrel; there is no ring. I can see

no dicernable change in the mount when I tighten down the plate.

If it helps, plate I designed is a flat piece of aluminum about 6 cm

wide by 7 1/2 cm long. Near the front end it has on one side little

fingers coming up that mate with the compound dovetail of the Rollei

tripod mount, like the Rollei 6000 series adapter plate that Custom

Brackets makes. On the opposite side from those is the dovetail for

an Arca-Swiss type clamp. The back end tapers down to about 4 1/2 cm wide. I must admit that I didn't expect to encounter more interest in

fastening down long lenses than in clamping to cameras.