New: Arca Swiss Pico compact view camera system

• 5 months ago
• Categories: Arca-Swiss

Arca Swiss released a new Pico compact view camera system:

The compact and flexible ARCA-SWISS Pico view camera for mirrorless camera offers outstanding technical features, intuitive controls, and system flexibility for professional photographers. The Pico view camera set includes view camera body, rear mirrorless camera adapter, mirrorless camera bellows, 10 cm rail, 15 cm rail, classic plate, and monoball®Fix plate.

• Compatibility: For high-resolution capture with eight mirrorless camera options
• Format conversions: An adapter and bellows exchange quickly converts the format for use with a digital back
• L-frame design: Minimizes moving parts, increasing rigidity and ensuring optimal frame parallelism
• Plane of focus adjustment: Front standard - separate controls for tilt and swing
• Composition adjustment: Rear standard - controls for rise/fall, and lateral shift are all-in-plane, ensuring the lens perspective does not change
• Geared controls: All camera movements are fully gear-driven and self-locking
• Lens mounting: New Pico B-mount with quarter turn bayonet and release button, facilitates quick and easy lens changes
• Lens board system: Nine lens boards at product launch with more in development
• Portability: Compact and lightweight design enhances ease of transport and setup in various shooting locations.

ARCA-SWISS Pico - a new standard for high resolution photography

For more than a hundred years, ARCA-SWISS has been dedicated to offering photographers the best possible equipment and service, and with the introduction of Pico, the company has achieved a new level of innovation and excellence.

Philippe and Martin Vogt’s legacy, Samuel Vogt’s passion and the expertise and enthusiasm of the ARCA-SWISS team has converged to produce the Pico view camera. This new compact view camera is user-friendly, highly versatile, and designed to meet the demands of modern photography.

Pico sets a new standard for view cameras designed for use with ultra-high resolution sensors. Embracing the ARCA-SWISS philosophy of craftsmanship and original design, this state-of-the-art view camera stands as a testament to a century of innovation and mastery in camera design and manufacturing.

Efficiency in movement

Pico features intuitive controls, with tilt and swing adjustments located at the front and shift controls at the rear. This configuration offers superb control over the plane of focus, with fine-tuning adjustments for composition providing a quick and efficient workflow. Our advanced development of self-locking, micro-metric movements has been carried to a higher level, delivering enhanced precision and stability, and ensuring unrivaled ease of operation.

Exceptional rigidity

The patented Pico design is unique and robust. By minimizing moving components, Pico incorporates a rigid L-frame that slides within a stationary front standard, maintaining the perspective of the lens. The Pico concept ensures optimal parallelism between the front and rear frames, resulting in precision that meets the accuracy requirements for current high-resolution sensors.

Compact and light

Pico was designed from the outset to obtain the very best accuracy and maximum rigidity at strategic points. Made from a special aluminum alloy, Pico is lightweight and compact when collapsed for packing away.

Designed for mirrorless cameras and digital backs

With it’s wide range of adapters, the Pico system is compatible with the vast majority of mirrorless camera mounts, Mamiya/Phase One, and Hasselblad digital backs. Providing remarkable flexibility, Pico system adapters are quickly and easily interchangeable using a single locking lever on the rear carrier.

Innovative ergonomics

The ARCA-SWISS philosophy of user-friendly view camera controls has been incorporated into Pico: tilt and swing controls are located on the left, and rise, fall, shift controls on the right. With Pico, everything has been designed for intuitive, quick and accurate view camera adjustments.

Also with Pico, advanced development of self-locking, micro-metric geared movements has been taken to a higher level, delivering enhanced precision with stability and ensuring unrivaled ease of operation.

For straightforward lens changes, a new Pico B-mount bayonet located on the front standard employs a system similar to those found on most mirrorless cameras. Additionally, an R-adapter lens board allows for easy attachment of lenses in ARCA-SWISS R-mount.

On the rear standard, a simple exchange of adapters will allow new mirrorless cameras or a digital back to be mounted using a single locking lever. The change from portrait to landscape format is achieved simply by rotating the camera body or digital back. Between the front and rear frame, a system of magnets holds the bellows in place. The bellows are quickly installed and set with one click at the front and another at the rear.

When calibrating floating element lenses (at infinity) the FFD calibration point can be set and memorized, using the inner calibration ring on the focus knob.

Improved ergonomics and possibilities over tilt-shift lenses

The Pico view camera offers enhanced ergonomics and capabilities compared to traditional tilt-shift lenses, making it a quicker, more efficient, and user-friendly option for photographers. Its design separates view camera movements, simplifying subject framing and focusing, and allowing photographers to work more effectively.

Unlike tilt-shift lenses, the lens remains fixed in position, preventing any perspective changes while using rear shifts, a feature highly beneficial for composition, or when stitching images. Additionally, the flexible design of the Pico view camera supports the use of various lens combinations with either a mirrorless body or digital back.

Compatible with the finest optics

Pico is compatible with medium format lenses including the majority of Rodenstock, Schneider, Phase One Blue, and Silver ring lenses. The Pico system is also compatible with older lenses that are still in widespread use and available on the second-hand market. ARCA-SWISS will continue to develop future lens boards to ensure compatibility with the widest possible range of lenses.

Independence and long-standing success

ARCA-SWISS has been a family firm for over 100 years and continues to develop and innovate for the benefit of professional photographers. Through our dedication to professionals in the photographic arts, we offer original solutions by bringing together a wide range of skills for the continuing development of our in-house abilities. For us, that is the measure of the company’s creativity, independence, and continuing long-standing success.

Additional information is available here, here, and here.