Reader Report: Arca Swiss Cube Clamp Falls Apart
My damaged Arca Swiss Cube is back from repair and works great. It remains my all-time favorite tripod head.
Roy P writes:
I know you had a couple of problems with the flimsiness of your ARCA Swiss Cube. Here’s one more. I have the version with the spring loaded lever in the clamp at the top. I was taking some photos a short while ago when I found my camera sliding after it was supposedly locked in place. Surprised, I opened and closed the lever a couple of times to see if it was properly engaged. Then suddenly, the whole mechanism came apart, and if I were not holding my camera / lens with one hand, it would have dropped to the ground. Extremely annoying.
Now I have three pieces and I can’t figure out a way to put it back together, and even if I could, I’m not sure how much confidence I should have in it. In hindsight, I should have gotten the version with the clamp with a knob. Hopefully, ARCA Swiss will fix it. (If you have any idea how to put it back together, please let me know!)
What bugs me is, I haven’t used the cube all that much – it’s virtually new. And I didn’t have any unusual load on it – just
DIGLLOYD: when I bought my Arca Swiss Cube, the clamp fell apart right in my office before even using it. Imagine such a scenario in the field, where those parts disappear into rocks, grass, a creek, whatever. The clamp portion is fundamentally flawed in its design. I immediately took action to replace it with a Really Right Stuff clamp (which has performed flawlessly for nearly 9 nears now), as described in my review of the Arca Swiss Cube.
