Arca Swiss Plate for E-P1 &E-P2

[tspore]

Acratech has released a Plate for the Olympus E-P1 and E-P2, It is quite customized with a side hole, and a custom lip to keep it secure. It is available from Acratech's Site.

[Godfrey]

I have their similar plate for the Panasonic G1. Beautiful machining work, fits my RRS and Markins clamps perfectly.

Only niggle I have with Acratech plates is that they don't "capture" the securing bolt so I have to keep a plastic bag for it in my tripod accessory bag so as to keep them together and prevent losing the bolt when the plate isn't on the camera.

[Johannes]

Yes, they should consider to cut a recess on the plate and cut a groove on the screw for a circlip to hold it, just so simple ....

[Timskis6]

Originally Posted by Johannes

Yes, they should consider to cut a recess on the plate and cut a groove on the screw for a circlip to hold it, just so simple ....

Well, they certainly considered it:

Acratech Quick Release Plate Features

• Acratech quick release plates are compatible with all Arca-Swiss type quick release clamps (Foba, Arca, Kirk, Wimberly, etc)
• Acratech quick release plates are camera specific, which means they will fit your camera and will prevent your camera from rotating or moving on the plate
• Acratech quick release plates are designed to allow access to all camera controls and functions without removing the plate
• Acratech quick release plates are designed to provide maximum contact area to the bottom of the camera increasing stability and helping to minimize flexing of the camera body
• We do not cut a groove under the head of the mounting screws which weakens them at a point where they are already most likely to break
• Our plates are precision C.N.C. machined from solid 6061 T-6 aluminum. We do not use inferior castings like some manufacturers
• We have eliminated all unnecessary threaded bosses etc. to further reduce weight
• Made in the U.S.A.
• Satin black anodized finish
• We use advanced computer aided design software to create super strong lightweight plates

[jebir]

Originally Posted by Timskis6

Well, they certainly considered it:

Acratech Quick Release Plate Features

...

• We do not cut a groove under the head of the mounting screws which weakens them at a point where they are already most likely to break

...

But they made the wrong decision for such a lightweight camera system IMO. I would have understood if that was for a screw to hold a 10x more heavy (and expensive) Hassy.

Cheers, Jens.

[Johannes]

A 0.5mm groove on a 1/4' stainless steel screw can break it? I doubled it .......

[johnblue3]

Originally Posted by tspore

Acratech has released a Plate for the Olympus E-P1 and E-P2, It is quite customized with a side hole, and a custom lip to keep it secure. It is available from Acratech's Site.

I have a similar plate but it's made by ReallyRight Stuff. AS far as I can tell, it's similar to this one except it has an additional threaded hole ~mid way. Any preferencees between the two brands?

[tspore]

As for the post above about the screw hole, and weakening a plate. It may but probably won't matter on the E-Px series of cameras. But he doesn't build anything to be weak. It is all really light weight, and super strong.

Originally Posted by johnblue3

I have a similar plate but it's made by ReallyRight Stuff. AS far as I can tell, it's similar to this one except it has an additional threaded hole ~mid way. Any preferencees between the two brands?

I think that both companies are very good, I personally buy my stuff from Acratech, and have had a long history of knowing Scott Dordick - back from racing RC cars before Acratech even existed. Also Acratech is near a client of mine so I see him once ever few months. On the other hand RRS is a long ways up the coast, and I have never been in their shop.
The underlying truth is in my opinion is that any company which will support the 4/3 system is a very good thing in my opinion. If RRS sent me emails with new 4/3 products I would post that info too just as I do from Acratech. (though with Acratech, I usually have to take a camera by to get it made, which they always are happy to help).

[Jim Flinchbaugh]

THere is an easy way to capture the screw without weakening anything, They need a different screw, with a reduce diameter under the head, smaller slot in the plate which the reduced diameter fits in, and tap one end of the slot for the 1/4-20 thread. The screw can be threaded in the hole, and then is free to slide around in the slot as needed. Would only require them toadd one operation to produce, tapping the hole, and changing the size of the endmill that machines the slot. Not big deal for today's production machinery.

[jebir]

Hi Jim,

Originally Posted by Jim Flinchbaugh

THere is an easy way to capture the screw without weakening anything, They need a different screw, with a reduce diameter under the head, smaller slot in the plate which the reduced diameter fits in, and tap one end of the slot for the 1/4-20 thread. The screw can be threaded in the hole, and then is free to slide around in the slot as needed. Would only require them toadd one operation to produce, tapping the hole, and changing the size of the endmill that machines the slot. Not big deal for today's production machinery.

isn't that exactly what they say they didn't do in order to get a stronger screw:

Originally Posted by Acratech

We do not cut a groove under the head of the mounting screws which weakens them at a point where they are already most likely to break

IMHO, shaving off just the threads rigth next to the screw head would hardly make any significant difference in strength. In fact, , if it is done with a smooth finish without sharp edges or corners, it may even become stronger than the original.

Cheers, Jens.

[cledry]

Undercutting the head wouldn't weaken the screw for such an application. Foba undercuts their screws and their stuff is really designed for much heavier gear.

Godfrey might be interested in this: I use a Wimberley P5 plate on the L1 with excellent results.



Battery can be exchanged no problem.

[Godfrey]

The lack of a captured screw is a niggle, not a big deal.

RRS does it by necking the bolt to the thread root for the first 1/16-1/8 inch and providing the threaded slot-end in the plate. No bolt is ever stronger than the thread root anyway. I've never broken an RRS screw ... If you're torquing a bolt of this size beyond its tensile strength on a camera tripod thread, I'd question that you were over-torquing the bolt anyway.

A more serious issue, in my opinion anyway, is a problem shared with the RRS and other manufacturers' plates on the G1 body. The G1 body's tripod screw is a steel insert in the baseplate. It stands about .0015" proud of the surrounding baseplate surface. Acratech and RRS plates are flat ... when bolted up, all of the load bearing surface is concentrated on a couple of thin arcs of that tripod boss, the bulk of the plate's surface floats that .0015" above the camera base and lends no structure or support to the plate's attachment.

This means you need to tighten the bolt over-much to hold the camera and plate still on the camera body, stressing both the bolt and the plate quite a lot in a very small area.

To solve this problem, I cut two little rectangles out of a scrap of Epson Velvet Fine Art paper trimmings, fitted to the mounting plate such that the tripod mounting boss drops into the channel between them. They're just over .0020" thick, and they compress slightly when the plate is bolted to the camera. The result is a much more secure connection between camera and plate at a much lower torque on the bolt, lower stress on all bits and less tendency to slip.

I haven't seen this issue regarding the tripod threaded boss with the E-1, L1, GF1 or E-P1 bodies that I've looked at. it seems to be specific to the G1. Acratech and RRS could improve the connection by milling the area around the slot to clear the tripod boss, thus putting the plate in contact with the G1 body, but whether it's worth doing for what is a 'generic' plate due to a situation on one camera model is questionable.

---
edit: added photograph of G1 on Acratech plate ...

The result is absolutely secure, tidy, and fits perfectly with little stress on the camera.

[Godfrey]

Thanks Cledry! That looks even more secure than the RRS B9 plate I've been using with the L1 the past three years.

BTW, what lens are you using on the L1 in the first two shots you posted?

[cledry]

Originally Posted by Godfrey

Thanks Cledry! That looks even more secure than the RRS B9 plate I've been using with the L1 the past three years.

BTW, what lens are you using on the L1 in the first two shots you posted?

I chose the plate because it had the maximum surface area without blocking anything.

It is an old Carl Zeiss Jena 50/2.8 Tessar. I found it in a box in my attic and had to disassemble it to clean the focus helicals (not a fun job).