Introduction

Arca Swiss C1 cube - clockwise from top left: front, left-hand side, back, right-hand side

Specs

The Arca Swiss C1 is specified as being 108mm / 4.25" high, 84mm / 3.3" wide (not including knobs), and weighing 9993g / 35 ounces.

Overview

As you can see from the photos the Arca-Swiss C1 Cube is a pretty radical departure from traditional tripod head design.  In essence, it's a two axis geared head, with a forward tilt feature and panning collars top and bottom.

First, the two axis geared part.  On each face, there is one smallish knob (width of knob face is 10mm/.4", knob diameter is 20mm/.8") that controls the tilt of the head along the axis which is perpendicular to the face the knob is on.  That is, on the left and right side of the head, there are knobs which control forward and backward tilt; on the front and back, the knobs control left/right tilt.  The knobs are aluminum, with doubled rubber o-rings set into the gripping surface of the knob to afford a little 'gription'.  Maximum angular displacement for the geared tilts is specified as 28 degrees but the example I examined exceeded this and if the scales on the head are accurate, tilts up to 30 degrees.  Scales are etched into the head of the rear, left, and right faces which allow you to estimate the tilt; the scale is ticked off in five degree increments.  The knobs controlling tilts are placed so that they cover up the zero, +5 degrees, -5 degrees tick marks, making the scales less useful.  Turning a tilt knob one complete revolution tilts the head about 8 degrees.

On the back face and left face of the head, set just above the knobs, there are thumbwheels which adjust the drag on the axis knobs. 

Set into the top of the head, there are two levels; one reads fore/aft, and the other reads left/right.  The levels are well marked and easy to read assuming you can look directly down onto the top of the head; of course, with a camera mounted on the head (especially a view camera, and extra especially a flatbed view camera) it would be difficult or impossible to view the head from above.  The levels are slightly exposed from the side of the head, and can with some difficulty be read from the side and back of the head (some source of lighting might be needed in dimmer lighting, especially with a large camera mounted).

In addition to the two axis geared adjustments, there's also a forward tilt mechanism.  Unscrewing a knob on the right-hand face of the head unlocks the tilt movement; you can then tilt the head directly forward up to slightly more than 60 degrees.  Tightening the knob on the right face locks the forward tilt.  The forward tilt knob on the right face and the axis tilt knob on the right face are the same size, shape, and feel, and are set so close together that each interferes with gripping the other knob (and the two knobs cannot be distinguished by feel and are easily confused one for the other).  From completely locked to free to move, you must turn the forward tilt knob two complete turns.  To lock the tilt, you must then turn the knob two full turns back; this is because there's a small locking mechanism that locks the forward tilt when the forward tilt is set to zero.  Unfortunately, this zero forward tilt lock allows about two degrees of movement unless the forward tilt knob is securely tightened.

The top and bottom pan collars are both locked and unlocked by flipping small (5mm/.2" x 18mm/.7") levers.  Both the top and bottom pan collars pan very smoothly with just the right amount of drag, and lock securely with reasonable torque applied to the locking lever.

The Arca-Swiss style quick-release clamp is a lever style clamp, rather than the screw knob style of the old B-1 clamp.  The locking lever is 36mm/.45" long and 11mm/.43" wide, and flips 90 degrees to lock/unlock the clamp.  There's a thumbwheel set into the top of the clamp that allows adjusting the clamp to work with slightly different quick-release plates - it adjusted easily to accomodate the RRS plates I use as well as the slightly smaller Kirk plate I had laying around.  There's a clever little spring-loaded catch that must be pulled on the lever to get it to release from the locked position, presumably to prevent accidental unlocking. 

The base of the head (the non-rotating part of the bottom pan collar) takes a standard tripod head bolt (3/16"x16) and has a circular base measuring 42mm/.65") in diameter.  This is a fairly small base area compared to other tripod heads (even the relatively small base of the Linhof Profi II is 63mm/1.5" in diameter. I didn't detect any problems with flex, but it does seem a little strange to have such a small mounting area on such a large head.

Field Experience and Conclusions

I found that with the drag settings at a minimum the tilt knob action was fairly stiff, and at the maximum setting the knobs are very stiff.  Annoyingly, the drag adjustment wheels are set quite close to the tilt control knobs, and make it even harder to grip the knobs on those faces.  Much of the time when adjusting tilts using the knobs on the left and rear faces, I severely scraped my knuckle or thumb on the drag wheel face.  Even without the interference from the drag adjustment wheels, I find the knobs darn hard to grip; with cold stiff fingers they'd be hopeless. 

There are no locks for the tilts; instead the friction of the geared mechanism holds everything in place once you've set it.  This sounds insecure, but I was unable to budge the adjustments even when exerting a great deal of force on the head and the drag set to the minimum; I really think locks are unneeded.

The pan collar lock levers are small, hard to grip, and would be quite hard to work with gloved hands or with hands which are cold and stiff.  The locking lever for the top pan collar is on the front of the head, making it hard to reach and flip when working from behind the camera.  In some positions the top pan collar cannot be locked, or can't be locked easily, because the flip lever locking the quick release clamp on the top of the head interferes with the pan collar locking lever; even more unforunately, the position where this happens is with the pan collar set so that the axis of the clamp runs size to side and the lever is in the front, and this is the most usual orientation.  The locking lever for the bottom pan collar is set in such a way that when locked, it's flipped up along the rear face of the head, again making it hard to work the locking lever. 

The catch on the quick release clamp locking lever requires you to grip the locking lever top and bottom, and seems pretty inconvenient.  When opened fully, the clamp does not open wide enough to drop the plate in directly from above; all quick release plates must be slid in from the side.  This precludes using plates with stops on both ends, and makes the quick release features less 'quick'.

The gear tracks for the front/back and left/right tilts are not sealed; they can be clearly seen through large openings in each face of the head.  This means that sand and other grit can blow into the head and come to rest in the gear tracks.  It is possible the clean the tracks by running the tilt as far as possible one way, cleaning the part of the track exposed, then running it the other way and doing the same; this cleans the entire track.  Still, I'd be worried about grit when using this head in adverse conditions (think windy day on the beach).

Finally, the C1 comes with a handsome custom-fitted leather case, complete with a shoulder strap.  It's the worst of all possible things - a case too nice to throw away, but still perfectly useless in that it's unpadded and doesn't really protect the head much.  And who carries their tripod head in a case slung over their shoulder?  Holy cow, Arca-Swiss, get a clue!

If you're getting the impression that I see nothing but problems with this head, you're absolutely right.  It's beautifully made, cunningly designed, and very expensive (street price: US $1500).  But with the small, narrow knobs set so close to the faces of the head, the close spacing of the various knobs, the interference between the quick-release clamp and the pan collar lock on top, and the other design misfeatures, it looks like it would be nothing but slow, agonizing frustration to use in the field.  To top it off, one strong gust of sand laden wind, and you're in serious hurt cleaning the thing.  To add insult to injury, the thing weighs 993 grams/2.12 lbs - the heaviest head I've weighed.  Even in a studio setting, the thing looks to be a slow horror to use, because of the fiddly little knobs, and close spacing between them.

The Bogen/Manfrotto 410 weighs only 200 grams/7 ounces more, costs less than $200, and has the quick positioning feature to boot.  To top it off, the 410 has geared panning.  To me, that seems like a much better deal.