Arca Swiss style plates and clamp cross reference (last updated 2010-03-04)

All claim to be Arca Swiss compatible, but looking at them in detail, one can see that this is not always true.

The dovetail plates have slight width, height and slant variations that can lead to incompatible combinations.

In addition, some vendors have lever clamps that work only over a smaller width/height range then their knob based clamps. This table covers only knob based clamps unless otherwise noted.

General dovetail shapes are used by other vendors as well, but with measures pronouncedly more different so that I do not want to put them in the table as they are not even meant to be Arca compatible.

If you have any first hand experience as to which clamps work with which plates, please e-mail me at afx@afximages.com so that I can update the table.

	Clamps:	Acratech	Arca Swiss	Benro	Burzynski/ Graf	Feisol	FLM	Foba	Giottos	Graf	Hama (Pro Plate)	Kirk	Markins	Novoflex	RRS	Wimberley
Plates:	Safety catch	Pin		Lever pin	Lever	Lever pin	Lever		Pin				Pin	Pin
Acratech	Pin groove	works	works				too small	works				works			works	works
Arca Swiss		works	works					works		works	works
Benro	Pin groove			works						works			Works (pin does not catch)	QR-1 works in Q-Mount	works
Burzynski			works		works					works	works	works	works mostly (one reports of a plate which is too small)	works	works	works
Feisol	Ping groove					works								works in Castel-Q
FLM	locking groove for FLM/Graf				FLM plates work in Graf clamp. Safety catch works, but plate is off center.		works		plate too narrow			plate too narrow	plate too narrow	works in Q-Mount, not Q-base	plate too narrow
Foba								works					works
Giottos									Works sliding in				works	Not in Castel-Q		works
Graf	locking groove for FLM/Graf		Too narrow		works		plate too narrow			works
Kirk	Stopper screws	works	works	works after removal of safety pin		works	plate too high		works sliding in, but not in all Giotto clamps (sample variance)		works	works	works	L-Bracket not always in Castel-Q Q-Mount, Q-Base work	works	works
Markins	Pin groove			works after removal of safety pin		works	too small	works	works			works	works	works also in Q-Base and Castel-Q	works	Some plates slip through (too narrow / thin)
Novoflex			works	works after removal of safety pin	works		works		works sliding in	works	works	works	works	works	works	works
RRS	Stopper screw	works	works				plate too high	works	works after removal of safety pin		works	works	works	Works, Not always in Castel-Q	works	works
Wimberley	Stopper screws	works	works						works sliding in		works		works	works	works	works

The measures below can be used as an indication whether a plate might fit into a clamp.
What is not shown there is the height of the lower edge and the angle (usually 45°).

The measures have been taken by helpful readers. Although provided at one decimal place after the point,
they might not be as accurate as this indicates, not everybody is a guru with a sliding ruler
(the measures I received on one and the same clamp vary by 0.5mm) and the clamps are not easy to measure accurately when open.
Still it should give you good indication.

Vendor	Web site	Plate Styles	Plate Width lower / upper edge height (mm)	Clamp opening top bottom height (mm)	Comments
Acratech	http://acratech.net/	CC, P, PR, GAT			The stopper pin of the plates might be annoying in non Acratech plates that have a hollow bottom.
Arca Swiss	No Website	P		33.4 – 37.6 / 34.1 – 38.6 39.2 – 43.4 / 39.5 – 44.0 4.5	The classic, check vendors for contact. Clamp measures are from the 60mm and 84mm versions.
Benro	http://www.photopal.co.uk/	P	38.0 / 32.8 5.0	33.9 – 35.8 39.1 – 41.8 4.5	Stopper pin in clamp might need to be removed for other plates to work.
Burzynski	No Internet contact, address: Rainer Burzynski Naturfotografie Spezial-Zubehör Am Hufeisenstich 1 D-16792 Zehdenick Telefon: +49-330 80/4 05 70 Telefax: +49-330 80/4 07 70	L, P, LRF, LCR	39.5 / 32.6	30.4 – 34.5 37.4 – 41.5 -	Custom mounting systems (he will custom produce lens support systems etc...). Request the catalog by phone or fax. Some products are also available via Isarphoto: http://www.isarfoto.com/
Feisol	http://www.feisol.com/	PR	38.1 / - 5.0	- – 34.4 - – 41.0 4
FLM	http://www.flm-gmbh.de/	P	38.8 / 28.0 4.9	31.5 – 34.0 37.0 – 41.0 4.3	The plates are about 1mm too narrow/thin for most other clamps apart from Graf/Novoflex. If you must absolutely put an FLM plate in one of the other clamps. putting an old credit card underneath it helps. (Ok, I would not trust it with a 600/4, but for small stuff...) Thanks Olli for that tip, I tried it, works nicely.
Foba	http://www.sinarbron.com/	P	38.7 / 32.3 5 MF: 38.75 / 32.3 5.15	– 33.2 – 38 3.85
Giottos	http://www.giottos.com/	PR, GAT		– 36.6 / 36.8 (sample variance)	Saftey pin on clamp needs to be removed for many plates from other vendors
Gitzo	http://www.gitzo.com/	P			Gitzo also offers a clamp which is Arca compatible, the G1387 series 2. Their type C plates might be Arca compatible, but the catalog really does not say.
Graf	No Website			30.7 – 35.0 - 4.5	Modified Graf clamps are available via Burzynski/Isarphoto
Hama	http://www.hama.co.uk/				As far as I know only a clamp is available
Kirk	http://www.kirkphoto.com/	CL, CC, C, GAT, LRF, LCR	38.1 / 32.8 5.2	33.7 – 39.6 39.0 – 45.2 4.3	The stopper screws at the end of the plates might need to be removed to fit into some clamps, especially when sliding in sideways
Markins	http://www.markins.com/	C, CC, CAT, GAT	38.1 / 33.5 36.9 / 32.2	33.5 – 39.2 - 3.9	The stopper pin of the plates might be annoying in non Markins plates that have a hollow bottom. Markins seems to have two different widths...
Novoflex	http://www.novoflex.com/	P, L, GAT		Q-M:31,72 – 37,72	I had conflicting reports on the Castel-Q macro system. For some it takes RRS plates, for some it does not, especially the L brackets seem to be problematic. Q-Mount and Q-base seem to be more compatible.
RRS	http://reallyrightstuff.com/	CL, CC, C, GAT, LRF, LCR	38.0 / 32.8 5.0	33.53 – 38-94	The stopper screw at the end of the plates might need to be removed to fit into some clamps, especially when sliding in sideways
Wimberley	http://www.tripodhead.com/	GAT, CAT, LRF		33.2 – 39.2 - 4.5	The stopper screws at the end of the plates might need to be removed to fit into some clamps, especially when sliding in sideways

Plate Style Reference

Key	Explanation
P	Plain plate, metal top. Will twist when used sideways. But can be custom machined to fit for the mechanically gifted. FLM, Burzynski, Novoflex, ...
PR	Plain plates with rubber or cork top. Wobbly connections, prone to twist.
L	Generic L bracket for cameras. Makes it easy to mount the camera in portrait mode (Burzynski, Novoflex) They tend to block access to the connectors on the left side of DSLRs.
CL	Camera specific custom L plates (only Kirk and RRS) that allow access to connectors even when L plate is attached.
CC	Custom camera plates that fit specific bodies and do not twist.
C	Custom lens plates that fit specific lenses and do not twist
GAT	Generic anti twist plates that fit various lenses and do not twist.
CAT	Generic anti twist plates that fit various cameras and do not twist.
LRF	Lens replacement foot. Replaces standard collar feet on some lenses for lower center of gravity and better stability
LCR	Lens collar replacement. Replacement collars for lenses (or collars for lenses shipped without any)

A few more tidbits:

In Germany there is a standard. DIN 4503, for camera plates.
It is not Arca compatible and I have yet to see it implemented in any serious connection system.
All the plates that are said to be DIN 4503 compliant I have seen so far where plastic. They seem to be square with 43mm long edges at the bottom.

Cullman seems to manufacture plates that can be squeezed in some of the wider clamps.

Although Manfrotto (sold by Bogen in the US) offers at least three incompatible plate systems, none of them is Arca compatible.

Photos of many plates and clamps can be seen at http://stativfreak.de.
The site is in German, use http://www.stativfreak.de/Wechselsystem.htm to get to the links of the plates/clamps.

Thanks for providing all the measures and feedback!