I have doubles of C4's, On occasion I wish I had triples of 1,2,3.

However, what is a better choice of something else that maybe falls in between the ranges of the C4's 1,2,3.

metolius.

Really, anything would work, and would help fill in the gas between BD sizes. Metolius and Wild Country are both poular options.

I would look into the Totem Cams, though. Innovative design, and seem to be growing is popularity. They would definately offer something different to the quiver, and that is the point of getting a different brand of cams to round out the rack, isn't it?

A set of Metolius powercams if you are on a budget.
WC Helium friends if you got the extra $$ and like pretty colors.

WC friends fall pretty perfectly between C4 sizes. I.E. a #3 friend fits perfectly where a #2 camalot is way tipped out and a #3 camalot won't quite fit yet.

In those sizes I had quads before I got anything else. Even then I bought Trango 7's & an 8 mostly to save a couple of bucks. The Trango 7 is slighty bigger than a #2 C4 so if you are in doubt of which one (#2 or #3 camalot) to grab the Trango will usually work. The Trango 8 is completely eclipsed by a #3 C4 so there's no point in having it other than to save money. You can't go wrong with C4's in those sizes, if you decide to get rid of them you can sell them immediately here, or on e-bay, for almost what you pay for them.

So I say get the C4 triples. Smaller definitely branch out, and bigger maybe as well. The distance between the new C4 #3 & #4 is hard for me to judge, (The Trango 9 works great here- it's almost exactly the same size as the old 3.5).

Another vote for WC Heliums. The purple #3 in an ideal placement is the same as a slightly flared 2 Camalot or a slightly over-cammed 3 Camalot. Same goes for the #4 Helium (silver) between the 3 & 4 Camalots. Seems like WC did this intentionally. Smart chaps over there.

The metolius MasterCams get a little floppy in the larger sizes and don't get bigger than a bd #2. I have a #2 and #1 link cams and they obviously cover tons and tons of ranges. The biggest is only as big as a #2 but I find they fin in nicely.

I have a full set of C4s and Metolius Ultralight Power cams 5-8. They fit perfectly as follows:

C4#3(Blue)
Powercam#8(Purple)
C4#2(Gold)
Powercam#7(Light blue)
C4#1(Red)
Powercam#6(Green)
C4#.75(Green)
Powercam#5(Black)
C4#.5(Purple)

I don't have any of the smaller Powercams so I can't say anything about them, but I really like the ones I have.

O, and I don't pay too much attention to the traffic-light colored range finder on the Powercams

a cam comparison chart I found online somewhere Submitted By: Avi Katz on Jan 12, 2013

Alien's, Helium's, fat cams

Thanks for the advice guys.

I may be wrong here, but I thought red metolious fell between .5 and .75 BD, black metolius between .75 and #1 BD, and I thought green metolious is slightly bigger than a #1 BD.

Edit to add: My experience is with master cams, so perhaps sizing is different with the powercams

For the gaps in the mid-large sizes, I like tech friends. Sizes 1.5/2/2.5/3) are good to fill gray areas in camalot sizes (I would skip on the #1 which is basically identical to an orange metolius, as well as the 3.5/4 which overlap completely with the blue and grey camalots). If you were asking about camalots (before c4) I would recommend the #4 friend to fill the gap between the #3 and #4 unless you can find a #3.5 (grey) camalot (GOOD LUCK WITH THAT). This is just my biased opinion, metolius powercams have also been good fillers in my experience and they may be easier to find.

On the small side (smaller than .5 camalot), I like metolious cams (any style) in the orange/yellow/blue. If you want to go really small, I think Black and Blue Aliens are the best for really small (but still would rather have a bomber nut).

whatever you want ... at that size it doesnt really matter too much ;)

whatever you do just buy lots of them...

I carry a gold OP link cam in addition to a single or double rack of BD C4s if I'm on a climb where I might need to double or triple up on hand sized pieces. I've found that at least for me I rarely need to do more than supplement a single rack of cams with select doubles for most routes or doubles with an extra triple or two. The link cam covers a range of .75-2, so I feel that I save weight by only having to haul 1 cam that I may use instead of three of which at least 2 will probably be on my harness by the top of the climb. Granted the crags in my area usually lack sustained splitter cracks so my rack preference may just be a function of local geology.

There's an emerging opinion that Totem cams are the best cams on the market. Do a little searching and you'll find lots of opinions, including on this site.

In view of the Totem's features, whether the slight variations in size ranges afforded by other cams is arguably the wrong way to think about versatility. The Totems, because of their significantly narrower head width and ability to handle flared and shallow placements, will go all kinds of places your C4's and anything else you replace them with won't, and that will make your rack far more versatile than anything you can achieve with DMM, WC, and Metolius cams.

The only exception I can think of to this perspective is if you do a lot of desert climbing, in which case Metolius Fat Cams probably make more sense.

are the totum basics on a par with the mastercams?

just wait for X4's to come out

I've always been a fan of the WC. Just in between ranges with a smaller head for more shallow placements. I have the red and gold and love em.

Smaller range I used Metolius TCUS.

There are a couple threads were we've argued the "double C4's" to multiple pages if you are interested in some more in depth info.

More C4s for larger sizes, Wild Country for the really large sizes, Aliens and c3s for smaller sizes... and probably the x4 when it comes out.