Favorite small cams?

So I'm beginning to crawl my way back into climbing more seriously from a 20 year soft period.  I am looking to replace a lot of my gear to get up-to-date and upgrade my gear.  Carabiners are pretty easy.  Ovals/solid bent gates -> wire gates is huge.  Replacing all my old slings because I like to live. Now I'm looking to replace my smaller cams like the smallest, non-offset CCH Aliens up to around 1 inch or so. I'm keeping my offset Aliens for possibly jumping back on a wall route.

I know, I should have searched the forums for the current recommendations.  But I didn't do that.  Feel free to leave a snarky remark; I'm used to it.

What would the current thinking be about the best small cams for free climbing these days?  And I'm OK with mixing different kinds of cams.

Thanks!

C3s

C3’s and small Totems. 

Blue and black totems and metolius grey to orange are my go-tos for small cams.  I tried both the z4 and x4s and just don't like them at all.  My partner has dragonflies but I don't love them either and don't think they have anything to offer that the metolius doesn't for the extra cost.

At the end of the day it'll come down to personal preference.

I like the small totems, and place the black, blue and yellow very often.  Also use .3 X4 and the yellow C3, both are great.  I have the red and green Z4's but rarely place them when free climbing.  

shredward wrote:

I like the small totems, and place the black, blue and yellow very often.  Also use .3 X4 and the yellow C3, both are great.  I have the red and green Z4's but rarely place them when free climbing.  

Just bought the three smallest Totem Cams.  Next stop, home equity loan :)  Thanks to you and everyone else for the advice.

You're not going to get a consensus answer on this - the other threads are similar. Get your hands on other folks gear and figure out what you like most. For me, that's the black and blue totem and the Z4s from 0.3 - 0.5 (though I also love the 0.75 Z4 too). For some of my friends its ULMCs or TCUs, for others it's C3s, for some its aliens, etc. You won't know until you use them yourself. 

Edit: I have the Z4s from 0-0.2 as well I just almost never have to place them so I can't speak on them.

YMMV but: 

I love Z4’s

C3’s are good but I like the trigger and range of Z4’s more.
Zero friends feel super floppy placing and I don’t trust the durability

Never placed a dragonfly but they feel great

Like totems, but I don’t love the range of the black one and the sizing doesn’t go too small, but they’re great at what they’re good at.

UL Mastercams: cheapener but the 0.2 Z4 is about the same as the rangers of 0 and 1 ULMC. Feels a little more finicky in placements and the trigger narrows and doesn’t fit my thumb well, but despite that I actually like them
Regular Dragons/C4’s/Friends: I don’t see a reason to get anything other than one of the above for 0.3-0.4. At 0.5 it’s borderline but I love the 0.5 Z4. 

I feel like the c3 comments are trolling. But I’d still have to agree, I rack c3’s, aliens, totem basics, mastercams, and metolius tcus and love them all. They just get used, by me, slightly differently. But I’m only taking singles in the small sizes it’s a 000 c3 and back through orange alien. 

Nathan Bilthuis wrote:

I feel like the c3 comments are trolling. But I’d still have to agree, I rack c3’s, aliens, totem basics, mastercams, and metolius tcus and love them all. They just get used, by me, slightly differently. But I’m only taking singles in the small sizes it’s a 000 c3 and back through orange alien. 

No troll, just a fan of C3s. They go where others do not.

I have dragonflies - I like them okay, but I think I like Z4s and C3s more. I have not tried zero friends, but I'm very interested to test them out. Black totem is king once cracks are at that size. I've gotten in to a habit of *not placing* it sometimes because I want to save it for those 'oh shit' moments

c3s

Jake P wrote:

No troll, just a fan of C3s. They go where others do not.

I would agree. I love mine, unfortunately I’m without a purple. The whole, rigid when placing, flexible when not bs about the z4’s, I don’t buy it. But the c3’s do an awesome job of being stiff enough to almost slot them into nut placements, but the flex just enough the other way. Really a shame they discontinued them.

I still prefer Aliens (old style or Revo-style) after purchasing a rack of Zero Friends and climbing with friend's Z4s, x4s, mastercams and dragon flies

DMM Dragonflies #1-#3

BD Z4s 0.3-.075

Metolius Ultralight Mastercams #00-#5

Big Fan of the Metolius UL Mastercams. I Rack 00-3 in the UL's then BD up to 4. 

For .0-.2 sizes, there doesn’t seem to be any clear winner other than c3’s and ULMCs

Z4s suck at micro sizes. The three smallest c3s are vastly better than the equivalent z4s. I struggled to get a .1 z4 to take the same placements a purple c3 would easily hold in.

z4 .3 and up are probably the best design on the market, minus the lobes being too hard, for their price. There are multiple people claiming the lobes hardness causes them to fail in good placements, though. Also, the plastic gaurd will probably have durability issues. 

I fucking love my totems. I believe they have better “range” than most double axle cams of the same size, since they can handle offset placements; whereas a normal cam would blow and fail. So, cam range isn’t really an applicable comparison for how useful a totem will be compared to a different cam design.

The best micro cam for free climbing despite being my least favourite micro cam would be the dragon fly, its the widest of the micro's and has a slightly grindy action but its also the strongest and is stiff enough.

Z4's are fine as are aliens, wild countries are good and have an extendable sling but the .2 is strangely very flexible.

The black totem is a must, after that it's only 1/2 micro cams. 

I’m basically in the same boat getting back into it and have been replacing old gear over the last 2 years. I bought a .2 of the Z4s, WC Zero Friends, and equiv UL Metolious MC to test out. After 5 trips leading on them I completed the WC Zero Friends, sold the Z4, and kept the MC. I felt like the WCs placed best for me, and once I got a feel for them really trusted the placements in the right circumstances. I also liked the double sling, the flexibility after placement was a little unsettling at first but it didn’t really bother me. I did not like anything about the Z4.

I blindly upgraded to C4s .5-4 and was happy with that decision, but really glad I bought a couple of the smaller sizes to test out on before completing the set.

Purely anecdotally I've heard about the dragonflies being easy to break. Something about all the parts being so close together. I have the red and it feels like the parts crunch together when retracting without sufficient lube. Also dragonfly expansion ranges are kinda awkward at the blue BD 0.3 size when trying to mix and match with other brands.

Z4s and WC zeroes are pretty nice and have narrower heads than dragonflies. Totems are phenomenal and overlap really well with BD. Depending on where you climb, the smallest sizes (green and red) can be a lifesaver. I climb in the southeast and the green BD #0 has come in super handy, as has the red dragonfly