Favorite micro cams?

I stopped climbing on gear in 2018, but I’m gonna start back up. I need a few cams smaller than the Totem Black. I’ve used Alien Evo Lites, X4s, Mastercams, and Ballnuts. Tiny cams need closer to perfect placements, but bonus points for cams that are better in weird rock and horizontals. There aren’t many vertical splitters in NC. For those of you who use and fall on such cams, which are your currently sold favorite?

Pretty much everything 4 lobed is good these days. I prefer Z4s

You can split micro cams into two categories, tanks and sports cars. Z4's or a UL master cam's are tanks, they take a lot of abuse and use a hard metal, a sports car might be an alien or a zero friend as they use much softer metal which significantly shortens the life span but will also function much better in flares and slippery rock. Aside from this categorization, they're all more or less the same, same head widths similar flexibility and the same internal spring. The only micro that is notably wider than the rest is the dmm dragonfly but at the same time, they have a higher MBS and offer by the numbers the absolute smallest cam on the market.

it is also worth asking yourself if a camp ballnut might not be a better choice.

that guy named seb wrote:

 A z4... is a tank, they take a lot of abuse 

   best lol I've had on MP in a while. By "a lot," do you mean one fall?  ;) 

fwiw, I've two lobed a green dragonfly once, and it held bodyweight, surprised the heck out of me that it would hold. Wouldn't trust any of those cams (aside from 00 or 000 metolius) to hold more than a single fall, but hey, that's the price of admission, right?

The Z4s are a tank in the smaller, single axles sizes, although the larger double axle ones apparently have some issues. Fallen on mine a bunch now and not had an issues, but others have so YMMV.

Small cams are pretty much disposable anyways if you're going to whip on them 

I have counted every fall I have taken on my Z4 .1 and so far it has taken 12 falls and still works like a champ (2 of those falls it blew out so…) 

i like my c3s however seeing what people are paying for them seems completely unreasonable.. 

tried z4s dont care for em 

wc zero friends really feel nice to me 

C3s for me.  

Hello,

I still use the original CCH aliens and the classic fixe ones.

Thank you

Black, blue & yellow totem are the best in their sizes.

The 0.3 & 0.4 Z4s feel great but I've seen several deform and get retired with a single fall due to the thin dual axle lobe geometry. Mine have held several falls tho, so it's a roll of the dice based on rock crystals/roughness & cam retraction %. I like them in 0.3-0.75 a lot for the range and price (very often on sale). If any die, I might replace them with more totems. 

0.2 size I prefer the X4 to the Z4 for trigger feel but you can only buy the Z4 new right now so #0, 0.1 & 0.2 are fine. The rigid flex thing is pretty nice for wiggling in tiny cams. 

WC ZFs are decent, I like the extendable sling, although they can get kinked pretty easily. I have a 0.1 & 0.2 for my doubles with the Z4s. 

I have one yellow alien I bootied that I'm fond of and have whipped on, but since totems exist I've never considered buying more. I've used a friend's rack of aliens and they are too floppy in the micro sizes IMO, makes wiggling in and cleaning frustrating if they get hung up on a crystal. 

Some people swear by metolius, but after climbing a few days on the new ones, I just can't deal with the lack of thumb loop. Also the color scheme is just chaos to incorporate into a mostly BD/WC/Totem rack

DMM Dragonflies.

Jay Eggleston wrote:

DMM Dragonflies.

+1, I grabbed one of these on sale after getting a whole set of Z4s and wish I had just bought them. DMM makes immaculate products. As bomb proof as small cams come and same color/range overlap as BD cams

I like tcus. They are cheap, are easy to place, and feel good to place.

climbs sometimes wrote:

i find them closer in range to the metolius size. 

Not sure what you're saying, because their colors do in fact match w/ BD's range of cams. Perhaps your talking about their expansion range? I would love to buy Metolius but their color scheme is FUBAR compared to anybody else's cams

What is the definition of a micro cam? I think of it as anything smaller then .3 BD, but I’m not sure if that’s correct?

Jack Bushway wrote:

What is the definition of a micro cam? I think of it as anything smaller then .3 BD, but I’m not sure if that’s correct?

When they get small enough they are called bolts

There's a guy on here that has done extensive specific micro cam testing, probably the most on this planet. If you send him a direct message he might share his research. His name is Frank PS. Good luck!

Z4's are my go to. They are just sold all around and seem to have the least quirks. IMO, get a single rack 0-0.3 and then fill in the gaps with some more "specialist" pieces depending on what sizes you run into or what you like the feel of. If you can find a deal on an old rack of X4's they are nearly the same but with shiny beads. The smallest aliens are god tier 2/5 times you place them, with the other 3 times being completely unremarkable. WC Zeros are excellent if you enjoy fumbling with a kinked center wire while gripped out of your mind, so they are the go to for the real masochist. Dragonfly's are quality, I just don't personally see the advantage over Z4's, but its all personal preference. I have little experience with ball nuts in anything other than quartzite, but when nothing else will go in, they are a great get out of jail free card (or for 35 bucks).

How small is micro? IMHO a Black Totem is the larger that what I'd call Micro.
For me, the Metolius Master Cams, the Gray and the Purple are my go-to "micro" cams.

Mark Hudon wrote:

How small is micro? IMHO a Black Totem is the larger that what I'd call Micro.
For me, the Metolius Master Cams, the Gray and the Purple are my go-to "micro" cams.

Yes, as my post plainly says, cams smaller than black Totem   .  Thanks for the responses, especially if you suggested C3s when I specified currently sold cams

Brie Abram wrote:

Yes, as my post plainly says, cams smaller than black Totem   .  Thanks for the responses, especially if you suggested C3s when I specified currently sold cams

Sorry, My reading comprehension has gone down as I've gotten older. Also I'm a terrible Forum citizen, I almost never (accurately) read the original post.