DMM Dragonfly Cams?

Would love thoughts on these little guys from those who have used them (specifically the tiny ones, green and red). Thinking about getting a few, but would love to hear the pros and cons.

Better off just using passive protection? Would you whip on them? More effort than they're worth?

Anything is appreciated! :)

I just bought the red dragon fly as a replacement to my .1 Z4. What a huge difference! The trigger action is smoother and the camming range seems to be greatly improved (as much as you can for a mirco). The kN rating on the Dragonfly is marginally higher than that of the Z4 which adds a bit of extra trust for me. As does the extendable sling to help prevent the cam from walking. 

I have placed the cam a few times but havent been lucky enough to whip on it just yet... But so far, I would definitely recommend. 

They are the best small cams on the market currently.  As stated above much smoother than the new offerings from BD. 

The dragonflies are really nice cams, I also really like the trigger action and extendable sling. That said, I almost never place my red 0.1. I vastly prefer my ballnuts, at those tiny sizes, they basically work like a cam but have a much narrower head and fit in more places. They are also a little cheaper and rated a little higher. The red ballnut is roughly equivalent to the green dragonfly and the yellow ballnut is roughly equivalent to the red dragonfly. I do really like my yellow 0.2 dragonfly and still place that a bunch.

Similar thoughts to Israel above. I have green, red and yellow dragonflies. The yellow I quite like and use regularly, red and especially green I barely ever use. At least where I’ve been climbing you don’t often find perfectly parallel placements at those ranges and honestly if they don’t sit perfectly, I find it hard to trust those sizes. C3s might be slightly more useful in the smallest sizes because of their narrower head width. I also recently tried ballnuts for the first time and thought they might be a good replacement or at least complement in the smallest sizes as they fit in places where no cam will, have a higher breaking strength and are cheaper.

Very good in the micro-sized parallel cracks that form in limestone. 

Israel R wrote:

The dragonflies are really nice cams, I also really like the trigger action and extendable sling. That said, I almost never place my red 0.1. I vastly prefer my ballnuts, at those tiny sizes, they basically work like a cam but have a much narrower head and fit in more places. They are also a little cheaper and rated a little higher. The red ballnut is roughly equivalent to the green dragonfly and the yellow ballnut is roughly equivalent to the red dragonfly. I do really like my yellow 0.2 dragonfly and still place that a bunch.

Thank you for the thoughts! I've been toying with the idea of ballnuts too... how do you feel about getting them out once you've weighted them? I've heard that they can get stuck pretty easily (especially if you take or fall on them), but haven't tried them myself.

David Menken wrote:

Similar thoughts to Israel above. I have green, red and yellow dragonflies. The yellow I quite like and use regularly, red and especially green I barely ever use. At least where I’ve been climbing you don’t often find perfectly parallel placements at those ranges and honestly if they don’t sit perfectly, I find it hard to trust those sizes. C3s might be slightly more useful in the smallest sizes because of their narrower head width. I also recently tried ballnuts for the first time and thought they might be a good replacement or at least complement in the smallest sizes as they fit in places where no cam will, have a higher breaking strength and are cheaper.

Thank you for the honesty, that makes sense regarding the parallel placement trickiness... How do you find ballnuts do in offset or not "perfect" parallel placements?

Rowan Waller wrote:

Thank you for the honesty, that makes sense regarding the parallel placement trickiness... How do you find ballnuts do in offset or not "perfect" parallel placements?

Ballnuts perform best in parallel or constricting placements, cracks that flare outwards will be sketchy. However, since the head is quite narrow, you can often find a sweet spot in a wonky crack. between the blue and red ballnut, there's often small incipient seams that you would never even register as a cam placement that are now protectable. It's very rare that I've found a placement where a ballnut didn't work but I thought a green/red microcam would've. Do they even make offsets in those sizes?

As far as cleaning goes, I've not had any issues yet. They are basically like any other nut. It's important to understand how they work. The ball is a soft metal like brass that basically welds to the rock forming a constriction that the nut seats into. You clean them like any other nut: in most cases, you can just yank up which will unseat the nut from the ball; If it's really in there, you just take out the nut tool and clean it. I think the ballnuts are typically easier to clean than something like a brassie after falling. Perhaps harder to clean than a microcam, but microcams can also be really fucked up to clean if the leader had to finagle them into an oddly shaped crack to get a confidence inspiring placement.

If you do try ballnuts, give yourself time with the learning curve. They are not difficult to place once you learn, but they have their nuances and you have to slightly reorient your eyes to find the best placements for them. The red and yellow ballnuts are most useful and versatile, the blue is a bit advanced and you wont feel comfortable with it until you've placed the larger sizes a number of times.

You are always better off with passive gear in small sizes. Checkout the #5 microstopper test by the how not 2 highline guys.

That said, I love dragonflys and ballnuts. Many cracks are too shallow for ballnuts. 

I do love dragonfly cams but mostly in the sizes below totem (so basically green and red), and the offsets. The extendo sling is especially beneficial for funky offset placements, so that you don’t wiggle the cam out of place. In sizes equal to totems, it’s difficult to justify saving $5 over totems (yes, dmm goes on sale a lot more than totem, but there’s always ways to get discount totems, with some time investment).

Rowan Waller wrote:

Thank you for the honesty, that makes sense regarding the parallel placement trickiness... How do you find ballnuts do in offset or not "perfect" parallel placements?

Just depends on where you plan on climbing.  In my local areas the South Platte cracks tend to be deeper and ball nuts can perform well, Eldo the cracks tend to be more shallow and small cams are a better move. 

I only carry ball nuts on aid routes, I use cams on free lines. 

At these sizes, I'd generally prefer passive pieces, but sometimes nuts just aren't an option. 

Until recently, my smallest cams were a black totem and a 0.2 Z4. As many have said here and elsewhere, the trigger action on those single axle Z4s is atrocious. Vague. Mushy. I needed to get some smaller pieces for a specific project, and there was no way I was even going to consider the red and green Z4s. I was deciding between grabbing red and green Dragonflys or black and blue Alien X. I generally think DMM products are the bees knees, and people shit talk the various iterations of Fixe Aliens pretty badly, but in the end, being able to actually put my hands on the Aliens at a local shop won out, and I've got no regrets. Haven't whipped on them yet, but the fit and finish is great, they place really well, the trigger action is worlds better than than my yellow Z4. I'm very happy with them. 

If I decide to grab doubles of my baby cams, I'm likely to grab dragonflys though. And hell, I should probably sell my yellow z4 and replace that with a yellow DMM.

Like most here I prefer the dragonflys over z4 in the smaller sizes (yellow and below) and the z4 in blue and above  

Although I’m not a fan of the small z4’s they are easier to place and clean with the stiffer stem, are lighter and have a narrower head. 

I've used a fair few of the small sized cams on the market (and live 30mins from the dmm factory). Normally I'm a big fan of the dmm stuff but I just find the dragonflies really floppy and prefer the z4s for actually placing whilst stressed. I agree about the points being made against the z4, but in terms of actually placing it I know which I prefer.

The Dragonflies have wider heads than the competition. That is a big deal in micro sizes, it limits placement options without providing an advantage. Alien X (and Revo), Z4's, C3's, Zero Friends and totems have narrower heads. Dragonflies haven't been out for all that long but they already feel "a generation back" in the same way that X4 cams do. Personally, I would not buy them in 2024. 

On the plus side you can't really beat the fit and finish of DMM products and the dragonflies have nice trigger action. Do either of those advantages matter in real use? I'd say no. 

Scott D wrote:

The Dragonflies have wider heads than the competition. That is a big deal in micro sizes, it limits placement options without providing an advantage. Alien X (and Revo), Z4's, C3's, Zero Friends and totems have narrower heads. Dragonflies haven't been out for all that long but they already feel "a generation back" in the same way that X4 cams do. Personally, I would not buy them in 2024. 

On the plus side you can't really beat the fit and finish of DMM products and the dragonflies have nice trigger action. Do either of those advantages matter in real use? I'd say no. 

What you said about head width is just false.

In all but the largest sizes.

Totems are the narrowest i have found

If you actually hold up a dragonfly to an equivalent Z4, C3, Totem, and (MOST) fixe aliens the difference in head width is plainly evident -- no calipers needed. 

Look for yourself.