Best micro cams

I’m planning on extending my rack to some micro cams and wondering everyone’s favorite and why. I am in the southeast on sandstone mostly. I’ve been looking at aliens, z4s, zeros, and dragonfly’s.

Kevin DeWeese wrote:

Aid or free? What kind of rock and area are you planning on the majority of use for them? Are you looking at .4"-.6" micro cams or .2"-.4" micro cams

Free. Sandstone in south east US. And all of them. I currently have triple rack down to a bd .3 but only have a .2 zero.

Anything but the z4’s

Anecdotally, of those options, I’ve had the best luck with dragonfly’s. I don’t own any, one of my climbing partners does and I really like them. I believe they currently have the smallest production cam out right now. Green Dragonfly is about the same size as a Purple C3?

Zero Friends are nice too, reminiscent of the X4’s from BD but I don’t like the soft spring action on the 0.1 and 0.2

I’ve had terrible luck with Z4’s. Ive broken so many of them

I’m also a huge fan of Aliens. I have a rack of the OG’s but the new ones seem to be very nice too

IMO: get Aliens or Dragonfly’s. They’ll serve you the best 

Huge fan of the Z4s. I haven’t tried most others other than the occasional C3 or TCU but I sure like them more than those and I love them - have had no issues despite taking constant lobs on 0.1 and 0.2 unfortunately 

All micro cams are equivalent, all microcams get broken if you don't place them properly. All will catch a fall. 

Dragonfly's are the widest option of the bunch and I believe the new aliens are the narrowest. 

Flip a coin because it really doesn't matter. 

There’s not one that’s universally better than the others. There’s just the one that fits the placement you need it to.  Given that, one brand/model won’t really do this more consistently than all the others as the geometry at that scale is so consequentially variable.  For that reason, having some variety is best.  

Totems are the best, in the sizes they come in, but the black totem isn't that small (it's a middle size between #0.3 and #0.2). 

I think Max and Seb are correct, their isn't a lot of meaningful difference between modern micro cams brands and models. 

For sandstone wide lobes are an advantage and I think DMM dragonflies have the most lobe surface area for micro cams. 

Sandstone tends to get a lot of pretty uniform cracks so you'll probably want a triple or quad rack of those sizes if you are climbing thin cracks a lot. That's a good opportunity to buy a few different brands and see which you like the best. 

I love my Z4's for free climbing and my alien revos for aid. 

Buy whatever is on sale. 

Sounds silly but I swear by this, Z4s are the best for .75+.5 (aka not micro), black totem to yellow totem for small not quite micro, and either dragonflies or zero friends for .1 + .2. People probably dont like this rack because it’s mixed,but I think you get the most versatile and best with this combo. Anything smaller than .1 zero friend probably isn’t worth placing anyways in sandstone. To me personally I wouldn’t bother with any 3 lobed cams when such good modern and narrow 4 lobe cams exist. Aliens are fine not great by todays standards. People hate z4s but I think they are great, just the .2 and smaller have some real issues. Since you climb on sandstone I would definitely start with the totems, best soft rock cam there is imo. 

Mastercams are light, durable, and about $30 cheaper than any other small cam. They get my vote every time.

Zach Kwrote:

Mastercams are light, durable, and about $30 cheaper than any other small cam. They get my vote every time.

And Metolius has an unmatched cam refresh service. They resling, lube, and polish older cams for a great price.

Rad company to support, as well.

WC zero friends are my favorite cams for 0.3-0.75, but the 0.1 and 0.2 are very floppy as they use a thinner cable, and they kink too easily. 

I like my green, red and yellow dragonflies though the action feels a bit mushy compared to the WCZFs. The handful of times I've placed my partners' Aliens they have felt slightly more crisp, but I like that the dragonflies have the same color scheme as the rest of my cams. 

Black totem min size is 0.7mm larger than the yellow z4 (11.7mm vs 11mm), they're basically equivalent in *almost* every application. 

Under the 0.3 size I’ll place my dragonflies first because they feel smooth and grippy, at the 0.3 size I like the Z4 because the dual axel makes it fit more places. The I don’t like the 0.3 WC Zero because the single axel keeps it from fitting in some narrower cracks, but the soft alloy seems inspiring. I’ll typically carry dragonflies and z4s because the z4s have a slightly wider expansion range.

I like the metolius.  

I love my BD x4s much more than single axle Z4s.  Bought them used on here and even the .1 has held a fall. SE rock (granite, gneiss,  sandstone, etc.) is generally good enough to hold even the tiny guys. I also just got a green dragonfly that I really like so far (no falls yet). I haven’t placed many of the smallest metolius ULMC but would love to hear from someone who can compare those. 

I haven't looked into it lately, but Metolius always used to have a different camming angle, which resulted in cams with less range.  This sucks when you feel like one piece will get stuck and then next one down is all bagged out.

GO

Bagged out cams are the worst.

GabeOwrote:

I haven't looked into it lately, but Metolius always used to have a different camming angle, which resulted in cams with less range.  This sucks when you feel like one piece will get stuck and then next one down is all bagged out.

GO

Metolius does use a smaller camming angle but in practice I don’t think the range difference is very noticeable with micro cams which already have a fairly small range. Plus smaller camming angle means more holding power. Where I do agree with your comment is double vs single axle in thin-hands & larger cams where the difference in range is more noticeable

If you're good with used cams I really like the old C3s and X4s in the small sizes (C3s are hard to find or expensive). As far as new goes, black Totem is the best almost micro and if you're going smaller then zero friends and dragonflies feel awfully similar to me. Lastly, the smallest z4s are trash in terms of trigger feel; For that reason I hate using them and therefore can't comment on how well they hold a fall or fit a weird placement by compared to anything else.

Also, this isn't what the OP asked for but maybe get some Ballnuts and brass offsets if you want to protect the really thin stuff; both get placed over here in Western North Carolina.

Black totem min size is 0.7mm larger than the yellow z4 (11.7mm vs 11mm), they're basically equivalent in *almost* every application.

With micro cams, it is really all about what fits in the individual routes you are getting on. The modern micro cams are all very similar except for tiny difference in size. Totem of course being a stand out, but it only gets so small. For me, black totem has by far the most utility followed by .1/.2 offset followed by .2 offset (ever so slightly smaller than black totem, but different enough that the variety is nice). I personally almost never place .1 or lower.