campagnolo road brake calipers
 

I'm looking at buying a set of brakes for my road bike project. It seems I can get a set of lower-end campagnolo calipers for a good price, with the "mirage" as the cheaper option and the "centaur" a few bucks more. both look nice. the only difference I can see is in the pads--the mirage seems to have pads where the bolt sticks out of the rubber, and the centaur has cartridge types. Does anybody know if there is another difference? Is there an advantage to the cartridge, and is it worth paying more for?

if they're within $10 of each other, you might as well buy the centaur.
cartridge pads are better because you can do fine adjustments, like toe in and camber angle, to line up the pad to the surface of the rim better.

You can also buy after market cartridge brake pad holders with pads from koolstop which are about $15 for a pair or $30 for a set.
koolstop brake pads are $10/pair for campy style.

Buy the Centaurs to get the pad holders. As AEO mentioned, the holders are easier to align and set for toe. Also, once you have them adjusted, you don't have to readjust them every time you replace worn brake pads.

Do keep in mind that there's no release lever on Campy brake calipers which allows the brake pads to clear the tire when you're removing the wheel. Campy brake levers have a release button at the lever, and most Tektro, Cane Creek, etc. aero brake levers have a similar button on the lever as well. But if you're using a bike with Shimano or SRAM brake lever/shifters, you'll have no way to release the calipers with Campy brake calipers. Not the end of the world, you could always deflate the tire when you remove the wheel, but that's definitely an inconvenience.

I see, that's good to know. But does this mean that the non-cartridge pads on the cheaper set won't allow you adjust the toe angle? The low-end shimano brakes I was looking at didn't have cartridge pads and you could still adjust the angle of the pad because of the way the mounting nut worked. I thought the campignolo ones were the same way.

doesn't look like it.

seems like tiagra calipers advanced a bit. earlier models lacked fine adjustments and were just blocks of rubber tightened directly to the the arm.

So when you go shopping. after wearing the original set,
get a different after market brake shoe to get the slide in rubber.

not a deal breaker..

Not necessarily. The Mirage caliper arm slots are narrower than other brakes and will not accept aftermarket brake shoes. I'd go for the Centaurs

The only other difference could be weight. I think the Centaurs are lighter then the Mirages. But remember its Campy, so its good stuff.