I still recommend the geared rail but for less than 1/3 the price the slide is a very good option.
Matt
ahreno wrote:
Thank you. Nice photos as well. One thing I found that worked well was to buy a replacement tip of a drill off Amazon and use that to clamp down on the bud stem to hold it. It has some.weoght so it usually stands up good without being tippy
A little clay or putty if needed
So the rail you linked is $320, that's about what I paid for the motorized rail. Is there any reason to not just use it instead of a manual one?
How do you control it then? That must cost some money and time. Overall reliability would be lower than a mechanical device. I'd probably buy two in case one failed, since the Chinese product is probably not quickly serviceable.
I picked up some macrolenses on amazon. Not bad, those who say they suck, and I've seen such reviews, probably got the cheapest ones. Of course you have to try everything from experience, but amazon is a good place to look. BTW, the photos posted here aren`t of great quality, no offense. Perhaps the quality is lost when loading, but I`d have added sharpness and turned the levels. I myself love plant photography, I've even recently purchased a cannabutter machine to do oil and object photos simultaneously. It seems to work!
Some users change the gearing on manual rail focus. They make a disc, say 50mm diameter. They then cut out a hole in the middle to give a snug fit with the rail's focus knob. This enables much finer and more precise movements.
It isn't something I use very often, but my sunwayfoto MFR-150 is very well built and run smoothly. Seems like the main difference in single axis rails is just how finely threaded the worm screw is controlling the rate of movement. The sunwayfoto is 1.25mm per turn while Hejnar's is a more granular 1.06mm. I have several other Hejnar parts (not a rail) and all are extremely well made.
peter_n wrote:
This is my rig. The Z head is sitting on a Jobu table top pod. The Edelkrone is a very solid piece of kit, check out the reviews of the Oben rail on B&H.
Two years later… Appreciate you posting this!
I've been struggling to figure out a table top setup that won't be too tall or too cumbersome. This looks perfect for me, and I've got the parts ordered.
