PHOTTIX 4-WAY MACRO FOCUSING RAIL

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Spencer McCarthy
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s h i v v e r m a p h o t o g r a p h y Product Reviews PHOTTIX 4-WAY MACRO FOCUSING RAIL Copyright 2013 Shiv Verma.

2 Phottix Phottix (Hong Kong) Ltd. is a Honk Kong based company specializing in photography accessories. In addition to their headquarters in Honk Kong they have offices in Germany and Poland. The company provides a plethora of photographic accessories form remote shutter releases, flash triggers, and studio accessories, to the innovative and US patent pending Phottix Odin TTL Trigger and Strato Series wireless trigger systems. In addition they provide flash diffusers, rechargeable batteries, battery grips, cables, UV filters, lens caps, tripods, ball-heads and other accessories. Disclaimer Trademarks All products mention in this review are trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective manufacturers. All product names identified throughout this review are used in editorial fashion only and for the benefit of such companies with no intention of infringement of the trademark. 1

Review of the Phottix 4-Way Macro Focusing Rail January 2013 Phottix Macro Focusing Rail Serial Number - not available Type: 4-Way Cross Axis Macro FocusingRail length: 16 cm Construction: 2 rails.

The ability to move the camera and lens combination in managed increments is essential to accomplishing greater depth of field macro images by combining individual images in a single stack.

3 Review of the Phottix 4-Way Macro Focusing Rail January 2013 Phottix Macro Focusing Rail Serial Number - not available Type: 4-Way Cross Axis Macro FocusingRail length: 16 cm Construction: 2 rails. Mounts on and accepts standard tripod 1/4 inch screws Movement Front-to-back: 0-10cm Side-to-side: -5.5cm cm A good macro rail is essential for good macro photography. The ability to move the camera and lens combination in managed increments is essential to accomplishing greater depth of field macro images by combining individual images in a single stack. Packaging: The Phottix Macro Rail arrives packaged in a rectangular cardboard box that is reasonably constructed. Neither the packaging nor the unit itself show the country of origin or manufacture. Rail: The Phottix macro rail is a two axis worm driven rail set. The horizontal movement is a total of 11 cm on the scale in a -5.5/+5.0 configuration. The fore/aft movement is a total of 9.8cm on unit I tested though the travel scale indicates 10cm. Set-up: The system has a slotted top mounting plate with 1/4 20 mounting screw and an oversized plastic wheel to tighten. The position of the tightening wheel is very close to the locking knob for horizontal movement rail. As supplied, the unit is good for lighter camera bodies. It is not possible to adequately secure a larger DSLR to the plate. Any use of force will clearly break the plastic tightening wheel. However these limitations can be overcome with a few modifications that I will address later. 2

the assembly to the tripod. This configuration unfortunately prevents any repositioning of the assembly at any angle except by altering tripod leg heights.

4 As supplied, the unit has two 1/4 20 threads that allow the unit to be attached to a tripod or any mount that has a 1/4 20 threaded male screw. After many different camera body and tripod mounting tests, the best method I found to securely assemble the unit for macro use was to first attach the camera body to the focusing rail and then mount the assembly to the tripod. This configuration unfortunately prevents any repositioning of the assembly at any angle except by altering tripod leg heights. In my opinion, this configuration is not acceptable for macro photography. For good macro work it is imperative to attach the rail to a ball or a pan and tilt head, that will allow positioning for good angles and good orientation to the subject. To secure this rail to a tripod head a small modification is required. I added an Arca Swiss compatible mounting plate from Really Right Stuff to the base of the macro rail using a ¼ 20 stainless steel screw. Adding a mounting plate to the base of the unit permits mounting the assembly to an Arca Swiss compatible ball-head. Note: You will need to use a medium to a large ball head. Small ball-heads will not provide the 3

5 required stability needed for macro photography. The second modification I recommend, would allow you to mount your DSLR or any camera to the focusing rail, without having to fumble around with flimsy screws and plastic tightening wheels. First remove the camera mounting screw and wheel from the mounting plate. Using a 1/4 20 stainless steel screw, a split washer and a hex nut, firmly secure an Arca Swiss compatible clamp, or equivalent based on the camera plates you use. Note: alternate Arca Swiss plates and mounts are available from manufacturers like Kirk, Feisol, Acratech, Giottos, etc. I happen to like the Kirk and Really Right Stuff products for their quality, precision and durability. For illustrative purposes the Phottix rail was not modified as some surface Now you can mount the focusing rail to the marring may have occurred. This is an equivalent product to show the ball head, secure it, and then mount your camera plate mounting. DSLR to the rail using the clamp mounted on the upper plate. This modification will allow you to maintain any orientation of camera body as long as I have a compatible L plate secured on the camera body. Performace: The Phottix macro focusing rail is stable with no perceptible slack in the gear mechanism. The 4 way multi axis movement is smooth and there is no drift when the rails are locked down with the independent locking screws. For testing a Canon 7D was used with a mm lens, a 25mm extension tube and a 500D diopter. This was primarily set up to test the weight bearing capability and to verify smoothness of the rail travel under load. The entire assembly was acutely angled to test for any focus creep. There was no perceptible creep in any direction and tightening the locking screws, further secures the 4 way focusing rails. For Macro image capture tests, a Canon 7D was used with a Canon 100 mm f2.8 macro lens. Using this rail to focus is very easy and comfortable. I tested the rail to capture single macro images as well as for a macro focus stack. The stack set was later combined using an image stacking application from HeliconSoft. Both the single image and the stack were successfully executed. The stack set of images is shown as a grid of 11 images. Each image was captured by moving the focusing rail by 1/4 cm in a front to back direction. The image exposure triad was ISO 200, f2.8, 1/50 sec. All images were captured in raw. The stack was compiled using Helicon focus using the default settings. All images were eported as JPEG files for uses in this review. 4

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This is the final stacked image. No additional sharpening or cleanup was performed. Pros: Stable platform for macro work. Good gear mechanism with positive locking capability.

7 This is the final stacked image. No additional sharpening or cleanup was performed. Pros: Stable platform for macro work. Good gear mechanism with positive locking capability. No focus creep when positioned. Well constructed product. Cons: Heavy and very awkward to carry for field work. Should have optional accessories for camera and tripod mounting. Rails could be designed to separate so if only one axis macro was desired, it could be easily accomplished. This would also make it easy to carry into the field. Conclusion: The Phottix Macro Focusing rail is by no means a high precision device. However, it is an excellent tool for macro photography in the studio environment and acceptable for field work. At the current street price of around $72 this product is a great value. This product review has beed provided at the request of Hunts Photo Video of Melrose, Massachusetts. The Phottix Macro Focusing Rail is available from Hunts at 6

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