Focusing rail questions

[Chris S.]

If you can get a Nikon focus block for $66, good luck, I'd buy three now at that price! If seen very few, and they've been much higher. I paid about $160 for a coarser (?) Olympus BH-2 block, + $50 import duties + shipping of about $36.

At least one cheap one was out there a few months ago, when I accumulated my seventh focus block (Nikon and Olympus). I have some more projects in mind. . . .

For me, the key has been to search for cheap, badly described microscope junk on eBay, note anything that looks like it would have an appropriate block, and write the seller to see if the block works smoothly. Maybe I've just been lucky. (For those new to the forum--before purchasing any microscope focusing block, you will want to read this thread , as only certain focusing blocks are suitable, and one must be careful about their condition.)

A couple of Chris Hejnar plates and clamps would add $220 plus shipping probably $60 then duties. That's about $600 before any machine shop work.

Here is the set of FotoPro clamp and plate for $35 that made me quote that figure. Note that I have no experience with this brand.

I would not expect to pay more than $50 for this amount of fabrication. Probably more like $25. We are not talking about precision machining, which costs more. Cutting, drilling, and threading can be done quickly and still be done well.

[ChrisR]

$25 ! ! Your man is cheap!
Hereabouts you have to pay $100 to get a tap washer changed.
(That's about the same as that FotoPro clamp would cost me, to my doormat. )

[John Koerner]

A word to the wise about "going cheap" on your tripod/camera support for your consideration: cheap cost generally means "cheap materials," which (when you have thousands of dollars' worth of equipment literally riding on it) is not always the best way to go. When you have a camera, a good lens, and an MT-24 Flash at the end of it, you've got some respectable weight on your tripod ... and some respectable $$ ou out of your pocket ... and if you contort your tripod and extend it through rails ... the "added reach" adds to the weight, through the principle of leverage.

Well, what that means in basic English is that excess load weight placed on cheaply-made gear, can cause that cheap gear to break at the stress points, and if your expensive gear plummets to the ground because of this, you will wish you'd invested in better gear.

I personally bought a Really Right Stuff Macro Rail for Collared Lenses, because both of my macro lenses (Canon 180mm and MP-E 65) have collars on them, and because a collar ring dramatically-increases your composition flexibility. Back to the point: I know that Novaflex also makes excellent gear, and I recommend that folks try to invest in as sturdy as they can afford.

I find this subject important, because I too had "a cheap tripod" ... and a couple of years later I watched in horror as the head "snapped" at the connection screw due to the weight of my gear, which was almost a $3000+ loss for me. (Fortunately, I was only 6" above leaf litter, rather than up at full height over hard ground, and so my camera/lens were okay.)

I couldn't understand how this happened, as my tripod head was rated at 17 lb, and my gear weighed about 5 lb, so I thought I should have been okay. Wrong! I learned that extending your gear outwardly, increases the leverage of the weight, which if it's all held together by a cheap central screw can snap it and spell a disaster for you and your expensive equipment.

So I would personally caution those with some $$ invested in their gear to cut no corners on the support they literally have all of their gear riding on ... which means the tripod, the head, and the rail. Make sure what you buy is up to the task of supporting all your gear for many years to come. One "cut corner" on one "connection screw" can mean a ruined lens or camera, if your setup takes a fall ...

Hope this helps someone,

Jack


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