Motorized bellows

[nathanm]

Yes I have the blue ring SK autofocus 120mm f/4

Note to others: the PhaseOne XF camera has a built in stacking feature. It requires an autofocus lens. To use it you focus to near and far points then say how many steps, and it takes the picture.

This is similar to what Helicon Capture does with autofocus DSLR lenses.

I have used the lens a bunch. It is decent, but at 1:1 it is no match for the Printing Nikkor 105mm.

The built in stacking feature is convenient for field work.

Because the camera stays fixed and the lens changes this is what Rik calls stacking "by ring". Moving the camera and lens as a unit is what he calls "by rail".

http://zerenesystems.com/cms/stacker/do ... versusrail

The number of frames is NOT the same as one would get for "by rail", which is not the same as one would do for motorized bellows - this is in fact the subject of earlier posts in this thread.

An annoying aspect of the built in focus stacking feature is that you must set it from the camera body, even if you are tethered to a computer, even if that computer is running CaptureOne which is made by the same company as the PhaseOne XF.

The built in stacking tops out at 250 frames, which is enough for a lot of shots but I shoot a lot of shots that are 1000 frames.

For sheer convenience, I prefer to use my motorized bellows rig - the software we wrote calculates the number of frames, it adjusts for non-uniform step sizes...

But the built in feature is good when I'm away from the studio.