Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

Thank you
The mounts are very close to dead center in both directions making repositioning with little recomposing.
I have avoided L Brackets for many years because their attachment directionality being side to side on the tripods instead of fore and aft.

tcthome Loc: NJ

Good deal.

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

Thank you tcthome

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

I'm impressed...! I haven't evolved past the "poking ants with a stick" use of a tool. 😁

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

LOL Thank you Sippy
Use a longer stick and poke a Hornets nest😎

Robertl594 Loc: Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and Nantucket

Amazon became a close friend when building my focus stacking rig. I would sit in my chair, thinking about how to make it easier to use, more adaptable and quicker to adjust. There are so many things that you can buy for very little money that provide Arca Swiss compatibility, quick release. Some key words to search by are Arca Swiss rails, Arca Swiss brackets, 1/4-20, lift tables, Arca Swiss quick 90 degree clamps, Arca Swiss clamps. Happy to share photos, if anyone wants to see. RRS, Neewer, SmallRig are all great manufacturers of these accessories.

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

I bought very little from the ready made market when I built my Macro"Studio "I repurposed a lot of parts to for the camera mount system and the Subject stage and table Table

https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-793798-1.html

99% of the movements of camera and subject are push button as well as light controls which makes composition real easy, movements are as small as.0025" which is all I need for my work.

Robertl594 Loc: Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and Nantucket

I love macro, and I love figuring stuff out and building things. Here is a photo of my rig I built. Took a while as it is still a work in progress. Sippy was a huge help in helping me figure stuff out. He is a very kind, generous and knowledgeable man.

My system, yes overkill, consisted largely of vertical and horizontal shooting capabilities. I started with a custom fabricated 3/8”x24”x12” aluminum plate with 1/4-20 tapped holes on a 2” grid. Horizontal axis has Cognisys stack shot and rotary table, adjustable vertical screw tables. Vertical axis has Cognisys stack shot rail only. 2 Nikon Z cameras with Thor labs home built tube lens with Mitutoyo 5X 5MPlan objective, various other lenses including objectives, Laowa and Nikon MC105 and MC60. Lighting: 3)Stella reflex continuous and flash lights, 3) Stella led lights, Various ring flashes and homemade diffusers. I use a tethered computer with Nikon software to be able to see the images with focus peaking so I can set up the parameters for each shot.

I know that you don’t need all of this stuff to get great photos, but, as I said earlier, I love to build things as much as I like using them.

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

Very nice!!
When I decided to go into Macro I knew I would not be able to do the really small subjects, I checked to We Macro and the Cognisys equipment and found it way to expensive and much finer move movements than I would need and much too complicated for me, I tried the Tether tools system but I didn't have enough light to get a sharp image and colors.
So using what I had available and purchasing two small CNC router kits I had the makings for the camera "Rail" and the stage platform, the Gantry's were used to move the stage up & down and left & right the table allows fore & aft.
The camera platform use the table for Left & right while a heavy duty Linear allows fore & aft Plus two manual sliders do the coarse adjustments.
The lighting is from my Studio days. I use a D810 and a 200mm f4 Nikkor micro and will be using a Nikkor 105 micro for my Mini still life work. hence the "L" bracket.

Robertl594 Loc: Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and Nantucket

I really like your 2 axis system to control in/out and left and right.

Lighting is super important. You don’t need fancy lights and you can make homemade diffusers using vellum paper and cardboard tubes, cut ping pong balls etc. I bought 4” lucite tubes and cardboard tubes, cut out a hole for the lens to view through and covered them in vellum. Works really well. LED lights are inexpensive these days. Just be careful not to blow out highlights on any of your images.

I would love to see some of your work, if you care to share.

joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

You could teach NASA a thing or two 😯😯😯😯

ialvarez50

I found this for my micro photography. Greatest invention since sliced bread. Micro movements back and forth and side to side. Amazon, $81.00. It is metalic, not plastic.
NEEWER 4-Way Macro Focusing Rail Slider with Quick Release Plate, 1/4”-20 Thread for Macro Photography and Close-Up Shooting, Compatible with any camera.
https://a.co/d/gyOCY9Q

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

I gave two of those away !!
They were okay at the time but not enough range of movements to suit me

ialvarez50

Since I just need to move my camera millimeters, this is more than enough for me.

mikee

You can buy a universal L-bracket on ebay for about $12. That would save me the cost of a metal saw, stock material, drill press, tap, etc.