I've considered the Nisi and Monfrotto rails. The weakness of this design is the carriage the camera sits on is held in place by a nylon bush at either end and the screw thread passes through the carriage. Unless the extrusion of the body is accurate, the bushes are acurate and the thread accurate and finely machined then backlash will be present at some point. Another weakness is the srew thread and bushes are exposed and will pick up debris if used near the ground. Many tests of the Nisi also mention and excessive amount of grease on the bushes and thread. This would dampen backlash. On that basis for not much more I went for the Novoflex Q rail as it's a rack and pinion design with a precision machined rack and pinion gear. I'm waiting delivery now and I'd be keen to know how you are getting on with your Nisi and are my fears about the design of it unfounded.
Many thanks for your comment. I think you have very good points especially about the fact that the screw is very exposed. I haven’t used it in the field enough yet to know if it’s really an issue (I’m waiting for hotter days...). I’ll let you know but I think I will mostly use it on a tripod and not directly on the ground that’s why I thought it wouldn’t be an issue... hope I’ll be right. On mine I didn’t notice too much grease though. I think the Novoflex is a really great choice from a very confirmed brand. I really hesitated so I’ll be very curious to have a come back from you when you have the chance to try it. Do not hesitate to get back at me and maybe share some of the pictures you did. Cheers and have a nice evening.
@@qapturephotography Yes it will be interesting to compare the results obtained from the two different designs. As I will be working with a high MP camera to avoid diffraction I will bne forced to shoot at lower F stops. F8 will probably be the maximum I will shoot at. My depth of field will be very shallow as a result so accuracy of movement on the rail is a big concern for me. I'll get back to you with my impressionson the Novoflex later in the week. Cheers and have a good one yourself.
After a day with the Novoflex I can confirm it has no backlash or movement in any direction at all. The rack and pinion adjust ment is precise and movement of 250 microns is easily achievable and with practice 125 should be possible. There's not grease or lubricant used on the rail at all the body is made of a heavy alloy extrusion and the carriage for the arca swiss plate to camera interface is rock sold and again with no movement. Worth a little extra to get probably the best manually adjustable focus rail on the market.
Hey. Thanks for your comment! The cheapest I know is one from Dorr… www.doerr-foto.de/en-us/photo-videoaccessories/others/macro-focussing-rail-ms-160-326025?returnurl=%2fen-us%2fsearch%3fq%3dfocus you can mount it on a tripod but I believe it won’t work well for shooting videos cause it probably doesn’t move smoothly enough. The nisi I reviewed in this video can be mounted on tripod too and is probably better for video. Still I believe it can cause your video to shake when you go back and forth… best would be an electric one for video but it’s more expensive of course. Hope this help. Cheers.
Merci pour ce test très complet et intéressant. Je suis abonnée à votre chaîne depuis peu, mais je commence aussi la macrophotographie depuis peu. J’adore vos vidéos, vous voir faire vos macro photos dans les bois….j’ai déjà appris beaucoup. J’ai visionné aussi les vidéo sur les flashs. J’ai un éclairage annulaire avec des leds et c’est parfois trop fort….je vais essayer de « bricoler » quelque chose… Concernant le traitement d’images en focus stacking avec Affinity, je serais très intéressée, je traite mes photos avec DXO et pour l’instant cette rubrique n’existe pas, merci d’avance. Merci pour vos bons conseils. Joëlle
I've considered the Nisi and Monfrotto rails. The weakness of this design is the carriage the camera sits on is held in place by a nylon bush at either end and the screw thread passes through the carriage. Unless the extrusion of the body is accurate, the bushes are acurate and the thread accurate and finely machined then backlash will be present at some point. Another weakness is the srew thread and bushes are exposed and will pick up debris if used near the ground. Many tests of the Nisi also mention and excessive amount of grease on the bushes and thread. This would dampen backlash. On that basis for not much more I went for the Novoflex Q rail as it's a rack and pinion design with a precision machined rack and pinion gear. I'm waiting delivery now and I'd be keen to know how you are getting on with your Nisi and are my fears about the design of it unfounded.
Many thanks for your comment. I think you have very good points especially about the fact that the screw is very exposed. I haven’t used it in the field enough yet to know if it’s really an issue (I’m waiting for hotter days...). I’ll let you know but I think I will mostly use it on a tripod and not directly on the ground that’s why I thought it wouldn’t be an issue... hope I’ll be right. On mine I didn’t notice too much grease though.
I think the Novoflex is a really great choice from a very confirmed brand. I really hesitated so I’ll be very curious to have a come back from you when you have the chance to try it. Do not hesitate to get back at me and maybe share some of the pictures you did. Cheers and have a nice evening.
@@qapturephotography Yes it will be interesting to compare the results obtained from the two different designs. As I will be working with a high MP camera to avoid diffraction I will bne forced to shoot at lower F stops. F8 will probably be the maximum I will shoot at. My depth of field will be very shallow as a result so accuracy of movement on the rail is a big concern for me. I'll get back to you with my impressionson the Novoflex later in the week. Cheers and have a good one yourself.
Ja
After a day with the Novoflex I can confirm it has no backlash or movement in any direction at all. The rack and pinion adjust ment is precise and movement of 250 microns is easily achievable and with practice 125 should be possible. There's not grease or lubricant used on the rail at all the body is made of a heavy alloy extrusion and the carriage for the arca swiss plate to camera interface is rock sold and again with no movement. Worth a little extra to get probably the best manually adjustable focus rail on the market.
Many thanks for your feed back. I’m very glad to hear that’s you’re happy with the novoflex. I might consider being my next... take care.
Thanks for coming back on this Steve, very useful for me.
Will it work on a Dolica GX 600 B200 Proline GX Series
It’s Arca Swiss compatible… so as long as your tripod has an arca swiss clamp it should work. Cheers!
Thanks for your review. Can you recommend a cheap slider that will work well in shooting short macro videos and can be mounted on a tripod?
Hey. Thanks for your comment! The cheapest I know is one from Dorr… www.doerr-foto.de/en-us/photo-videoaccessories/others/macro-focussing-rail-ms-160-326025?returnurl=%2fen-us%2fsearch%3fq%3dfocus you can mount it on a tripod but I believe it won’t work well for shooting videos cause it probably doesn’t move smoothly enough. The nisi I reviewed in this video can be mounted on tripod too and is probably better for video. Still I believe it can cause your video to shake when you go back and forth… best would be an electric one for video but it’s more expensive of course. Hope this help. Cheers.
Merci pour ce test très complet et intéressant. Je suis abonnée à votre chaîne depuis peu, mais je commence aussi la macrophotographie depuis peu. J’adore vos vidéos, vous voir faire vos macro photos dans les bois….j’ai déjà appris beaucoup. J’ai visionné aussi les vidéo sur les flashs. J’ai un éclairage annulaire avec des leds et c’est parfois trop fort….je vais essayer de « bricoler » quelque chose…
Concernant le traitement d’images en focus stacking avec Affinity, je serais très intéressée, je traite mes photos avec DXO et pour l’instant cette rubrique n’existe pas, merci d’avance.
Merci pour vos bons conseils. Joëlle
Merci Joëlle pour ce commentaire. Je penserai à faire une vidéo tutoriel sur le focus stacking… bien à vous.
Very nice video !!!!
Thank you very much
Thanks. As useless as the feet are they are necessary to turn the rear handle. I would have prefer two knurled knobs verses the crank.
Very true... :)