NiSi NM 200 Macro Focus Stacking Rail Review - Budget Friendly Macro Focus Stacking Accuracy
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- čas přidán 5. 08. 2024
- NiSi NM 200 Macro Focus Stacking Rail - Budget Friendly Macro Focus Stacking Accuracy
Show notes, chapter time stamps & Links - click to expand this description box!
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Time Stamps:
00:00 Intro
02:28 What's In The Box (NM-180 & NM-200)
05:37 Rail Features Overview (NM-180 & NM-200)
15:33 Shooting a Focus Stack (NM-180) including step length calculations - Andy-Math!
18:35 New NM-200 Step Length & Accuracy - huge improvement over the NM-180
21:04 BONUS USE - Nodal Rail for landscape panorama shooting
25:30 Leadscrew Release & Carriage Rotation Detail (NM-200)
29:24 NM-200 BACKLASH - and why you should NOT stress about backlash in any rail
38:59 Two Are Always Better Than One - crossed rails for composition
Alan Walls' excellent review of the NM-180 • NiSi NM-180 Macro Focu...
In this video I look at the two focus stacking rail offerings from NiSi - the NM-180 and the NM-200.
A focusing stacking rail for macro photography gives you the ability to create incredible amounts of depth of field in you macro photography.
While the NM-180 is good, it lacks the ability for the user to carry out calibrated repeatable steps in a focus stack shooting operation, there is a bit of 'guesstimation' required!
But the new NM-200 has taken ALL the guess work out of the equation, and provides the user the ability to make exact, precision steps down to as little as 10 microns.
Here is the link to NiSi UK: nisioptics.co.uk/?raf=ref0593870
At the moment there is no link for the NM-200 on their Amazon shop.
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#nisi #nisioptics #macro #macrophotography #focusstacking #macroworld #macrophoto
Just heard from NiSi that they are having Macro Days for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th September 2022 with the NM200 discounted 7%, the NM-180, the macro close up 77mm and 58mm discounted 15% for the weekend. So head over to the NiSi Store nisioptics.co.uk/?raf=ref0593870 if you want to take advantage of these discounts.
well dammit, I just bought the nm 200! and I have the 77mm close up already... haha such is life!
One of the best technical explanations I have seen in anything. I worked with one of the technicians on the Thrust SSC car for a time. He had that talent too. (Either you can teach, or you can't. You both can). Thanks. Macro takes a lot of frames!!!
Thanks a lot John, much appreciated !
What a wonderfully precise explanation. Thank you, Sir.
You are very welcome
Very nice in depth review.
Thanks Andy
Glad you liked it Hans 👍
Yep, you're right.. Greetings from Colorado USA.. 😁😎🇺🇸
Thank you Andy. Enjoyed.
Cheers Ian 🍻
Ok. I'm convinced. I've been looking round for a macro focusing rail to do some close up watch photography. Was initially drawn to the rather expensive RRS Macro Rail, but found a scarcity of reviews for the thing, so decided to hold fire and look round.
Thank goodness I did. THIS NM200 looks like it's exactly what I'm looking for, with decent quality, a reasonable price and looks like it might even be better than the RRS offering. Thank goodess NiSi takes orders on backorder, because they have none in stock right now. So I'll have to wait a month or two, but that's fine. I am nothing if not patient.
The only thing I'd replace it with is a motorised one - WeMacro or Stackshot - making 100+ shot stacks less tedious. But I do think it's great VFM, and really precise.
Excellent explanation of this slider. I'm gonna order it right away.. Greetings from Colorado USA.. 😁😎🇺🇸
Thanks Dennis, and greetings from sunny Cheshire - my scenery's not bad, but not as dramatic as yours!
Hope you enjoy using the NM-200 when you get it.
I'd like to do more macro videos here on the channel so if you want anything specific covered then please just let me know.
@@AndyAstbury I've enjoyed my time at Newcastle University for two semesters.. I'll still remember "SnakeBite" at the Lord Collingwood Pup in Newcastle.. 😁😎🇺🇸
If you drank much of it Dennis I'm surprised you remember anything 😂😂🍻😂 I'll bet it was Strongbow and Stella up there in Geordie-land - with black currant for the ladies (and I use the term loosely)!!!
@@AndyAstbury Now as you mentioned, my favorite cider. Strongbow. I remember another incident, entering a pub in Edinburgh there was a sign above the counter. I said "No SnakeBite sold".. Hillarious.. 😂😎🇺🇸
Fruit-based alcohol shouldn't be mixed with grain-based alcohol - so the theory goes! But in Edinburgh you should have been drinking "90 shilling" or "Wee Heavy" - far better than bloody Snakebite 🍻😂🙃
What would be the QR clamp optimal radius for this rail?
Hi.
Great video, but I'd like it better if the first 18 minutes were not in that tiny window. I just ordered an NM-200 and will keep my older rail to do the cross type adjustments that you show. Very handy!
Good video, Andy. Is there grease or lubricating oil on the silver screw? Thanks!
The example I reviewed Walter had no excesses of lubricant present.
Hi Andy, can u help please, not related to this vid but basic Q on raw therapee , I can load thumbnails and they show in browser but when I try to open one in edit window I just get a blank white screen? CR3 files , raw, maybe simple solution but can't fix it. THANKS
Hi Mike - yes, it's a problem that I've covered in one or two previous videos. The problem is that the CR3 decompiler codes are not integrated into dcraw which is the cornerstone of RT. I know Darktable runs on Libraw which can understand the CR3 format. But while waiting for RT to catch up, the simple answer is to convert the CR3 files to DNG - that way RT can read them and you can do everything you need/want to just as if they were a raw file.
If you don't have Lightroom, then you can do this by downloading the FREE DNG converter from Adobe - yes, Adobe do give stuff away for free!!
@@AndyAstbury Thanks Andy , much appreciated. If I may ask also if you had to pick one raw editor mainly for wildlife stuff?
Want to do a good job but keeping as straightforward as possible, have been looking at capture one which seems to be comprehensive, I actually like DPP for my canon files but so slow.
Thanks for a great review Andy. Nisi UK actually gave me your name as I asked them about the nm200 adjustment wheel being stiff to turn, and that I'd moved the lock lever to the middle and made the wheel easier to turn. I now realise why that isn't a good idea in terms of preserving accuracy! You mention mounting an nm200 on and nm 180 for horizontal shifting... in your opinion, would `I lose anything by buying a cheap rail for the side to side shift, as long as I use my nm 200 for the accurate focusing/stacking work? I'd be interested in your thoughts/guidance.
Hi John, it depends what you mean by 'cheap'! I lust for that £1800 Castel jobbie, so anything is cheaper 😆 But being serious about your question, you want a lateral rail that is smooth and free from lead screw run-out. Run-out on the lead screw makes the image in say your live view move side to side and up and down. If you just want the lateral rail to aid composition, then a little bit of run-out is not worth mentioning, because as soon as you are settled on the composition you won't be using it again in that shot/finished stack. But, if you want to shoot multiple stacks in a macro panorama then you want a lateral with ZERO lead screw run-out, so all the overlapping stacks are in good alignment - and in that case TWO NM-200 rails is the cheapest and most cost-effective way to go that I can think of......plus the calibrated adjuster helps with accurate overlapping.
I have this idea of shooting a small Dragonfly like a Common Darter, head on to the camera, at 2:1 with a reversed 50mm enlarger lens and 68mm of extension. My main central stack will encompass the head and legs. Then move the whole rig with a lateral rail, to the right leaving a 25% overlap with the central one, and shoot a second stack. Repeat the process until I'm partially past the right wing tip,the return the rig to the central position and mirror the process to the left. This would mean I ended up with 5 or 7 stacks, which when stacked, could be taken into Photoshop and merged into a continuous pano. That's how those huge prints of small insects at the Natural History Museum where done. .... if you've ever seen them. A somewhat unique way of working!
Even with a stepper motor rail like a Cognysis or that Castel edifice, I'd still use a NiSi NM-200 mounted on that as the lateral rail.
But if that's not your bag and you just want it for the way I demonstrated in the video, just avoid anything that has a rack and pinion action AND avoid anything that doesn't have the Arca-style grooves for mounting in a clamping base; so that puts you smack in NM-180 territory from a price PoV.
Hope that helps John
@@AndyAstbury wow, thank you for a rapid and comprehensive reply Andy. I am relatively new to macro, having spent many years as a hobbyist landscape photographer. I've been increasingly drawn to 'small scenes', especially in woodland, and filed/studio macro seems a natural progression in the transition to smaller subjects. I am well aware that what seems overkill for me now (eg 7 stack panos), may well be my heart's desire in 12 months time, so I think your advice to go for another 200 (or as a minimum a 180) is very sensible. many thanks.
@@AndyAstbury further to your initial helpful comment Andy, as a lateral rail option would I be good with the nm 180 to save some money, or would you advocate the 200 as being worth the money. I do like the idea of pano stacks. I may take the plunge while the offer is on. Thanks!
The NM-180 works well for me just for composition John. But I'd like another NM-200 because when I start to do serious macro panos I'll want exact control over the millimeters of overlap between the stacks - in effect two crossed NM-200's become a big engineers XY trimming platform. Sectional stacks require pre-planning by precise numbers not guestimates, otherwise disappointment looms upon ones horizon - and a bucket load of wasted time to boot! Hope that helps....
@@AndyAstbury thanks again Andy. With an eye to the future I will invest in the 200 based on your advice. 👍
dont forget to show the final product because there are nosey people like me that wanna see xD.