Wishlist

[M.A.Longmore]

.
I've been eBaying My Ass Off trying to get a good quality focusing rail.
And just missing it by this . much, so I started scanning Craigslist.
I found a unit, but kept bouncing emails back and forth trying to set an
appointment for the pick up. I was lucky enough to find the type of guy that has a computer,
but doesn't make use of any of our other modern conveniences. Like the U.S. Postal Service,
or PayPal. He told me that other people wanted to buy the rail, and some other equipment,
so now it was first come first served ! Not wanting to miss the deal, I left work at Midnight,
drove to Manhattan, which is the Perfect time of day for driving to Manhattan, in less than an hour.
Parked in front of his building, set the phone alarm to 7:55am to avoid a parking ticket.
Got a good nights rest, woke up a bit early bought The New York Times, and a Bagel !
Called him at 8:03am, I didn't want to wake him up too early, looked over the merchandise,
paid my money, and was home before 10:00am. The Early Bird Gets The Worm Again !,
and I didn't have waste five, or six hours in traffic going round trip to Manhattan during daylight hours.
I got a Grab Bag O' Film ( Asst'd Expired 120 ), a 72mm filter, a pneumatic shutter release,
And The Velbon Macro Slider for $68.00 !!! And avoided a $100.00 Parking Ticket !!!

What's On Your WishList ?

And I'm sure that I'm not the only one to make the Midnight Run for photographic equipment ?
Lets hear about some of your trips across country to get the right item, at the right price.


Ron

From The Long Island Of New York
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[Ralph Javins]

Good morning, Ron;

Well, my most recent one was not for close-up or macro gear, but I did go to a coffee shop about 15 miles away to pick up a dark room timer. There are a couple of them here now, and I will convert one of them to add an automatic reset and count again circuit along with a short duration alarm circuit. This will be a repeating timer. It will be used for such things as reminding me to stir or agitate something every few minutes. And, no, I did not make a midnight run to get it. However, this coming Labor Day Weekend, one of the scheduled activities will be to stop in one of the cities on the way to pick up a Minolta 35mm SLR camera and a couple of lenses for it.

Most of my purchases have been for things that delighted the UPS, FedEx, and USPS Parcel Post guys.

And, there are a couple of things I need to get for my Pentacon-Six bellows assembly, such as the Focusing Rail that goes under it, and a Lens Reversing Ring for the front of the bellows. I think I have a suitable dual cable release in stock already. One of the things I would like to find is the Automatic Lens Iris Stop-down Adapter that goes behind the lens to provide a more convenient way to take a photograph without disturbing the set-up when trying to manually stop down the lens. And, I do have an old Vivitar Bellows Assembly for Minolta SR mount, but I do not yet have the focusing rail for the Vivitar bellows.

As with so many things, finding the accessories that really make the thing work the way you think it really should work turns out to be the real challenge.

Enjoy; Ralph, Latte Land, Washington

 

[M.A.Longmore]

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The Dual Cable Release !

I knew that I was forgetting something ...

Thanks for the reminder Ralph.

Enjoy The Weekend Everyone, And The Final Few Minutes Of Summer.


Ron
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[Q.G.]

A slit illuminator and a motorized stage.

 

[Mike Wilde]

It would be a macro 100mm Minolta manual focus mount. Hell it could even be the just for bellows mount with no focusing in the lens mount at all.

I thought I had macro all together when I found the MC 50mm macro a few years ago with a dinged filter ring that I was able to massage back into shape and bought for all of $14. Challenge is it focuses so close that lighting the object is a bitch at high magnifications. Mostly I seem to use a MD 135 on the bellows to get a bit of stand off space for snails, worms, flying insects in flower pollen etc.

And, yes a focusing rail would be sweet, but since they are technology independent they don't seem to go cheap any time I find them.

 

[flash26c]

I also am on the lookout for a good focus rail; a four way. One that will hold my Rollei SL66 and then I could use it more for close-ups. It's a nice feature to be able to reverse the lens without an adapter but really get tired of having to move the tripod for focus. I use a Nikon F with bellows, tubes, lens, adapters, etc. for most all close stuff now - want that larger negative!
Ron

 

[Q.G.]

I use two Manfrotto rails (part 454), one on top of the other (at 90 degrees to each other, of course), and they work.
Good quality. Low profile. A bit fiddly though.

 

[Ralph Javins]

Good morning;

Ron, you are right; a dual cable release does come in handy. And, a "four way" focusing rail really helps in getting the subject/camera/image combination right where you want it. One of the easier to find is the one the guys at Adorama sell. I am not sure who makes it, but Adorama does have it with their label on it. I think that it is about $70 USD. Q.G.'s idea of the combination of two crossed Manfrotto 454 rails really is a nicer way to go, but it is also more expensive. Just about anything you can do to make the movements required in controlled increments will help in getting just what you want.

Good morning, Mike Wilde. Nice to see you here also. Your comment about the short lenses with their close physical proximity and that effect on lighting is true. Yes, I do have the Nikon 3.5/55mm Macro and the Minolta 3.5/50mm Macro, but if the desired magnification is more than about 2:1, or 50% of real size, the use of the 100mm or 135mm bellows lens is worth the additional effort with the bellows unit and the additional space it provides in allowing you to get back a little so light can come in onto the subject.

Ron Flash26C, your appreciation for the larger negative image with the 6 x 6 format is one I understand also. That is why I now have that Pentacon-Six bellows unit, and I am trying to find the matching focusing rail for it also. It does take a 3/8-16 Whitworth thread bolt more common with the European tripod mounts. Most of what I have here is only the 1/4-20 thread found on most American tripods. Nice for 35mm, but noticeable when you get to 6 x 6, and perhaps uncomfortable when you get up to 5 by 4.

My favorite film for such things in the past was Kodak Panatomic-X and Technical Pan, but EKCo. has dropped them both. Fortunately, the Adox people have some nice slow high resolution film that lends itself well to detailed images on our negative. Their CMS-20 is what I have been using for lens testing, but I have not used that for close-up work yet. Perhaps a thought there.

Enjoy; Ralph, Latte Land, Washington

 

[guitstik]

I didn't really drive for it but I just happened to be at the right place at the right time. I was looking through the batch of used equipment at the camera store and found the bellows and extension tubes for my Minolta gear and bought it for $20.

I recently bought an Exacta 1a for $35 from ebay and when I received it there was a bellows, an adapter for a microscope/telescope and a set of extension tubes, talk about a good deal.

 

[Q.G.]

Good deals indeed.

You have done macro before?

If not, you'll see that the return on a small investment like that is access to a whole new photographic world.
A much bigger return than spending multi-K$ on a fast telelens would yield.

If you have, you'll know that already.

 

[flash26c]

I finally found a 4 way focus rail on Eprey that will do until I can find a better (more expensive) one. It is a Panagor, made in Japan. All metal costruction, adjusts smoothly and locks down tight. All in all, I'm quite pleased but the test will be if I can use it with my Rollei SL66.

 

[M.A.Longmore]

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Wishlist Revised :

I just realized that all the equipment I've acquired, isn't serving any purpose.
I can't find enough time to get down and dirty with the macro mission.

I am now wishing for some extra time for myself, so that I can get something accomplished.


Ron
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[Allan Swindles]

Hey Ron, join the club, I'm semi-retired and seem to have less time now than when I was working full time.

 

[M.A.Longmore]

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Ouch.
That hurts, Allan ...

 

[Ralph Javins]

Good morning;

On the subject of the availability of time when retired: Ron, you are in for a surprise. Fairly quickly and simply put; work as long as you can. There is something very nice about the predictability, familiarity, and stability of a job. You know what you are going to be doing and it is easy to plan around that. My life in retirement is wilder than I ever thought it was going to be. I thought that retirement was supposed to be relaxing. I am more busy now than I ever was while "gainfully employed." There are more things to do now. I am now approaching 337,000 miles on the 1991 Subaru. And, finally, you really can get to the point where you really do miss holidays, weekends, and vacations.

While things are fairly well set up for Macro Work with the 35mm Minolta gear, now there is also the desire to do things like that with the 6x6 gear. There is a nice Pentacon Six bellows unit here, but finding a focusing rail for it is more of a trial than I had thought. The Manfrotto rail units are very nice, but two (2) are needed to form a cross-rail unit to really do the job when working outside. Sometimes just panning or "swinging" is not enough. The Pentacon Six lens reversing attachment is really elusive. There is a Sunpak DX-12R ring electronic flash for 6x6 close-up work on the way finally. So many things I would like to do.

Enjoy; Ralph, Latte Land, Washington

 

[VaryaV]

A macro wish list is going to kill me. I have been wanting these things for years.


OM Telescopic Auto Tub 65-116 (first version)

Zuiko 38mm, f3.5 auto macro for bellows with pm-mtob
(I let one slide at Keh two years ago and haven't seen another one since, if any of you see one anywhere please let me know. I can take my toys to a whole other level with one of these puppies)

Macro bellows for my M645, which is like 800$


it won't let me post pics so I will post the pics to the pictures page.

 

[Ralph Javins]

Good morning, all;

Varya, welcome to the group. Your father seems to have been a talented man. And, he seems to have successfully infected you with an appreciation for what is required to take photographs of small things.

The Sunpak DX-12R ring flash did come, and it does help. Admittedly, in just normal use it provides a nice flat even scientific purpose illumination, but it is really easy to use. The ability to reduce the light output 5 stops does mean that you will not overcook any living subjects. So far it has been used with 2x and 3x work, at it has really been a help.

All of us seem to want something to make this work a little easier. Varya may have a significant head start over many of us, having grown up in a household where such work was common. And, I am still looking for a focusing rail that will be suitable for use with a Pentacon-Six Bellows for the 6 x 6 gear.

Enjoy; Ralph, Latte Land, Washington

 

[VaryaV]

Unfortunately my father passed away before I really got into taking serious pictures. He was a wealth of knowledge to be sure especially on the technical side of things which I lack such depth. Hopefully, with the help of this group I can recover some of that knowledge. I wish that he were alive to see what I am doing with macro and even some micro stuff he inspired me on.

Ralph, can you rig a rail up from LF parts? I was chatting with Ian Grant a while ago about rigging a rail system up for my M645 I'll see if I can retrieve some of his tips, unless you are looking for something super specialized.

 

[M.A.Longmore]

.
Good Morning Everyone !

1. Ralph : If you can locate a used Velbon Macro Slider ( 4 way rail ) I am extremely satisfied with the device.

2. My newest item on the WishList :
A Dremel rotary tool and lots of Epoxy, so that I can fabricate an adapter for an Alpa lens to Minolta mount.
I have an Alpa 24mm that I would love to attach to the Minolta gear; I guess I should really wish for an
Alpa SLR, but my imagination ain't that good ...
I got a slightly damaged micrometer on eBay for $1.25, I am thinking about a micro-platform for the micrometer
so that I would have additional control of fine tuning the focus of the subject.

3. Varya, I would love to see some of that info that Ian provided !

 

[VaryaV]

Ok, Ron. I will dig back into my past posts when I get off work later and see if I can find them. He is a master fabricator.

 

[VaryaV]

Hey Ron - I went back into my posts a whole year and I couldn't find them, I don't think it was that long ago. APUG doesn't remove threads do they? I will keep trying to locate them at a later time as all this searching is putting me to sleep, I thought they'd be more accessible.

 

[M.A.Longmore]

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Hi Varya,

Thanks for taking a look.
Time to take a break from this kinda stuff.
We'll try again next year ...