Hello world!

Hello guys, today I tested my new macro rail focus slider, the Fotomate LP-01. It is a cheap slider that I hope will be good enough for the magnification ratios I want to achieve. For the subject of the shoot I used a pen and focused on the tip to capture my own reflection. Below is the setup I used:

Shot setup

1. Canon ST-E2 Speedlite Transmitter
2. Canon 430EX II Flash
3. Pen
4. Earphones plugged into microphone port
5. Canon EOS M camera
6. Asahi Pentax Takumar 135mm f2.5 lens (shown in the photo is Canon EF 100mm f2.8 macro lens, explained below)
7. Canon EF-S 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 II lens, attached via reversing ring
8. Fotomate LP-01 macro rail focus slider
9. Tripod

Magnification and Lens Settings

For the self-portrait above, I used the Takumar 135mm lens with the Canon 18-55mm lens reversed set at 18mm. This gives me a magnification ratio of about 7.5X (135 divided by 18 gives 7.5). The image above is an un-cropped image. Note that in the set-up photo above, I used a Canon 100mm macro lens, which is what I first used before I switched to the 135mm right after. For the 135mm lens I set its aperture to f2.5 and the Canon 18-55 to f3.5.

Lighting Setup

Such a high magnification photo becomes very dark in the viewfinder, so I used a flashlight to light my subject while I focused the image. I used remote flash triggered by IR transmitter to light the subject.

Cable Release

You may be wondering what the earphones are for, well I use them to trigger the camera to avoid camera shake. The EOS M does not have a native ability to shoot with a cable release, so I installed MagicLantern (custom firmware) and used a function called AudioRemote which triggers the camera when the input sound levels to the microphone exceeds a set loudness value. To trigger the camera I basically banged the earphones together!

Taking the Shot

After all was set up, I carefully put my head beside the lens and looked towards the pen tip. Using a 2 second trigger delay, I smashed the earphones together to take the shot!

Conclusions

Overall, I was pleased with the Fotomate LP-01 macro focus slider. It gives good enough results for my purpose and it is cheap. I expect to have a lot of fun with this little piece of gear!

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