The presumption that f5.6 is best at 1:1 may not be correct. Macro lenses are generally optimized for their highest magnification, so it may be that you get better performance at wider aperture than you would when doing portraits. There is also the question of what "best performance" means. Some loo...

Definitely precarious.

This thread went pretty far sideways. @Igor, have your original questions been answered?

mjkzz offers mounts as part of their kits, and I've purchased individual mounts from him in the past. You will also need a coupler that goes from 5mm (motor) to 4mm (shaft). I can recommend an ebay option I use if you need or maybe mjkzz has one. I don't recommend going NEMA23, as there are excelle...

I managed to find a THK KR2602B on eBay - now I'm wondering what's the best way to adapt it to photography. I know MJKZZ.com has some kits they're selling (though they're probably not for the "B" version with two carriages) - but I'm still wondering what other options there are for adapting those r...

Here is a good description of what to expect when using microstepping. It does have limitations mostly due to lack of torque when steps gets (too) small. https://www.edn.com/why-microstepping-in-stepper-motors-isnt-as-good-as-you-think/ Good article. Microstepping was designed for smoothing the tra...

I think with bellows in particular the stroke length is not really an issue at all. As you said the actual stacking depth for high magnification isn't going to be more than a few cm (if that) - and for lower magnifications it's easy enough to move the whole bellows assembly forward or backward and ...

I wonder what benefit the idler rail would have over the B system, considering the fact that all B systems I've seen don't have the second block connected to the gear/lead screw anyway. The greatest difficult is perhaps figuring out how to ensure that the idler rail and the "main driving rail" are ...

... the diameter of the GFX mount is 65mm and the mounting screws (for the precious few adapters I've seen that actually have mounting screws on the GF side) are positioned at a diameter of 75mm. That's too big even for the modified Vivitar. The bellows clearance is 50x50, which is plenty big for t...

When I changed from APS-C to FF, I saw vignetting with my Pentax Autobellows when using a "macro" type E-mount adapter without extension. The mount with extension solved the problem, but at expense of longer minimum extension. I wanted short absolute minimum extension so that I could (occasionally) ...

For many years I recommended the old Canon Rebel XS as an entry level camera, mainly for coins but also for other apps within the macro realm. Canon continued updating the EOS utility so it supported the XS, but I have been told that the newest version, required for Win11, no longer supports the XS....

TUs are better than LUs in mi experience. They are significantly better color-corrected. The TU 20X/0.40 ELWD is the best Mitty 20X alternative I've tested. It's a true semi-APO, better corrected than many Fluors I've owned. And funnily, it's not even advertised as such. I own higher NA 20X objecti...

I've evaluated quite a few 20x-25x-40x-50x objectives for use in stylus evaluation imaging. I ultimately settled on the Nikon LU Plan 20x ELWD as the best for that application. I expect there are shorter WD objectives that can beat it, but overall it is now my go-to objective for 20x work.

Long ago I tested my Nikon MM objectives as infinites, and saw similar performance as when used as finites, so I stuck with finite for system convenience. But my tests were somewhat rudimentary back then (really still are) so I have always wondered if they would perform better on infinite. I now pla...

I haven't read through the Story article, but the Industrial Lens article is truly excellent. Very comprehensive and well-written. A great reference for these lenses.