I picked up the Adorama’s 4-way Focusing Rails recently to try out with my wife’s Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5X Macro lens.

Adorama lists 2 versions of their 4-way Focusing Rails…one for ~$180 and a budget one for ~$80.  I’m not sure what the difference is between the two but based on recommendations, I picked the $180 version.

What’s my thoughts on this piece of hardware?  It’s OK…but not great.

Using the Focusing Rails

The Focusing Rails are well built and feel sturdy but the mechanism to move the lens/camera forward/backward and side/side are difficult to use and hard to move.

The dials that you’ve got to use to move the rails are hard to turn and, at times, hard to get your fingers on.   I found it difficult to use the dials to move the camera/lens quickly….it too a lot of work to get any significant movement.  In addition, because the dials are so difficult to turn, it made it difficult to perform any fine adjustments.

To me, it felt as if the focusing rails weren’t well manufactured…they feel like they don’t quite fit together well.  The dials are difficult to turn and use and if you have large hands (like I do) they are difficult to get to.

To test out the focusing rails, I placed my Canon 7D and Tracie’s Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5X Macro lens on the rails sitting atop my Induro CT314 tripod.  The setup was very sturdy….and I’m glad it was.  Trying to move the camera/lens combo using the focusing rails required an extremely sturdy tripod.

I was able to get very few usable photos while using these rails.  These rails aren’t to blame…my macro technique is terrible.

Conclusion

I’m not really that happy with these focusing rails.  They are difficult to use and, for me, difficult to even reach the knobs required for moving the rails. For someone with smaller hands, this may not be a problem.

That said…these rails are OK.  They do work. They are stable and you can move your macro lens around as needed to focus. Perhaps they are perfect for others but these rails just didn’t work for me.

Related posts:

1. Canon 400mm 5.6 L Lens Review
2. Canon 7D DSLR – Product Review
3. Canon 500mm f/4.0 L IS USM Review – An amazing lens

Lifehacker has a great write-up on how to make your own Macro lens for your DSLR from old binoculars using achromatic diopters from the binoculars.

Also provided on the Lifehacker page is a video showing you exactly how to make the macro lens…jump over to MetaCafe to view.

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