Hakuba Magnesium Macro Slider

by Hakuba

Product Details

• Item Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004ZCTZ
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 4, 1999

Product Description

The Super Mag Slider is a lightweight macro stage for very precise 4-way camera alignment, made from Magnesium alloy. It moves forward, back, left and right, making it ideal for precise close-up work, tilting or macro-photography. MF-screw driver is attached to detach the bottom screw adapter. After detaching the adapter screw, it allowes installing a 3/8 inch screw. Light weight, and smooth action for adjusting the macro photo focus, the Super Mag Slider weighs only one pound, and allows 2.5" top maximum movement, and 1.3" bottom maximum movement. Its overall length of the top plate is 8.1", and the bottom base is 4.4", and features a 1/4-20" camera screw and 2 reversible 1/4-20" to 3-8" tripod connections.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Velbon Macro slider, December 12, 2009

By 

James Nolan Swanson "jnswans" (Reading,PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hakuba Magnesium Macro Slider (Electronics)

Was looking for a reasonably priced focusing rail with decent quality. After reading several reviews this appeared to be just what I was looking for. I did have to use the enclosed all in one tool to adjust the nuts on the side to side rails to eliminate some wobble, but after that the unit is darn near perfect. I also rotated the top assembly so as to have one knob on each side for easier adjustments. I am very happy with this unit. I have been testing a number of set ups with it, including a custom made dual flash bracket and the use of a 12mm extension tube on my 70-300 zoom with a 500D close up lens. I can reach 1:1.03 magnification and the focusing rail is great for critical focus and lateral alignment. Highly recommend.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Built like a sumo wrestler, with the smooth finesse of a ballet dancer! :), April 19, 2011

By 

ƒůŽźŸ ωŬ&#... (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hakuba Magnesium Macro Slider (Electronics)

Fuzzy Wuzzy's Summary:
***** Highly recommended with warm fuzzies!

What may be referred to as the "Velbon Macro Slider" is the exact same identical tripod head as the "Hakuba Magnesium Macro Slider"; Velbon is now distributed by Hakuba USA, Inc.

This macro slider focusing rail is built like a rock-solid tank! But it only weighs 16 ounces due to its lightweight magnesium alloy composition. There is only the very slightest bit of play when I wiggle the bottom left-right slider and the top forward-backward slider units, so the build quality and construction tolerances are good. Turning the focusing and traversing adjustment knobs has a very smooth and precise feel as the camera platform moves along the guide shafts and screw shafts.

Although you can use this macro slider with a variety of lenses, including macro lenses, extension tubes, and regular non-macro lenses, the one lens that really benefits from using a macro rail like this is the Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5X Macro Lens for Canon SLR Cameras, which is Canon's unique "microscope on a camera" lens. When I use my Canon MP-E 65mm macro lens at 3X to 5X magnifications, I either shoot handheld where there is plenty of ambient light along with using Canon's Canon MR-14EX Macro Ring Lite for Canon Digital SLR Cameras, or I have the camera, with 65mm lens and macro ring lite, mounted onto this macro slider and tripod. I also have Canon's superbly razor-sharp Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM 1-to-1 Macro Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras, and I also sometimes use this focusing rail with that lens, but the lens that really benefits from this focusing rail is Canon's 65mm lens, both because of its extreme magnification and because of its very shallow depth of field, thus requiring precise positioning of the lens.

Before I purchased a macro focusing rail like this, I would often do the "tripod cha cha cha" when focusing at very close macro distances from a subject, e.g. nudge the tripod forward and diagonally to the right a bit, nudge the tripod slightly to the left, angle the lens slightly upward, nudge the tripod slightly to the rear, then wash, rinse, repeat :-)

The macro slider is shipped with both left-right and forward-backward adjustment knobs placed on the left side; the left-right traversing rail is on the bottom and the forward-backward focusing rail rides on top of it. If you just want to use the forward-backward focusing slider by itself, with no need for the left-right slider, you can separate both pieces and just mount the forward-backward focusing slider onto your tripod. Or to make it quicker to adjust both left-right and forward-backward sliders at the same time, you can loosen the top and bottom slider rails using the supplied Allen wrench, turn the top rail 180 degrees, and so now you have the left-right traversing knob on the right side and the forward-backward focusing knob on the left side, and you can use both hands to move the camera platform along both rails at the same time for quicker positioning.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great product-> Company support is good also., August 24, 2011

By 

Douglas R. Tice "dt" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hakuba Magnesium Macro Slider (Electronics)

I got this a few days ago and finally got around to mounting it on my tripod. Oops the tripod has a 3/8" screw. I looked at the included manual and sure enough to use a 3/8" mounting screw you just have to remove the adapters in the slider. No problem..... Well I haven't been able to get them out. If anyone has taken these out can you verify that they remove with a CCW motion like a regular screw or are they reverse threaded? I haven't used an impact wrench yet :) I can't figure out why they would be this tight. I mounted the unit on another tripod I had with a 1/4-20 thread and the unit has a smooth motion for adjustment. I would have given this 5 stars if the adapters would have come out. I wish they would have used a allen mount instead of a spanner.

Update 8/26/11
I sent an email to Velbon (who makes this) and they said to try a large screwdriver and told me they are threaded like a normal screw. So with a LOT of force and a large screwdriver I got them out. I am very happy that they replied to my question and offered to replace it if I couldn't get the adapters out. I think the slider is very well made for the money and works well for the purpose it was intended. I moved the rating up to 5 stars for support.