The DIY Macro Stepper

Have you ever thought of giving extreme macro photography a try, but never did because you couldn’t justify purchasing an automated focus rail? If so, this is a video you should watch.

One example of the stepper at work

This video was never meant to be a video - but it is now. In an earlier video I made a statement that high magnification photography just isn’t possible without an automated focus rail - like the Stackshot device that I use. But no sooner than I had said it, I started to think that there must be another way to make consistently tiny steps between photographs. I decided to try making a device that could be used with a high quality focus rail to give the kind of incremental steps a photographer would need when using 10X objectives.

The device, let’s call it the Walls O’Matic manual precision stepper, was thrown together using nothing but salvaged bits and pieces. The only thing I purchased was a broken (and revolting) automatic foot washing device (I think that’s what it was) that I found in a thrift shop several years ago. It cost $3. Everything else was pulled from a box of mismatched bolts and nuts in my workshop.

As you’ll see in the video, this device turned out to be capable of making consistently accurate, and extremely small steps when attached to a Manfrotto 454 focus rail.

Trust me when I tell you that if I could make this thing, anybody over 5 years of age could also do it, and probably better than me. And I cannot think of a single instance in which the step size of 1.36 microns would not be short enough for even the most over-the-top, extreme macro photography project.

Enjoy the video!