SUNWAYFOTO MFR-150 Macro Focusing Rail, 15lbs Load Capacity

After buying and returning the MFR-150S (which I also reviewed), I thought that MFR-150 could be better designed and gambled again. Unbelievably, even this variant is different from the advertising photos with regard to the Arca release lever position. This is again on the same side as the hand crank, thereby limiting the travel of the carriage. If you don't care about releasing the camera from the rail, the travel limitation is of about 2 centimeters. If you want to release the Arca clamp and remove the camera, then you need to have the camera in the middle of the rail, so the travel limitation would be half of the length. Truth is, you can force the Arca release lever upwards over the hand crank when the latter is at a "low" position, but this forces the mechanism and scratches the parts in contact. Speaking of wearing, the worst part to me seems the Arca release mechanism, which cannot be trusted to safely hold the camera. The clamp is losing tension by itself, having to use the provided screwdriver to tighten the screw from time to time. The lock is not positive and when unlocking the lever, the spring pushes the lever all the way back and the camera is dangerously fast released. Worst of all, the brass bushing on which the cam-lever presses is wearing out rapidly, leaving a brass residue on the lever after a few open-close movements. This residue can be removed, this is not the problem, but the bushing is wearing visibly fast and after a few cycles you'll have to adjust again the screw to have the same tension. These problems are illustrated in the attached photo. Finally, the lateral lock knob, which is pressing against a plastic part, is causing a bit of movement when locking/unlocking, causing the misalignment of the stacked images, if used. As a plus compared with MFR-150S, the Torx-type screwdriver is included and can be also used for adjusting the damping/backlash screws. When these are tightened the rail movement is smooth, when they are loosen there is more resistance felt.

I purchased this to help me do snowflake photography. I only buy the best equipment which didn't leave me much money to buy a focus rail so I settled for this one. I have this mounted on a Really Right Stuff Tripod and a Markins head.First day I got it the magnet that was glued into the crank part fell out immediately. After that something that looked like a washer slipped out and I couldn't find out where it even came from. I tested it and it seemed to be working.Once I took it out on a test run I noticed that as I turn the crank there is play from side to side, so that the subject is moved around in the camera view.Sadly by trying to save money I ended up with something that is not able to be used for the application I got it for.Maybe for larger objects it is more forgiving because I am very zoomed in for my snowflake photography but the fact is that it was falling apart immediately out of the box.

j'ai une tête arca swiss (une vrai de chez arca swiss) avec un etau flip lock (la fermeture de l'etau ne se fait pas avec une vis mais avec une sorte de verrou) et bien il faut savoir que les étaux arca swiss sont réglés de façon très précise et malheureusement bcp de produit compatible arca ne respecte pas les spécifications d'arcaswiss c'est le cas ici donc le rail rentre dans l'etau mais il est trop gros de quelques millimetres ce qui empêche le verrouillage de l'etau. Par contre si vous avez u etau un se ferme avec une vis vous ne devriez pas avoir de probleme.A part ce probleme je n'aima pas trop l'etau qui est sur le rail il n'y a pas de systeme de blocage on peu facilement ouvrir l'etau accidentellement.Voila si on enlève ces deux soucis le rail est de bonne facture et ça a l'air de bien fonctionné.