Focus Stacking with 8x10 Large Format Film...Ben Horne

[Greg]

I can only speculate about why he used the rear standard, suspect that using a focusing rail to move the camera/lens assembly might have created worse problems of stability etc.

I think that you are right on with your post. Many years ago I tried to do some focus stacking with my 4x5 Sinar Norma. I was shooting between 1:1 and 1:2. On the first few tries, I ran into the problem of the rail rotating when I moved the whole camera back and forth. Solution was to use a custom fabricated Sinar rail clamp (image attached) which prevented the camera from rotating on the rail. Tried a few more times and just kept running into other equipment problems, and I was shooting only 4x5. I'm sure shooting 8x10 only exacerbates things. Gave up shooting film and shot digital images with my then Nikon D700 to focus stack with. My final print size was 8x10 so I rather doubt one could have seen any differences in the final prints.

This guy's technique to most would be overkill, but to him the technique is just his way of accomplishing to capture certain images. Have been there in the past, and there's an amazing feeling of satisfaction to completing something without taking the much easier "normal" way.