A Close Look At The Albinar Copy Stand

I recently picked up an Albinar copy stand off Amazon. Normally, I would probably avoid a "budget" stand as a waste of time. But, once I read an OK review by a photographer, I thought it was cheap enough to chance even if this stand doesn't last long. But honestly, it's hard to judge a $150 stand from a $500 model from a few, small pictures online. So here I'm posting some close-up pictures and observations, and let any prospective buyers decide for themselves.

Once you unpack and assemble this copy stand, it's clearly not in the same league as my Gitzo tripod, but the square alluminium beam provides enough torsional rigidity to be effective. Here it's set at approximately 1:1 for my Nikkor 105. The copy base is a durable matte plastic laminate. It lacks any grid, so I have constructed a smaller grid/base from a print and foam core. The angled beam is not typical for all copy stands, but it does get the beam out of the way of the lens's field of view if you were shooting larger documents.



Like most tripod heads, this copy stand uses a detachable base which tightens to the camera with a thumbscrew. The three smaller set-screws are to adjust the inclination of the base to the camera. The other side of the base has a rubberized grip which provides resistance while tightening.



Here is the linkage from the camera to the square beam column. Lever "a" locks the baseplate to the linkage; brass lever "b" is a safety device that when engaged prevents the base plate from popping off, to the detriment of your camera/lens. "C" is a brass bushing for the lever action--some thought was given to durability. Overall, I also like that you can easily see every connection point and check for tightness before attaching your expensive gear. I've seen that some of the more expensive stands have just a single screw between the camera and the stand--and no safety backup, so this feature is important to me. (I also use secondary backup for my camera, not shown in the photos).



Here's the set screw which tightens the camera support to the square beam. It doesn't look like much, but when it's set tight, my ~4lb camera/lens feels very secure. The specs say it's rated to 10lbs, but that seems optimistic. While I can get the camera to shake if tapped, it settles down in around a second, which is important when doing focus stacking with a lot of increments. It all boils down to this: I can get tack-sharp pictures while using this stand.



A cheapish plastic knob drives the camera along the track. On the plus side, it feels smooth.



The track looks made of nylon and is 25" long.