I need a follow focus that is best tuned to stills lenses with short focus throws

[Jean Wallez]

Like Nikon lenses.

 

[MichaelHalsell]

Arri MMB-1 is a good jump off point.
http://www.arri.de/camera/professional_camera_accessories/follow_focus.html

 

[MichaelHalsell]

For the budget conscious

For the budget conscious

http://www.indifocus.com/products_indifocus20.htm

 

[Sarah C.]

http://www.indifocus.com/products_indifocus20.htm

Hi Michael, have you used one of these.. how well does it work? I'm looking at rigging up one of my DSLRs but don't really want to invest too much, or load up on weight.

 

[christopher witzke]

Hi Michael, have you used one of these.. how well does it work? I'm looking at rigging up one of my DSLRs but don't really want to invest too much, or load up on weight.

I used to own one.... not very reliable. It works... but kind of sloppy. I was fine for lenses that were loose, but my old contax zeiss lenses that were a bit stiff caused it to slip.

I'd think the next step up would be the red rock or the cinevate durus.

 

[MichaelHalsell]

Hi Michael, have you used one of these.. how well does it work? I'm looking at rigging up one of my DSLRs but don't really want to invest too much, or load up on weight.

No I was just serving up unqualified information. But I do have the Arri MMF-1 and am very happy with it.

 

[Gary Stone]

i just got the redrock v2 follow focus and it's a lot sturdier than i thought it would be. great for the money, but it's no arri FF-4...

i watched some review and the arri MB-1 and redrock had identical backlash: 1-2 millimeters.

 

[Brigham Edgar]

I have a Cinevate Durus and an FF4. The Cinevate is my pick for lightweight setups and when doing my own focus, it's great and is a big jump up from other units like the RR etc in build quality and precision. It's very flexible but still does have a couple of limitations but overall i think it's the option until you step up to ARRI with the $. Search for it as there have been some good discussions about it.

 

[Peter Matthes]

No I was just serving up unqualified information. But I do have the Arri MMF-1 and am very happy with it.

I second that completely.

I bought the Arri MFF-1 from Mitch at Abel Cine Tech in NYC, and I love it with my Nikon prime lenses. You will obviously need to buy some Zacuto Zip Gears (overpriced in my opinion) in order to use any follow focus unit with still lenses.

If you do go that direction, try this trick:

Buy some large (wide) rubber bands and place that around the focus ring of the Nikon lens first. Then put on your Zip Gear. When you tighten the Zip Gear around the rubber band it will:

*Protect your lens from the Zip Gear band.
*Give you better grip without having to tighten it too much.
*Move the gear's teeth a bit further away from the barrel of your still lens for better registration with the follow focus.

Good luck to you. :thumbsup:

 

[Nils J. Nesse]

You will obviously need to buy some Zacuto Zip Gears (overpriced in my opinion)

... Or get the gear rings from Cinevate or SGPro, much better than the Zip gears, IMHO.

 

[Richard Andrewski]

Anyone used that Cinetech follow focus? I was looking at that one:

http://www.cinetechonline.com/c.html

 

[Tim Sutherland]

I've played around with a Cinetech before and wasn't too impressed. The main problem is it's belt driven, so if the belt ever stretches you're going to get play. It did seem like it could be configured in several different ways, but the belt really was enough to get me to put it down pretty quickly.

Tim

 

[Jean Wallez]

Among the FF offering reverse option for Nikon mounted lenses,which one gives the longer focus throw?
Arri MMF1
Chrosziel DVrig with reverse gear
others?

 

[Alexander Ibrahim]

I'm using a Cinevate Durus on both my 7D and the RED I use.

The really nice thing about the Durus, thinking of SLR lenses, is that the handwheel is a bit larger than average. That means you can make larger motions with your hand. That helps a lot, especially with wide angle SLR lenses and almost all SLR zooms.

The other thing is that the Cinevate Durus has nearly 0 backlash. I mean that. Its definitely less than 0.5mm. Frankly on both my units I think there is absolutely no backlash, and that all apparent backlash is in whatever I am using to hold the gears steady.

I also very much prefer the larger focus rings, for the same reason. I'm using the new Cinevate rings on my Zeiss ZF and Nikon lenses. Before that I used the older Cinevate rings.

I actually prefer the older rings, because they are slightly larger, but they are harder to install and can mark your lens rings- especially metal housings like the Zeiss lenses. Gaff tape or a rubber band is a good idea.

If you have a set of lenses just for film work, let me know. I have a bunch of the older Cinevate Rings. Make me a reasonable offer and they are yours. (The ones I am offering are 100% aluminum. They were $69 USD originally, the new ones are $32 USD, I think I have 7 gears.)

Frankly I have no interest in the higher end manual follow focus systems. (Including ARRI ad my previous favorite Chrosziel.) My next follow focus is probably a very high quality remote follow focus system.

Note that I am assuming that the RED touch follow focus system will be more of a prosumer level novelty.

No offense to RED, but I won't believe its really pro-level until it outperforms my 1st on a real shoot. Yes I said outperforms. See if my 1st does something I don't like, I can talk to her, and she fixes it. If a computer does something I don't like, I can talk to engineering, and they might fix it for the next shoot.

Maybe I ought to start a thread about that.

 

[Jean Wallez]

Can you reverse the gear on the durus with short Nikon lenses (ex:f 50mm) and a mattebox?Is there enough room?
For now,i use gears from India and an old arri 16 single side FF without reverse capability.I need large gears on the lens and a large gear on the FF because some of my Nikons travel a lot.

 

[David Kellermann]

... Or get the gear rings from Cinevate or SGPro, much better than the Zip gears, IMHO.

The ActionProducts also seem to be very nice. I never used them, but they look very robust: ActionProducts ProFocus

 

[Jean Wallez]

Not large enough(the gear) and way too expensive!

 

[Alexander Ibrahim]

Can you reverse the gear on the durus with short Nikon lenses (ex:f 50mm) and a mattebox?Is there enough room?
For now,i use gears from India and an old arri 16 single side FF without reverse capability.I need large gears on the lens and a large gear on the FF because some of my Nikons travel a lot.

Yes you can reverse the gear. Four allen bolts and the entire gear box comes off and flips. The gear will be closer to the operator, and spinning in the opposite direction.

I rarely do this, my 1st prefers to just mount the handwheel on the right or from above, which sort of solves the problem. If she needs to mount the handwheel on the left then she usually just deals with whatever weirdness is entailed.

I've used the Durus with the Zeiss ZF 50mm in combination with a RedRock mattebox and an ARRI MB20 (not at the same time obviously) with no trouble at all.

 

[Jean Wallez]

The Durus seems interesting;nobody tried the Chrosziel DVrig with reverse gear?