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Cinevate Durus or ARRI FF-4 ?

Rick Darge

Rick Darge

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Trying to decide. Do I want a lightweight $1000 follow focus or a $4000 heavy, never going to buy again, follow focus? Helps?
 
Two different things there... The FF-4 is great in so many ways, but it's also very large.

With upcoming cameras getting smaller and lighter, it makes sense to me to start trimming the fat in other places. I almost ordered an Arri MFF-1 and I still may buy one as I've used it and really like it... But I've actually just ordered the Durus and will give it a try. It seems to be getting great reviews and it's just a bit more than half the price of the MFF-1. Mostly I'm intrigued by the Durus and will see how it works for me. I like the Arri as it's quicker and easier to reverse directions and also has the ability to set hard stops. Then again, switching directions is not something I do often and I really don't need the hard stop feature...

Anyway, sorry if this isn't much help... Just sharing my own thought process on the matter.


I formerly owned an FF-3, so I'm used to the bigger FF units
 
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I've been thinking along your lines Jeff. Thanks for the reply. Please let me know your thoughts on the Durus after you receive it. Aesthetically, I like the look of the Durus more than the lightweight ARRI.

Does anyone in Los Angeles have a Durus I could come by and checkout for 10 minutes?
 
Hey Rick,

The Durus I don't think is gonna fly in our market. You're going to find a lot of lenses it won't work with. Bite the bullet and get an FF4. Nobody will EVER complain about it. If you can't swing that, get the MF-1.

I thought you had a Chrosziel anyway?

I'd recommend a Willytec but it seems the couple that were for sale are gone now. They went for $2500-ish
 
NateWeaver said:
I don't know specifically, I haven't tested it. I do know from experience that units without swinging gear arms tend to have some more issues than the ones that don't.
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in practice, though, isn't the durus as a whole a "swinging gear arm"?
 
NateWeaver said:
Yes. Which means that the larger body of the whole piece sometimes does not reach into places it needs to without the rest of the marking disc/knob assembly getting in the way.
Click to expand...

Check out this video if you haven't: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7wlCFrUXCU

I don't have experience with the Durus or many other FF's for that matter, so I can't speak knowledgeably on the practicalities of all this, but it seems to be very versatile in it's "swinging" nature, and even lets you adjust the position of the disc/knob and the side on which the gear is placed, which would seem to address that issue.
 
Thanks Brandon. That Durus looks pretty amazing.. & 1/4 the cost of an FF4
 
I recently bought the Durus FF set up for 19mm rods and i can tell you it is good bang for the buck. It came with the additional gear to fit smaller lenses like the zeiss mk3's as well.

The unit is extremely solid in construction and very smooth in operation, and especially very little slop at all. It can be configured in almost any way with the whole unit obviously adjustable because of the single rail mount design...which by the way is absolutely rock solid on the rails and does not slip at all. Add to this the actual unit can then spin on another axis so it can be operated from directly underneath or overhead, or any other position if using top rails as well. The focal point marker is also adjustable so that it can be set up for odd angles too.

I am not a focus puller, but a DP, but so far both myself and the two different focus pullers that have used it are very happy with it. It does have a couple of small niggly things i would have done differently and can definately be improved (focus wheel screw & magnets on removable marking ring) but in a whole it is very good, especially for the money. The main reason i bought it was because of the 19mm rails and my 18-85mm which is so frickin large it will only accommodate a certain few FF units:) Oh yeah, and the FF isn't a small unit so don't get too excited.

So for me it's a thumbs up.
 
gave up on a FF2 chop job eh? :-)
 
This is a question for Brigham I guess, or anyone else with the Durus... Do any of you know how well it works with the RPP's??? I swapped emails with someone tonight who says they took the Durus for a test drive and used it with their new set of RPP's... I guess the Durus didn't do all that well, the included gear was too fat or something and it had noticeably more lash than the MFF.

...Comments?

I guess I'll find out shortly, although they haven't shipped mine yet. I suppose I'm just having potential remorse at this point because I haven't actually used the Durus yet. I keep telling myself I should cancel and just buy the MFF-1 and get it over with.

As for the larger FF-4, I can just rent one when needed. And it does come up -- some clients will accept no substitutes, even if the substitute has the Arri name stamped on it. I formerly owned an FF3, but don't anymore... That's a whole other discussion right there.
 
Brandon Fraley said:
I don't have experience with the Durus or many other FF's for that matter, so I can't speak knowledgeably on the practicalities of all this, but it seems to be very versatile in it's "swinging" nature, and even lets you adjust the position of the disc/knob and the side on which the gear is placed, which would seem to address that issue.
Click to expand...

I have used a fair amount of units. I was an AC for quite a while.

The Durus definitely seems to be as smart as possible given it's design. But it's not going to work with everything.
 
NateWeaver said:
I have used a fair amount of units. I was an AC for quite a while.

The Durus definitely seems to be as smart as possible given it's design. But it's not going to work with everything.
Click to expand...

wouldn't that be true of anything? It sounds like the big difference is price and potentially weight. Anyone have a comparison of the heft of these two units?
 
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