Custom focus gears for your still lenses

[Rich Steel]

Hi Folks,

Just received my custom made Focus Gear Rings for Jerry at JBK Cinequip in Hollywood, Florida and had to share this with you all.

Firstly, Jerry makes custom sizes for different lenses, you just have to send him the diameter of the lens you want the Focus Gear to fit and he'll make it for you. No massive gaps around the lens gear like some systems and hassle free fitting (like a glove). No slipping or movement once you mounted the rings. Bloody Excellent.

Secondly, no screw mounts or blocks to get in your way (impede) when pulling those long focuses. So no hard stops when you run out of teeth on the focus gear. Complete 360º+ movement and your teeth are still engaged with your Follow Focus Unit or motor all the way, and some.

Thirdly, they're manufactured out of alloy so no replacing those worn plastic zips after a few months of usage, which they do (from personal experience).

Forth and MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL. They are extremely cost effective. $79 (US) per CUSTOM Focus Gear Ring and remember they're fit for purpose and designed for the actual lens your wanting it to work with.

So all in all Superior in every way to the Zacuto Zip Gears, Redrock Lens Gears and pretty much every other Lens Gear I've come across and used to date.

Custom sizes are made to order and have a 2 week turn around.

I have no ties with JBK Cinequip in any way shape or form but felt I needed to highlight the excellence this small independent company has achieved in delivering a component part which is fit for purpose and not some half hearted work around that other manufacturers seem to think will do.

Excellent communication, the man (Jerry) is a Legend.

http://www.jbkcinequipt.com/PRODUCTS.htm

 

[MichaelHalsell]

Awesome!

 

[Matthew Duclos]

That's fantastic!
No seams? Custom cut? Sounds perfect.
I wish I thought of that...:thumbsup:

 

[Rich Steel]

I'm not saying you hadn't thought of it Matthew.

But $79 (US) for something you can fit yourself I'd say was a pretty good idea.

Now if you'd be willing to sell your Delrin Gear rings on their own I'm sure a lot more people would purchase them from you but your website doesn't have that facility and I'm sure charging almost $300 (US) over and above the cost of a 50mm ZF lens is perfectly reasonable for what your getting but some people don't have that budget when they are looking at purchasing this kind of glass.

Prove me wrong? Lets see your website selling custom focus gear rings on their own.:thumbup1:

 

[Matthew Duclos]

I'm not saying you hadn't thought of it Matthew.

But $79 (US) for something you can fit yourself I'd say was a pretty good idea.

Now if you'd be willing to sell your Delrin Gear rings on their own I'm sure a lot more people would purchase them from you but your website doesn't have that facility and I'm sure charging almost $300 (US) over and above the cost of a 50mm ZF lens is perfectly reasonable for what your getting but some people don't have that budget when they are looking at purchasing this kind of glass.

Nothing to prove here. Just having a bit of fun.
Thanks to RED, there is plenty of room for everyone in the business.
All joking aside. The gears do look very nice. Aluminum is a solid and reliable material.
In all honesty, We weren't even the first to provide gears and fronts and whatnot. Just a part of the industry that we decided to cater to. If anyone deserves credit, its Peter Sensor of RP Lens who started it.
Now that I know about this product, I would be glad to refer customers that are looking for individual aluminum gears.

Prove me wrong? Lets see your website selling custom focus gear rings on their own.:thumbup1:

First paragraph, http://www.ducloslenses.com/Duclos_Lenses/Cinemod.html

 

[MichaelHalsell]

Gentleman's Award

Gentleman's Award

Nothing to prove here. Just having a bit of fun.
Thanks to RED, there is plenty of room for everyone in the business.
All joking aside. The gears do look very nice. Aluminum is a solid and reliable material.
In all honesty, We weren't even the first to provide gears and fronts and whatnot. Just a part of the industry that we decided to cater to. If anyone deserves credit, its Peter Sensor of RP Lens who started it.
Now that I know about this product, I would be glad to refer customers that are looking for individual aluminum gears.

Matthew,
I am nominating you for the this year's 2010 Gentleman's Award. Although I will have to warn you that David Mullen is the runner up based on sheer number of patient posts.

All good. :smiley:

 

[Rich Steel]

Please don't send them to me......!!!!!

I'm just the consumer not the manufacturer.

I know the RP Lens guys are willing to ship their Delrin Gears individually but they don't advertise the fact and are more expensive than the $79 ones from JBK.

The reason for my initial posting was to highlight the fact that it doesn't have to cost an arm and leg to get a decent gear ring fitted to any Glass (not just my ZF's).

Peace

Rich

 

[Matthew Duclos]

Please don't send them to me......!!!!!

I'm just the consumer not the manufacturer.

I know the RP Lens guys are willing to ship their Delrin Gears individually but they don't advertise the fact and are more expensive than the $79 ones from JBK.

The reason for my initial posting was to highlight the fact that it doesn't have to cost an arm and leg to get a decent gear ring fitted to any Glass (not just my ZF's).

Peace

Rich

lol.
I realized after my post that you weren't affiliated with the company.
My mistake, edited... We only charge an arm. No leg.

 

[Peter Strietmann]

2nd, all in favor?

 

[Rich Steel]

How much is an arm worth these days? :smiley:

 

[Alexander Ibrahim]

Hmm... I like the idea of these.

Here's the thing.

A LOT of SLR lenses have stupid short travel for film use.

A bigger gear, as opposed to a closely fitted one, is almost a necessity to get larger hand motion.

So, a word of caution regarding which lenses you choose to put rings like this on. Give some thought to the amount of focus throw on the lenses you choose.

That said, they will work splendidly on the Zeiss ZFs I use.

 

[ericyoung]

The rings are fine, but the follow focus units they make aren't very good - or at least the one I've got!

 

[chuck colburn]

If the gear on your follow focus unit is mounted on a round shaft there are various module and diametral pich gears availble with the "Fairloc" mounting system in both metric and imperial size bores making for quick and solid mounting and gear size changes from off the shelf componets.
If you want to increas the travel of the follow focus indicator disc in relation to the amount off throw availble on a still camera lens you would use a larger gear size (more teeth) on the follow focus unit.

 

[Alexander Ibrahim]

If the gear on your follow focus unit is mounted on a round shaft there are various module and diametral pich gears availble with the "Fairloc" mounting system in both metric and imperial size bores making for quick and solid mounting and gear size changes from off the shelf componets.
If you want to increas the travel of the follow focus indicator disc in relation to the amount off throw availble on a still camera lens you would use a larger gear size (more teeth) on the follow focus unit.

Agreed that is one solution- thank you.

The more common solution on low end follow focus units is to solve this issue elsewhere in the system.

So, bigger handwheels, and bigger rings on the lenses. Most importantly, some care in choosing lenses, not just an optical standpoint but an operational standpoint.

I find that with a little care its easy to find a solution- just reminding everyone to think about it before committing to any course.

 

[Larry McKee]

I've had Jerry's gears on some of my Nikon lenses for years. I have a Konvas 1M that Les Bosher modified for me to accept Nikon glass. The gears still look and work like brand new. Jerry is one heck of a nice guy.

 

[Steve Gal]

A few things. Sending out gears according to your measurements will work but not all the time. The gears are sometimes tricky to slide over the rubber gripping and some lenses are not made so well and you could actually mess the focus up if you put too much force. Also using too large of gears don't allow the lens to fit into the cases properly and could also screw up the focus from constantly hitting on the way in and out. Also will help to make them come loose very quickly. I am not saying you cannot do it yourself but to send the lenses in guarantees a sure fit for a long time to come.

As far as gears and fronts go, RP lenses just did them for still lenses. They have been around for years before on the older Zeiss Superspeed lenses. Just sayin.

 

[Matt Gottshalk]

RPLens.com Did all of my Nikons and I am very pleased:

 

[Rich Steel]

A few things. Sending out gears according to your measurements will work but not all the time. The gears are sometimes tricky to slide over the rubber gripping and some lenses are not made so well and you could actually mess the focus up if you put too much force. Also using too large of gears don't allow the lens to fit into the cases properly and could also screw up the focus from constantly hitting on the way in and out. Also will help to make them come loose very quickly. I am not saying you cannot do it yourself but to send the lenses in guarantees a sure fit for a long time to come.

As far as gears and fronts go, RP lenses just did them for still lenses. They have been around for years before on the older Zeiss Superspeed lenses. Just sayin.

I see your point Steve,

But the reason most people buy still prime lenses is to save money and agreed RP and Duclos provide that expert fitting service but it's not that difficult to attach a focus gear ring and for $79 (US) I thought it was worthwhile sharing this service with other Prime Lens Owners.

Here's a quick still of the 85mm ZF with it's new geared ring attached:

 

[Steve Gal]

By the way, Du-All provides this service as well.

 

[FocusOptics]

By the way, Du-All provides this service as well.

So does focus optics for about 25 years