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DJI Focus - *OWNER'S THREAD*

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Dan Kanes

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Just Received my DJI Focus this afternoon.

Really impressed with the build quality and love that it includes a hardcase.

The Quick Release Neck Litter is very cool.

The Handset feels Sturdy and Premium in the Hand.

The Motor seems Solid but lightweight.

Curious to see if the 19mm to 15mm stepdown clamp is effective in the field over long term use.

Here's my unboxing video. More to come soon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eumf8S3ZlMw

 
Missed my delivery at 9am this morning. Picking it up soon.... so stoked.
 
It's surprisingly big.
 

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Small Notes so far...

was initially confused by the calibration process - but it's actually pretty simple. Like Incredibly simple.

Get your lens set, attach the Motor, go to calibrate, and hit ok for AUTO.

I had to turn calibration torque up to HIGH.

If you get BLINKY light on the motor - I think that means a torque error.

Under MOTOR Parameters

I turned CALI torque to Max
I turned RUN Torque to Normal (could be max if you get Der Blinkenlight)
I turned SPEED to FAST
I turned Acceleration to FAST
I turned RACK speed to 100%
Personally I REVERSED the focus direction because in my mind Clockwise is away from the camera, and counter is towards the camera - but this might depend on your lens or how your assistant thinks about it.

You have a really cool LED control setting under Settings - where you can turn the motor LED on and Off (I prefer OFF), and you can turn the Handset LED's on and off.

The Marking disc Illuminator LED is AWESOME.

Really NEAT Stuff.

To set A/B/C/D "auto" marks you just hold down the letter key when you have the focus set where you want it, you can then push the letter key to jump to that focus point.

It seems pretty feature rich and tuneable.

When auto calibrating I only ran into a small quirk where it wouldn't auto cal the way I wanted it to, after I powered the motor up and down with the torque set to high I could auto cal easily and it just worked.


I also noticed that it is possible to confuse it slightly where 50% on the hand dial is not 50% on the lens motor.

This can be resolved by removing your "auto Letter Marks" by again pressing and holding the letter to remove the point from memory.

I think this might be a feature (setting limited focus range on the lens) - but I'm not sure how to disengage it without recalibrating the motor... I'm sure I'll figure this out when I read the Manual... LOL.

Really liking this so far and looking to poke holes in what the flaws are so they can be fixed if there are any...

The rosette on the back of the HandGrip is 1/4"-20 - which is a pretty good idea if you have 1/4"-20 threaded Arri style rosettes...

I have SpiderGrips (badass handgrips) which have an Arri-style M6 Thread.

DJI... If you guys offer an aftermarket Rosette with an M6 Arri-style Thread and rosette, I will buy it, otherwise I could just re-tap the DJI rosette to M6... Prefer not to Drill it out if I can help it though...Also chances are I won't want to use it on my handgrips - I'll look at the Wooden Rosettes and see if they are M6 or 1/4-20.

Looking at the hand set I have a Mild suspicion that there is a Zoom/Iris gun coming depending on how well the DJI focus is received by the market.

Thankful this seems like such an elegant solution.

I would recommend to other cinematographers to take a little time and get acquainted with the unit before taking it straight to a job, let your AC take some time getting used to it at prep so they understand it before use.

when I get a little more time I'm going to go a little more in depth with a video on it.

Next to test some bigger PL mount lenses...
 
DJI really got it right on this one.
I have been testing a pre production model for the last month and nothing but praises from my AC. So much so that I just ordered one myself. The only thing they need to implement is that the motor needs to remember the calibration when turned off. But I was told that it'll come. That's the only negative I have. Super solidly built, never once lost connection. Battery lasts forever. Good job DJI!!
 
Im sure ill run into one of these soon. Please tell me they haven't greased the hell out of the knob t "dampen it" I recently did a crazy movi shoot and i ended up disassembling the rt motion knob to remove all the resistance from it. Unfortunately it's all or nothing so I was always driving the focus crazy whenever I moved my focus tree!

Knob resists turning when you let go? Good

knob resists turning to hide how slow the motor is? Bad
 
Dan and Daniel,

Thank you for posting your feedback on the DJI wff, really helpful.

I have two questions.

When doing fast racks, is there any noticeable lag ?

When doing really slow pulls on cine lenses, is there any "stepping" ?

Can you post videos ?

Thanks
 
With fast racks, it depends how fast your fast is. All wireless systems have a motor speed limit. In real applications it'll be hard getting that fast. But if you just take the knob and turn it as fast as you can, yes, the motor will get behind, but that's true with pretty much all wireless systems.
When pulling slow, it's incredibly smooth. No stepping at all. That's a way of focus pulling that is way more common in every day productions. It's Preston smooth and Preston quiet as well.
 
As Daniel said - quiet as can be.

I posted my settings that relatively eliminated visible latency in pulls. I like the fine control for small adjustments very much.

I would put this at the top shelf of wireless follow focus systems so far, I want to test it over time to make sure it's As durable as its initial performance and quality. Daniel if you have any tweaks to the settings that are different (or any other owners) please let me know. I'll do some more testing today for certain.
 
Tom C. Hall said:
Im sure ill run into one of these soon. Please tell me they haven't greased the hell out of the knob t "dampen it" I recently did a crazy movi shoot and i ended up disassembling the rt motion knob to remove all the resistance from it. Unfortunately it's all or nothing so I was always driving the focus crazy whenever I moved my focus tree!

Knob resists turning when you let go? Good

knob resists turning to hide how slow the motor is? Bad
Click to expand...

The handset dampening is adjustable with the focus knob's "dial"

For the work I do the motors seem fast, like as fast or much faster than a human could turn a focus knob in any normal situation.
 
Thanks for the feedback so far guys. I'm thinking about getting one but have a few questions:

1) Was wondering more about the motor and it's versatility on mounting? It seems rather limited in range of motion/adjustment. Is that so? Can you flip the gear, can you slide the motor vertically to compensate for lens diameters and/or positions, etc?

2) The connection cable coming out the bottom seems very problematic as well. Not being able to at least have a 90 degree connector seems to be a problem for those who want to shoot handheld and then set the camera down on the ground or flat surface.

The Red/ET 3 Axis motors are amzaing in versitility, does the DJI motor even come close?

Thanks,

Alex
 
I have to say after having the DJI FF for a few weeks (Beta Unit) i have also been incredibly impressed with the build quality and ease of use.
Mimicking what Dan said about Motor functionality, noise and overall usability he is spot on. it's very hard to poke holes in this thing, I didn't have a manual so had to figure quite a few things out but over all there was no slop or play and the motor pairs incredibly fast to the handset with no signal drops.

USB charging for the handset, used it all day and barely one bar was gone on the battery indicator. I do wish there were right angle options for the Motor Lemo but thats certainly an easy fix. Also really waiting for the start/stop option for the camera.

The def nailed it on this one.
 
Alexander Mitchell said:
1) Was wondering more about the motor and it's versatility on mounting? It seems rather limited in range of motion/adjustment. Is that so? Can you flip the gear, can you slide the motor vertically to compensate for lens diameters and/or positions, etc?

2) The connection cable coming out the bottom seems very problematic as well. Not being able to at least have a 90 degree connector seems to be a problem for those who want to shoot handheld and then set the camera down on the ground or flat surface.
Click to expand...

1. There is a sliding dovetail in the motor tie-down mechanism. I haven't needed to dove it in and out much yet, but I have hardly used it. I can see DJI or someone else making an aftermarket mounting slide/rod grip that gives more extension or repositioning as necessary, but haven't needed it so far. The motor is very "short" compared to most cine motors, but not in a bad way... I tried underslinging it against the lens with just one rod, and I don't think that was a preferable method for me, but time will tell - haven't had any problems as of yet (knock on wood)... the gear can be Flipped to either side of the motor using a toolless hand knob (like other motors).

2. This hasn't been an issue yet for me because of the "shortness" of the motor, but time will tell. I can see this beiing hung from a Top mounted single rod as a very common solution.

Curious to see how they enable the Run/Stop from the extra six pin expansion port, or if there is another baby run/stop box coming along that communicates wirelessly with the handset

In the video I'm uploading to youtube I detail the only quizzical experience I had with it so far while using the focus jump hot-keys, and wha I found to be a solution.

I'm probably going to buy a spare motor if they become available soon, just to be preemptive - as motors seem to be the thing that dies with wireless focus systems most often, and it makes for a low-cost insurance policy when in the field.

Latency is very low, and it doesn't get confused when you rack around back and forth like a maniac, holding calibration very well.
 
Great tips Dan. Thanks for posting. Also, thanks for the detailed response on your thoughts with the motor ergonomics and such.

Wonder if DJI can make some 90 degree custom cables? That seems to be my only beef with this system is motor connection. I'll reach out to them to see what I can find out.

Thanks again,

Alex
 
I was just testing and comparing my Preston and my DJI to see if the DJI was good enough for me to sell my preston.
I have an MDR1 with a RED motor and the appropriate RED cable, so the motor works at its maximum. After comparing both, I have to say that they are neck to neck. The DJI motor is a tiny hair louder, but its not loud by any means. But the DJI motor is a hair faster. When just turning the hand unit like a crazy person, I could just barely get ahead of the 2 systems. But slightly less with the DJI. Very slow movements were identical.
I am so pleased with the DJI system that I just listed my Preston for sale.
I also heard today that DJI is testing firmware that allows the motor to retain a memory of the last calibration. That was my only gripe, and they are fixing it.
The fact that I don't have to rig a major block of an MDR on the camera is just the future, and I'm glad that the resulting product is as high of a quality as the DJI is.
 
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