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Follow Focus solutions for Nikon Lenses

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Rob Castiglione

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I have entered the arcane and troubling world of follow focus units and it is driving me a little mad. It is surprisingly difficult to get reliable information to avoid making an expensive mistake.

My current set up is Red One with still Nikon lenses. They are older Ai/Ais lenses. As anyone knows who uses these lenses, they have a relatively small barrel diameter and relatively short focus throw. I am using a 15mm LW rod set up. I intend using the same set up with Epic when, god willing, it arrives on my doorstep.

What is a viable follow focus solution for still nikon lenses for this specific set up? I first considered the otherwise excellent looking Durus Cinevate unit but the gear box is just too big for this set up. I would have also considered the Arri MFF -1 except for the floppy arm thing and also information on the net that it does not work well with short throw lenses. Somewhere here on Red User had exactly this experience with the MFF-1 but I can't recall who now.

I am currently considering two units. The Chrosziel DV studio rig which consistently gets good reviews. The other unit is the Chrosziel Single Sided Follow Video Follow Focus (Video Single 203-01S). The latter seems to be part of Chrosziel's pro line of studio rig follow focuses. There is very little info on the net about it or whether it would work with nikon lenses.

Any info or advice from anyone who has actually used these units with nikon still lenses would be great.
 
Rob Castiglione said:
I first considered the otherwise excellent looking Durus Cinevate unit but the gear box is just too big for this set up.
Click to expand...

I own the Cinevate follow focus and I use Nikon lenses all the time. It works great. But I never use 15mm lightweight. My RED is all 19mm, so maybe that's the difference.
 
I use my Cinevate Durus with Nikon, Zeiss, Canon and a few other SLR lenses on a 7D and on a Red One, both 15mm and 19mm rods.

It works with pretty much every lens I've tried.

It may help to know that you can flip the gear box. You can also adjust the angle of the wheel.

My 1AC often just mounts it upside down on a R1 from a top rod.

I've also used it with PL glass, and it never presents a problem with any primes I have used. (I actually haven't used a Cinevate with PL zooms, but I don't foresee a problem even with a beast like the 24-290)

The Cinevate is not a perfect follow focus, but it punches way above its weight. It will work in this situation. If you think space is tight on the R1, try it on a DSLR. Don't pass this FF up because "it doesn't work"

If you have the budget Arri FF4 seems very popular and works with most lenses you'll encounter. I'd also take a hard look at the O'Connor unit.

My personal choice for the time being is to stick with the Cinevate, and put my FF money towards a wireless solution. Later I may revisit the FF, when I have all the other toys I want.
 
Well I am delighted that the Durus works but I just dont understand how. I have only ever seen pictures of the Durus on those very strange looking adapters which move the unit well away from the camera.

The Durus gear box is 32mm wide - together with the gear drive it is 70mm. The distance between the focus gear and the side of the camera is certainly less than 70mm on most of my nikons. If you reverse it, doesn't it bang into the mattebox?

I am happy to use standard 19mm rods. I have this set up as well.
 
Julio Quintana said:
The Cinevate actually comes with an extra, larger gear that allows it to reach small lens barrels, even when the lens focus gear is right up against the lens mount.
Click to expand...

Mine didn't come with the extra gear, but yes there is an extra gear, and its useful.
 
I use the FF-206 from JBK Cinequipt. I actually started with the FF-209 but it was too wide to accommodate the matte box in the proper position. Jerry was great in working with me to solve all my issues and even supplied me with a wider gear to allow for the movement of the focus ring on some of my Nikon lenses. His custom made gear rings for the lenses are the best I have seen.
 
I always use a wireless remote focus with my Nikon lenses. This way the focus marks get scaled to the entire ring.
I made focus marking rings for each lens with a Putora chart.(there are not enough marks on a photo lens.)
Since I have a analog Bartech I also put end marks on each lens.
I had geared focus rings for each lens made by www.jbkcinequipt.com
I have the Optitek Nikon Mount optitek.org/nikon-prolock.php
Most lenses have a step up ring to 85mm.
I use a clip-on matte box with a rod adaptor and a rod to avoid any lateral movement of the lens.
Sergei Franklin
www.sergeifranklin.com
 
Julio Quintana said:
I own the Cinevate follow focus and I use Nikon lenses all the time. It works great. But I never use 15mm lightweight. My RED is all 19mm, so maybe that's the difference.
Click to expand...

+ 1 for Cinevate - best FF at any price (we would happily have paid just about any price)
 
I have about 8 sets of Nikon lenses and all cinestyled by me. Focus gears are custom cut to each lens and works perfectly in a cine style environment. I also declick the lenses and can make them all same size fronts so you don't need to change donuts on your matte-box for every lens change. Contact me if interested.
 
The Petroff follow focus unit not only has a .7:1 reduction ratio so as to get more throw on the focus knob for still lenses, it also can reverse the direction of the focus knob (in seconds) if desired so the Nikon lenses will focus in the same direction as the rest of the world's lenses do. The focusing barrel on the new AF-S 24mm and 50mm Nikon lenses now rotate 180 degrees as opposed to the "standard" 90 degrees of most Nikon lenses. This is a welcome plus, however the new 35mm f/1.4 AF-S is rather disappointing, as it has only 90 degrees (what was Nikon thinking since they came out with a pretty terrific DSLR). I am still waiting for my 85mm f/1.4 AF-S, so I really don't know about that one yet. I did notice that my older Nikon 50mm f/1.8 has more than 180 degrees of rotation on the barrel. I too use an Optitek Nikon Prolock on my R1-MX and couldn't be happier, as it is far superior to the standard Nikon mount (modified or not), and I do not have to "de-click" my lenses. Although my Petroff follow focus will accompany my Epic, I plan to use Epic electronics to control the AF-S lenses. All of my Nikon lenses have 3 3/4 inch delrin gears made by Duclos except the 200mm f/2.0 which is 4 inches. With the exception of the longer lenses and the 14-24mm, I have used step-up rings with 77mm front threads on all of my lenses which have an outside diameter of 80mm for the light weight matte box. Makes lens changes so easy. Hope this helps.
 
Many thanks for the replies thus far.

I really have no doubt about the quality of the Durus follow focus. The only issue I had was its practicality with small lenses.

My Nikon lenses have the full Duclos mod which is great.

If you reverse the gear on the Durus ff does it stop you using a matte box? I was going to get the O'Connor matte box.

The Petroff sounds like it definitely requires investigation. Is it a nice smooth action with little backlash?
 
Rob Ruffo said:
+ 1 for Cinevate - best FF at any price (we would happily have paid just about any price)
Click to expand...

I am a fan of the Cinevate.

I own one myself and have specified several for smaller companies I work with.

Its the best value, but I definitely don't think its the best FF at any price.

I do think it's relative value is 2/3 to 3/4 of the "standard" FF's, but its 1/4-1/3 the price.

To me Cinevate has the fair price- Arri, Chrosziel et al are all grossly overpriced. That is in part because our entire industry adds up to a niche market.

A lot of the cheaper FF's are kind of chintzy - there are exceptions. When I bought the other main unit I considered was the Red Rock which was half the price, but I found it a finicky thing on set with all sorts of bits and bobs that would fall off or need adjustment.

I like the Chrosziel and O'Connor CFF-1 better though.

I also am very interested in the ARRI and C-Motion wireless FF systems.

I say all this because its important to keep perspective on our tools.
 
Rob Castiglione said:
Many thanks for the replies thus far.

I really have no doubt about the quality of the Durus follow focus. The only issue I had was its practicality with small lenses.

My Nikon lenses have the full Duclos mod which is great.

If you reverse the gear on the Durus ff does it stop you using a matte box? I was going to get the O'Connor matte box.

The Petroff sounds like it definitely requires investigation. Is it a nice smooth action with little backlash?
Click to expand...

Reversing the gear works on the Red Rock MB, and the Arri MBs. I haven't seen any issues- but those are the only two matteboxes I use with any regularity.
 
Rob Castiglione said:
I would have also considered the Arri MFF -1 except for the floppy arm thing and also information on the net that it does not work well with short throw lenses. Somewhere here on Red User had exactly this experience with the MFF-1 but I can't recall who now.
Click to expand...

We have an MFF1, and the arm is anything but floppy. Also, as it takes standard Arri FF gears you can just chuck a gear with lots of teeth on and get a better gearing ratio.

That said, it wasn't cheap.
 
I have had a crosziel dv 206 ff for about 7 years now, first for my hvx with a letus and now dslr and red. It has worked flawlessly all of this time and is still going strong. It even fits (barely) my compact primes. It wasn't cheap but I've also owned several of the cheaper follow focus's and they were a waste of money. I'm only thinking about buying an arri mff-1 because the crosziel won't fit on a large zoom. I have a reversing gear for the crosziel but have never really used it.
If you want a ff that will last forever, I'd highly recommend the crosziel 206. I've never adjusted it and it's still buttery smooth and has no backlash after a hell of a lot of use.
 
Thanks Shane. I have not heard a single bad word about the Chrosziel (apart from the stinging initial cost!). I am leaning strongly towards it because it is high quality, lightweight and low profile and will certainly work with my Nikons.


Rob
 
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