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Fool Control Question

Adrian Weinbrecht

Adrian Weinbrecht

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Is anyone using Fool Control to pull focus ?

I will be ordering a couple of hot links from Offhollywood, but just before I do.

I'd love to hear how people are using Fool Control in production environments, I'm thinking the focus pulling might be perfect when used with motion control shots. Also using fool control on the Ronin, are many People doing that ? It seems a great way to keep the weight down.

Anyone have a view on this stuff?

Thank you
 
Not tryign to hijack, but in the same vein, does Latitude or Fool Control allow for longer throw focus pulls, remapping the short throw of DSLR EF lenses like Optitron 2 does?
 
Brian F Kobylarz said:
What glass are you using?

If EF, this is an interesting option to consider: http://www.rtmotion.com/latitude

For even greater flexibility and capabilities, Mark is integrating the Latitude in the OMOD product line.
Click to expand...

Thanks Brian and everyone else for the speedy and useful responses.

For Fool Control we would use a mix of Nikon glass.
 
I think it can be a very useful tool in the kit. I've used the presets a number of times to "pull" focus. It is not a panacea, but not totally due to the app. As we've discussed in other threads, these still lenses we're all using with FC have slop in them and that'll cause focus to miss the mark now and then. If you have the sort of project that can deal with it, not a problem, just reshoot. Each lens will behave differently due to the inherit nature of manufacturing tolerances and slop, so you need to play with your set of lenses to learn how they behave.

Mikael and I were discussing this a little over a year ago and he shared, "To rack focus properly and do a smooth start stop I send 20 focus commands per seconds as recommended by RED techs (this is what they use in their own rack). But recently tested some PL glass via WMD and think it was much better with 25 or so steps... So will experiment with different values and see if I can improve anything on electronic glass.... But as you rightly said it will never be as accurate or smooth as a high end PL motor as those are cheap still photo lenses not really made for cinema rack focus..." 20 or 25 commands per second seems like overkill to me, but that's how fast FC is responding to the camera/lens. That's twice the rate of an UZI.

Latency is another issue, but that goes for any wifi controller.

And as I've said before, using a larger screen like an iPad will give you better control due to more data points on the screen. Especially if you are the type who has huge fingers that don't play well with the dinky smartphone screens.
 
Milan Spasic said:
I love the design and functionality of Foolcontrol, the app is a top notch product.
Unfortunately the shaky WiFi connection doesn't make it as usable as I'd like.
Click to expand...

Milan, which wifi hardware (if DSMC1) and network mode are you using to connect to your camera ?

Andy Roberts said:
Not tryign to hijack, but in the same vein, does Latitude or Fool Control allow for longer throw focus pulls, remapping the short throw of DSLR EF lenses like Optitron 2 does?
Click to expand...

yes on foolcontrol you can get 360, 720, 1080, 1440, 1800 and 3600 degree of rotation for your knob. Plus you can add limits to the lens for near / far max focus distance to restrict it further to a specific range.

Mark Phelan said:
And as I've said before, using a larger screen like an iPad will give you better control due to more data points on the screen. Especially if you are the type who has huge fingers that don't play well with the dinky smartphone screens.
Click to expand...

with FC native iPad UI coming very soon finally !
 
Mikael Lubtchansky said:
Milan, which wifi hardware (if DSMC1) and network mode are you using to connect to your camera ?
Click to expand...

Mikael, first of all, thank you for all the amazing work on this app. The design and intuitiveness is just perfect.

Using Ad-Hoc, channels 6,7,8..
Weapon Mg, running v6.2.51

I guess the main problem is being able to access the camera controls after the phone's been asleep. You have to reconnect to wifi every time and rescan the network several times before the camera connection is established.
Sometimes, the connection is dropped even when the proximity to camera hasn't changed.

Cheers!

Milan
 
Last edited:
Milan Spasic said:
Mikael, first of all, thank you for all the amazing work on this app. The design and intuitiveness is just perfect.

Using Ad-Hoc, channels 6,7,8..
Weapon Mg, running v6.2.51

I guess the main problem is being able to access the camera controls after the phone's been asleep. You have to reconnect to wifi every time and rescan the network several times before the camera connection is established.
Sometimes, the connection is dropped even when the proximity to camera hasn't changed.

Cheers!

Milan
Click to expand...

Thanks Milan
Yes Ad Hoc on iPhone is often a burden.
Do you use any specific top plate or accessory near the fan's front on your camera ?

Always worth using infrastructure when available and I've seen some ACs use super small wifi routers like those to keep the connection up fast whenever phone/camera powers down :
TP-LINK-TL-WR802N at amazon

With RTMotion latitude's wifi + long range you'll soon have options for stronger foolcontrol connection to your camera.
for now direct EPIC G-Ethernet to OS X / or RS232 iOS wired version are still kings :)
 
Mikael Lubtchansky said:
Thanks Milan
Yes Ad Hoc on iPhone is often a burden.
Do you use any specific top plate or accessory near the fan's front on your camera ?

Always worth using infrastructure when available and I've seen some ACs use super small wifi routers like those to keep the connection up fast whenever phone/camera powers down :
http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-WR802N-Wireless-Repeater-300Mbps/dp/B00TQEX8BO.

With RTMotion latitude's wifi + long range you'll soon have options for stronger foolcontrol connection to your camera.
for now direct EPIC G-Ethernet to OS X / or RS232 iOS wired version are still kings :)
Click to expand...

Great info, thanks Mikael!

I'm using the adjustable DSMC1 Top Mount, forward of the fans, which is a big chunk of aluminum, I'm sure that doesn't help.
 
I was introduced to Fool Control by Mark (Phelan)- and am super grateful, as it really is amazing. In addition to the focus pulling and programming, I love the remote Tools selector being right there. Great app.
 
Adrian Weinbrecht said:
Is anyone using Fool Control to pull focus ?

I will be ordering a couple of hot links from Offhollywood, but just before I do.

I'd love to hear how people are using Fool Control in production environments, I'm thinking the focus pulling might be perfect when used with motion control shots. Also using fool control on the Ronin, are many People doing that ? It seems a great way to keep the weight down.

Anyone have a view on this stuff?

Thank you
Click to expand...

Pulling focus with Fool Control is not smooth at all. This has nothing to do with the app itself which is the best app I've ever used. It's more about how still lenses are built. Doing a rack focus on all the still lenses I have makes terrible "stuttery" pulling, most of the time getting stuck and jumping ahead a few meters. My 24-70mm 2.8L II is worst of all. Doing a rack focus with that is like pulling focus with three steps, jumping and lagging the whole way. I would never use that lens with internal focus pulling for anything I shoot.

I would love to see a list of lenses that work almost as smooth as manual focusing. Because the 24-70 is a joke in that regard. I also experience problems with the 35mm ART Sigma and the Canon 85mm 1.8 as well as the 17-40 4L. So far, it's the same on the Epic Dragon as well as on my Weapon 6K.

As I always say, just because something works, doesn't mean it works.
 
Mikael Lubtchansky said:
FWIW Gunleik and a few others had good results with those lenses :

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showth...e-lenses-(EF-Nikon-mount-with-remote-control)
Click to expand...

Canon 24-70 f2.8 Generation II USM - Works great
Click to expand...

Here's a video of the Canon 24-70mm f2.8L II USM and I'm not sure how this can be qualified as great.
Performance is the same on Epic and with Weapon internal wifi. Tested on ad-hoc and network. The result is quite clear, totally unusable for real productions.
Pulling focus needs to be smooth, not stutter through.

Password: Focus
 
Another related question having just bought the new iPad for use with FC. I don't have a camera at the moment, but can the Red 4.7in Touch Screen go full screen, image only with no interface/settings elements taking up space, and just use FC for settings?
 
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