NEW GROUP BUY: MICROREMOTE WIRELESS FOLLOW FOCUS

[Mark Andersen]

I am having same issue as Mark- clockwise and counter clockwise to the same mark on the disc result in different marks on the lens. I changed channels, and played with torque levels. Taking torque to maximum 10 resulted in more accurate results, still not perfect. Perhaps my lens requires too much torque for the motor, its a 85 zeiss mkII speed, stiff but not overly stiff. Mark, have you played with torque settings and had any better results?

Yes, I was testing on a RPP fairly stiff but the motor doesn't seem to mind. I raised the torque to 8 and it got much better, I wouldn't say 100 percent perfect but good enough (with in tolerance so that the viewer probably would never see and out of focus shot) I haven't tried 9 or 10 so maybe it gets even better at those settings. The whole system seems to be optimized for DSLRs (which is what many people want) I think this issue doesn't exist on DSLR glass because of the big focus wheel moves equating to small motor moves. It's when you move to long throw cine glass that you've got to tweak things a bit.

 

[Brandon J.F.]

Received mine today and it works great. Just hit "Auto" and it mapped the whole lens (75mm T1.7 LOMO). I haven't tried all my lenses yet. I really am loving the fingerwheel controller as well.

 

[Terry VerHaar]

Terry,

I have not heard any news on the follow focus emulator recently, but I'll check up on that for you.

Loren - to be clear, I am not talking about the iPhone unit but the Handwheel. Although the iPhone unit is also of interest.

 

[Marcos Montenegro]

Loren:

Do I have to setup the EPIC/SCARLET a certain way in the SYNC menu for this to work?

I've done all the steps, got the right cables, and getting the camera and access lights to flash on the remote/base station but nothing happens. Help!

DL,

That is an interesting power solution! What kind of voltage will that spit out?

Tom,

As for setting up the camera run stop. We're working on getting a guide together to explain this process but for the time being, here's my quick version.

1) Plug Run/Stop Cable into Basestation's Accessory Port and RED Sync Cable
2) Power on the microRemote
3) BEFORE Calibrating, hold the CAL button, and without releasing it, tap the set button. Then release both.
4) All the system lights will flash either once (arri momentary trigger) OR twice (RED continuos feed).
5) If they only flashed once, preform step 3 again (no need to power cycle) and the system should then be ready to trigger your RED.
6) Calibrate the system on a lens
7) Hit the "Camera" Button on the Wireless Handheld controller. The camera light on the wireless controller and accessory light on the basestation should flash.

The microRemote Basestation will remember your choice of run/stop protocol, and you will only need to do this once!

 

[Marcos Montenegro]

Nevermind. Figured it out- Sensor Sync Mode- GENLOCK, Genlock source- BRAIN, and under BRAIN GPIO, Camera Input- GEneral Purpose In. COOOOOOL!!

Loren:

Do I have to setup the EPIC/SCARLET a certain way in the SYNC menu for this to work?

I've done all the steps, got the right cables, and getting the camera and access lights to flash on the remote/base station but nothing happens. Help!

 

[Nick Fury]

I am having same issue as Mark- clockwise and counter clockwise to the same mark on the disc result in different marks on the lens. I changed channels, and played with torque levels. Taking torque to maximum 10 resulted in more accurate results, still not perfect. Perhaps my lens requires too much torque for the motor, its a 85 zeiss mkII speed, stiff but not overly stiff. Mark, have you played with torque settings and had any better results?

Has anyone, who experienced this type of issue had a successful resolution, with making the FF function properly? Any reports for partial or no resolution?

Thank you very much

Fury

 

[Russ Campbell]

I have the same problems with my unit. I have tried the solution from Redrock, but only managed to improve the situation by a small degree. This is regardless of the lenses used.

 

[Nick Fury]

I have the same problems with my unit. I have tried the solution from Redrock, but only managed to improve the situation by a small degree. This is regardless of the lenses used.

Could those , who have the problem noted above , please share their configurations? Also, does anyone have perfect front and back focusing, with say a 6 lb. lens or heavier?

Thank you very much

Fury

 

[Jeetu Chawla]

I received my order a while back but was unable to test or use it for about 2 weeks. Meanwhile i read a few post here about the unit not holding on the marks very well. Wow! For a moment, i thought it was a bad investment.

And then on Friday we got a chance to test it... straight out of the box... on to my Epic, first with Ultra Primes (16 to 135) & then with the Alura 45-250mm... and all my fears came true... It didn't work well... Not at all.

Then we read the manual (something we ought to do FIRST)... setup the unit as per the instructions given... tightened the backlash... Auto calibrated the motors & tested it again... This time it was a lot better than before... Not perfect yet, but it meant that better calibration could yield better or perfect results.

We then then tried different torque settings; from 2 to 5, then upto 10... And Voila... It worked perfectly when torque was set to 10!

The unit has been on a professional shoot (Hindi Feature Film) since Saturday and i'm told it's working beautifully. Bang on target... Never missed a mark... The max distance tested between the Handheld unit & the motor is about 50 feet...

And now i'm glad i made this investment

RedRock, you guys have produced real value for money product.
I guess time for me to book another unit soon for my other camera package!
A big Thank you to Carey for setting up this Group Buy!

Cheers~

 

[Brandon J.F.]

I received my order a while back but was unable to test or use it for about 2 weeks. Meanwhile i read a few post here about the unit not holding on the marks very well. Wow! For a moment, i thought it was a bad investment.

And then on Friday we got a chance to test it... straight out of the box... on to my Epic, first with Ultra Primes (16 to 135) & then with the Alura 45-250mm... and all my fears came true... It didn't work well... Not at all.

Then we read the manual (something we ought to do FIRST)... setup the unit as per the instructions given... tightened the backlash... Auto calibrated the motors & tested it again... This time it was a lot better than before... Not perfect yet, but it meant that better calibration could yield better or perfect results.

We then then tried different torque settings; from 2 to 5, then upto 10... And Voila... It worked perfectly when torque was set to 10!

The unit has been on a professional shoot (Hindi Feature Film) since Saturday and i'm told it's working beautifully. Bang on target... Never missed a mark... The max distance tested between the Handheld unit & the motor is about 50 feet...

And now i'm glad i made this investment

RedRock, you guys have produced real value for money product.
I guess time for me to book another unit soon for my other camera package!
A big Thank you to Carey for setting up this Group Buy!

Cheers~

I'm so glad I saw this post. I tested mine out with a 32mm Ultra Prime today and it didn't work at all. Seemed to calibrate OK, but it was totally useless to pull focus with. Maybe AUTO is just not tuned for larger diameter lenses? AUTO works fine with my LOMO lenses.

I'm going to try out your suggestions. Hopefully a firmware upgrade will fix this.

 

[Scotty Baker]

I'm so glad I saw this post. I tested mine out with a 32mm Ultra Prime today and it didn't work at all. Seemed to calibrate OK, but it was totally useless to pull focus with. Maybe AUTO is just not tuned for larger diameter lenses? AUTO works fine with my LOMO lenses.

I'm going to try out your suggestions. Hopefully a firmware upgrade will fix this.

I had some trouble mapping the whole lens in AUTO on an old Lomo. I did it in Manual and it worked great. Held it's marks and everything, even after powering down.

 

[Noel R.]

I've had my system for a couple weeks. It's been working great for me. Very rugged, and lots of nice features. I've enjoyed working with the finger wheel. The wireless has it's quirks, mostly line of sight issues, if you are working through walls performance is not the best, but I don't think it was designed to do so.

I happily received my run/stop cable as promised, but I'm either confused or got the wrong cable.

I plugged the cable end labeled accessory to the accessory port (makes sense )

Then I tried to figure out where to plug the other end labeled RED RUN/STOP.

But what I am looking at is a BNC female type connector at the end, and I am fairly certain that doesn't use an adapter plugged in to my HDSDI port?

 

[Andy White]

I've had my system for a couple weeks. It's been working great for me. Very rugged, and lots of nice features. I've enjoyed working with the finger wheel. The wireless has it's quirks, mostly line of sight issues, if you are working through walls performance is not the best, but I don't think it was designed to do so.

I happily received my run/stop cable as promised, but I'm either confused or got the wrong cable.

I plugged the cable end labeled accessory to the accessory port (makes sense )


Then I tried to figure out where to plug the other end labeled RED RUN/STOP.


But what I am looking at is a BNC female type connector at the end, and I am fairly certain that doesn't use an adapter plugged in to my HDSDI port?

You have this cable too? http://www.red.com/store/products/3bnc-to-00-lemo-sync-cable - this is the one you're looking for to make therequired connections.

 

[Christopher Barrett]

Or one of these...

 

[Noel R.]

Greeaaaat! Gotta love it, another cable I need. Thanks Andy, thanks, Chris.

 

[Tehben Dean]

Just used mine on a 2 day shoot. First day was all day pulling for steadicam and it worked well, seemed a little slow on the Zeiss Standard speed. Today after an hour it got super hot and just basically quit working, super slow no go. Seemed like it didn't have near enough torque. It also would not auto-calibrate because it kept thinking it had reached the end because of the stiffness of the lens. Bummer. Going to test it out on my CP.2 tomorrow and see how it seems.

 

[Jake Wilganowski]

What torque setting did you have it on?

 

[Tehben Dean]

What torque setting did you have it on?

9 and then 10

 

[Domenic Barbero]

Just used mine on a 2 day shoot. First day was all day pulling for steadicam and it worked well, seemed a little slow on the Zeiss Standard speed. Today after an hour it got super hot and just basically quit working, super slow no go. Seemed like it didn't have near enough torque. It also would not auto-calibrate because it kept thinking it had reached the end because of the stiffness of the lens. Bummer. Going to test it out on my CP.2 tomorrow and see how it seems.

Keep me posted as this is sitting in my cart and cant decide to pull the trigger or not. Ugh.

 

[Tom Gleeson]

I have started another thread on this but check out http://vimeo.com/austcine for a full video review of the system. We were pretty happy with the system. For older and stiffer lenses I don't think Redrock is the best way to go but most modern prime lenses should be no problem. This is a way cheaper system than most of its competitors therefore it has limitations.