Pulling focus Manually

[Joel Mielle]

One of the most annoying factors I found in using still lenses on the Scarlet is the fact that upon every reboot, the lens resets itself whether or not it was set to manual or auto. This is quite annoying enough for me to buy only cine lenses.

Once you set your precise focus marks with your actors and you need to battery change, you have to start all over again. Not a Scarlet problem just the way that still lenses have to calibrate themselves each time its reset.

If anyone has found a way around this I would love to hear it.

 

[Mark Toia]

The price you pay for using cheap stills glass.... Annoys me too.

Hence why I'm swinging back to my PL glass. The stills glass is cute and fun, but really starts to compromise they way you shoot. crap manual focus...

I'm liking it and hating it at the same time.

I have one EPIC that is purely setup for canon glass only...

And two others that are going to stay PL for ever.

 

[Nick Morrison]

When you guys say "stills glass" I'm assuming you are referring to Canon Still glass, which yes...has shitty manual focusing. It's why I don't use them. The focus throw is terrible, and all those auto-focus cogs and gears make for an unpleasant experience.

But manual focus still glass like Leica R's, Zeiss etc can be quite pleasant to manually focus. Not in the league of big PL glass with markings...but 1000% better than auto-focus still glass, which is the worst.

 

[Joel Arvidsson]

Have a look at the ofocus. It has one version with a transmission output that make your movements smaller and more precis if using still lenses. Im looking at that for a future purchase.
http://www.ocon.com/products/camera-accessories/o-focusdm.html

 

[Jacek Zakowicz]

The only (correct) way to manually pull focus on electronic lenses is drive by wire.
Come see us at the Cine Gear at the end of May and your prayers will be answered!!!!
Starting to ship shortly there after....

 

[Jan Balster]

What I've found works reasonably well, when you're stuck with autofocus stills glass, is to set your FF to 0 feet before each restart. Since thats where the lens resets to after a power cycle, your markings should hold.

 

[Joel Mielle]

Have a look at the ofocus. It has one version with a transmission output that make your movements smaller and more precis if using still lenses. Im looking at that for a future purchase.
http://www.ocon.com/products/camera-accessories/o-focusdm.html

Seems pretty good but for the price I'd want to get a few more on hands referrals first, it still won't fix the shutdown calibration issue on Canon lenses but focusing accuracy seems to be a big improvement. There's no point having one of the best cameras in the world with a shitty focusing system, so I really need to find alternatives. Changing lenses is a huge investment which I can only do progressively. Thanks for the link!

 

[Joel Mielle]

The only (correct) way to manually pull focus on electronic lenses is drive by wire.
Come see us at the Cine Gear at the end of May and your prayers will be answered!!!!
Starting to ship shortly there after....

Keep me updated.

 

[Satsuki Murashige]

Seems pretty good but for the price I'd want to get a few more on hands referrals first, it still won't fix the shutdown calibration issue on Canon lenses but focusing accuracy seems to be a big improvement. There's no point having one of the best cameras in the world with a shitty focusing system, so I really need to find alternatives. Changing lenses is a huge investment which I can only do progressively. Thanks for the link!

The OFocus is good, but still doesn't solve the problem of repeatable marks. It's just the way the Canon lenses are designed, no mechanical follow focus will fix that. A Bartech is a better way to go, but your 1st will still have to pull by eye from a monitor. I've done steadicam this way and it works. Of course, manual focus lenses are the proper way to go...

 

[Larry Kelly]

Well I have no answer for the lens but if you can adapt this to your Scarlet it will allow you to avoid having to reboot during these type of shoots.
http://www.abelcine.com/store/Switronix-GP-TS-RED-V-type-Hotswap-Adapter-for-RED-One/

 

[Michael Gyori]

To avoid a lens reseting, can't you just have a fully charged Red Volt in the side handle when switching your large battery?

 

[stu aull]

So here's a Q-
On my old Rebel DSLR, when I "boot", the lenses just sit there, ready to go. Is there something about the way RED talks to these lenses that makes them go thru all these gyrations? Since they function identically to the way they do on a Canon, why can't RED tweak the boot-up the same way.
I presume if this was that easy they would do it! but still...

Stu Aull
SX 199
Alaska

 

[Rob Ruffo]

Forget all that. Get something from Optitek. Really.