R1MX 19mm Rod Question for FF

[Andrew Allsbury]

So we bought a used R1MX with an Arri FF2 and 19mm baseplate. When you bolt the cam to the baseplate you have the option of 15mm position, 19mm position, or an unlabeled position. In the 19mm position (which appears to be optically centered) The gear on the FF2 is just about 1/4in off from making contact with our Rokinon Cine primes. If I bolt the camera all the way to the left on the unlabeled setting the FF2 works great, but a matte box wouldnt really work because of the offset. Do I just need a bigger gear for the FF2 or am I missing something? Thanks!

 

[ericyoung]

There are 3 common cinema/tv support rod standards: 19mm common all over the world, Arri 15mm Light Weight System (LWS) common all over the world in cinema & broadcast TV settings, and 15mm Studio which I believe is really only common in the US and was used because older cinema film cameras used to have heavy side offset film magazines.

The Arri FF2 seems to often come in a 15mm Studio (offset from optical lens centre), although there does appear to be a version with an adapter from 15mm LWS to 15mm Studio:
http://www.gearfactory.co.uk/gf/equipment/accessories/follow-focus/arri-ff2-follow-focus

This would explain why you have to mount the camera offset for the gear to reach the lens. If your FF2 is 15mm Studio standard only, then unfortunately it's not going to work with most non-film cameras as it will always be offset from centre.

 

[ericyoung]

http://nofilmschool.com/2014/01/und...rri-breaks-it-down-in-this-simple-infographic

http://www.ocon.com/inspiration/labs/rod-standards-explained/

 

[Andrew Allsbury]

Thanks guys! Yeah that makes sense, I have very rarely worked with anything besides 15mm LWS, so this has been good education.