WiFi Follow Focus - Iris - Run/Stop etc - community feedback

[Mike Goubeaux]

We've built a WiFi Follow Focus hand unit with other various controls called ROVER. It can be connected via WiFi to RCP2 cameras in ad hoc or infrastructure mode - even over the internet for remote shoots, so long as the camera IP address is reachable over the internet.

Follow Focus & Iris work with Autofocus lenses.

We are considering adding user-config buttons. Curious how many user-config buttons might be ideal?

Any other feedback before we go into production would be great. This was built with remote shoots in mind, but it turns out to be a great wireless FF unit for minimalist setups - no need for further accessories.

https://www.rovercontrol.com

Render:

Working Prototype:

 

[Jacek Zakowicz]

Wifi has a lot of delay....

 

[Björn Benckert]

Wifi has a lot of delay....

How much?

DJI feed video to phone with extremly close to zero lag. Like quick enough so when I hold my phone ontop of the camera and next to my red touch screen and pan / shake the whole thing from side to side, I dont see any difference in lag on the phone vs the touch screen.

Sending focus data is quite slim stream compared to a reasonably good looking picture no?


But to me. Any focusing system today tat does not include a picture transmission seams a bit outdated. Look at raveneye, cost 120USD and feeds picture better than most and also do full camera control for a wide range of cameras, it could do it for komodo, red has done their part DJI just have to pretty much add komodo to the list. Sure raven eye does not come with a focus nob, but that I think that will come soon and likley not cost more than the motor or the video transmitter. So it´s remote focusing is quite a competitive field, also lot of companies doing good auto focus now. Here in stockholm we got moonsmart focus that just got their stuff out in production and their is many more on the way.

 

[Jacek Zakowicz]

I don't think they use wifi for focus. It has inherent 4-5 frames delay that has to do with the wifi compression algorithms. Maybe they use Bluetooth- more suited to fast transmission of small band width...

 

[Mike Goubeaux]

It's true, Wifi has some delay. However, in our annecdotal testing, the responsiveness of sending focus commands many times per second on a local network (both ROVER and Komodo on wifi) is very very good. The delay is inperceavable on a local network. Further, even in separated geographical locations over the internet (ROVER in one location - Komodo in another), the latency is often sub 20 miliseconds. We are gathering some more hard data on command sent and reponse received times that we can share. But even then, we're mostly concerned with the time it takes for the message to reach the camera.

ROVER was innitially designed with remote production in mind (thank you Global Pandemic) where the camera is geographically seperated from the operators, a situation in which there is already innherantly some delay in monitoring the video feed - whether via screen sharing, video chat applications (like zoom), or even the direct IP video feed from Komodo. In that situation, delay is sort of inherant in the production - though zoom has been yielding very very low latency (miliseconds). And, having tactile camera control is a major improvement over using the web interface, phone app, etc when you're geographically seperated from the camera.

We've even had great success and inperceptible delay when pulling focus over the internet through a VPN into a location where we don't have the ability to configure local routers etc. We've even had manageable lag on cellular connections. Not ideal, but works in a pinch. And, wifi use locally has fantastic performance.

Nice thought on a video feed! ROVER was innitially conceived to make no pressumptions about your geographical relationship to the camera, so video monitoring needs may present in various ways - local wireless, local hardwired, remote stream, etc. For that reason, we've so far kept it simple, cheap, and flexible. But I like the idea of a version that streams the Komodo IP video feed!!

 

[Jacek Zakowicz]

That's great news. However:
Is the delay related to what you see on the monitor or the real time? What counts for pulling focus is the real time. The monitoring video on DSMC/DSMC2 has at least 4 frames delay. In many scenarios pulling focus from the monitoring video on monitor is not enough...

 

[Michael Hastings]

...

Here in stockholm we got moonsmart focus that just got their stuff out in production and their is many more on the way.

What's the price on the moon smart?