Has everybody seen this Follow Focus tutorial?

Cool series. The guy was an absolute pro, but sure got put in a tough spot with that rig.

If I learned anything from this vid is to not shoulder mount that cam. He's pulling focus right in front of the operator's face. I think I would've used a steadicam and a remote to do those shots. Or at least that shoulder rig and a remote.
 
I could be wrong, but I think that was new Ikan HD 8.4" monitor being used. It was just amazing watching him (Bob Sanchez) pull focus without even looking at the recorded image. We spent a lot of time getting the micro-collimation features sorted, and watching this series made it evident why having the lens collimated perfectly is so important. The SLR lens focus marks are much coarser but cinema lenses have 2 to 3 times more focus accuracy and a lot more travel. I can't imagine Bob's workflow if the focus marks on the lens were even slightly off. Matt and Kendall evidently made the effort to get it perfect.
 
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Yep, Zacuto makes some very cool stuff. What were your thoughts/specs on the lens you were using? Looking at the setup video, it looked like it was projecting a very large image cone...well beyond academy frame. Call me strange, but the lens was plain sexy to look at.

Edit: Nevermind...It's the 85mm Zeiss PL (T1.3?) mentioned in your credits.
 
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Yup, it's the 85mm T1.3. Plain sexy! I didn't notice any light falloff like I do on some lenses. We shot with it wide open most of the time. A very heavy and very lustworthy chunk of glass. Many thanks to Fletcher Chicago for letting us borrow it for a few days.
 
Very awesome stuff.
Now I want to buy a speed crank!

I've been waiting for the ff reviews. Can't wait to check 'em out.
 
Dennis Wood said:
We spent a lot of time getting the micro-collimation features sorted, and watching this series made it evident why having the lens collimated perfectly is so important.
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Matt or Kendal,

Thanks for taking the time to make such an in-depth series of videos on a critical set position that often doesn't get the attention it deserves. Could either of you explain how you collimated the lens with a 35mm adapter so that the focus marks on the lens are reliable to the distance of your subject? Is this process different with cinema vs SLR lenses when using an adapter?

When we have shot with the Redrock M2 and follow-focus using SLR Nikon lenses, we have always had to rely strictly on the monitor because the focus marks on the lens were decently off from what distance was actually in focus. The next project we plan on doing will use a lot of hand-held so having accurate distances without needing a monitor would be beyond beneficial.
 
John Kary said:
Could either of you explain how you collimated the lens with a 35mm adapter so that the focus marks on the lens are reliable to the distance of your subject? Is this process different with cinema vs SLR lenses when using an adapter?
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The Brevis has a micro-collimation adjustment on each mount that allows you to fairly simply adjust the distance between the lens flange and the diffuser image plane. Once you set this for the PL and Nikon mounts, you shouldn't have to change it (perhaps just check it from time to time).

John Kary said:
When we have shot with the Redrock M2 and follow-focus using SLR Nikon lenses, we have always had to rely strictly on the monitor because the focus marks on the lens were decently off from what distance was actually in focus. The next project we plan on doing will use a lot of hand-held so having accurate distances without needing a monitor would be beyond beneficial.
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You have two options with the M2 adapter...I understand that you can actually take it apart, make an adjustment, put it back together, and recheck the marks. Rinse and repeat until you get it right. The other option is to just put up a focus chart and measure off distances, marking them on the lens (use white gaff tape). You can basically just reset your lens marking scale in that manner. Before we figured out micro-collimation, we actually did that on a lens. It's not really that bad, you'd be surprised how quickly you can remark a lens.
 
With SLR lenses its probably always a good idea to follow Matt's advice about measuring your own marks, but if they are much off the manufacturers markings propobably your entire collimation is off and you are either going to go past infinity or never get to it. Likewise your zoom lenses won't track.

I'm surprised at how much people seem to be willing to put up with mis-collimated lenses on these adapters and how sloppy they often go out.
In a cine rental shop we used to check the collimation of every single lens that went onto every camera before they went out for a job.

For more information on this check out the thread :

"Everything you wanted to know about the Letus Extreme and were too afraid to ask"

There probably should be a sticky on this forum about it -Tim where are you? Actually maybe its already there.

Lenny Levy
 
The collimation features represented the single most frequent request from our user base. Now that it's integrated (and extremely user friendly), any mount can be quickly and perfectly calibrated so that infinity focus is sharp, focus marks match exactly, and the mounts are perfectly aligned in all three axes. It's very important when folks are interchanging imaging elements, some of which change the collimation distance by .02 mm or so.

A lens that is not adjusted correctly will never have sharp infinity focus....and if it's a wide angle, may never focus at all.

Evidently I'm not alone in a thirst for excellent tutorials like these. Not only do they offer an insight into real world situations, but watching guys like Bob do their stuff is just plain inspiring :-) That 85mm belongs on a mantle under some flattering light when not in use on a camera.
 
I'll second what Dennis said about his collimation system. I just used it a few weeks ago. They should all have something like this. The SGPro Rev 2 also can be user adjusted fairly easily.
 
Does anyone have any leads on where to get a speed crank? Those PL lenses have a lot larger rotation and I nearly twist my wrist off trying to make the full rotations it requires sometimes to keep things in focus. I found one on filmtools but 85$ is a little pricey for me. I know its film gear and all but c'mon it's really just a drawer handle.
 
CineTech is about the same price, hopefully RedRock or some other indie company will
release a more economical solution. Maybe check Cavision..
 
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