Cinevate's Follow Focus - Patent Pending :-)

Dennis Wood

Dennis Wood

DVXuser Sponsor
Edit April 2nd : 15mm and 19mm versions now available :-)

Our earlier customers will know that nearly a year ago, the follow focus project was supposed to have come to fruition...and despite having units in stock, we sold none of them. This patent pending unit represents a complete redesign of the concept using a build quality that will literally last a lifetime. It is our first project that was professionaly engineered entirely in a collaborative 3D CAD environment enabling a complete redesign-to-production cycle of less than 2 months. Rather than just putting a gear and knob on an radio controlled car transmission (as other manufacturers have done in this price range), we've purpose designed every component and manufacture them here in Canada. The highly refined/sealed internal gear set and bearing assembly assures effortless movement under even heavy loads, near zero lash, and a lifetime of maintenance free use in a commercial environment. The entire unit is computer machined from 3 aluminum billets (mount, chassis, focus knob) leaving plastic used only for the dry-erase focus ring and interchangeable .8 film pitch drive gear. A .5 pitch drive gear option is coming as are the whip and speed crank. The focus marking ring is designed for multi-angle viewing, and is both indexed and attached magnetically. Our single rail mount design is rock-solid, incredibly versatile and opens up rail space for other accessories. The unit can be mounted left or right, at any height (including upside-down), with the focussing head angle adjustable to suit your needs. In any configuration, the unit can be used with the drive gear oriented forward or back. Designed to work on any 15mm rails system, expect the 19mm option very shortly for use on the RED and larger cinema cameras. Existing owners will only need to purchase one part to use their unit interchangeably on 15 or 19mm rails. The unit ships with three of our aluminum annodized universal focus rings (with 360 degree unhinhibited rotation) for mounting to any 35mm lens. The current pricing of $890 is introductory. A lifetime warranty will be standard.

The Video University overview of the system will be available for viewing in a few days.

FF_full_rig.jpg


FF_beauty_pic.jpg

EDIT: Quick clip of the mounting system being loaded up!​

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Thanks guys. Your feedback is, as always, very encouraging to the team here.

Tmnt, the clamping question is a very good one. One of the reasons we've initiated the patent process on this unit is that there are many fine points of design that took nearly 2 years to perfect. Single rod clamping is one of them. Keeping in mind that our carbon rods are much "slippier" than stainless, this challenge has not been an easy one to address, however this is where 3D CAD design is an advantage. In other words, with very little effort on your part, the unit exerts a fairly ridiculous (and nicely distributed) clamping force. The footprint of the clamping area is optimized to maximize the static coefficient of friction on our carbon solid rods..which again are quite slick. In testing, zero complaints on the stability of the rig and even a solid yank on an attached whip will disloged the whip long before the FF changes position. Furthermore, the mouning bracket structure has been CNC machined to maximize rigidity while minimizing mass.

Because the system is modular, I can promise that before NAB you'll see a system similar to Scarlett where the purchaser will have transmission, mounting bracket, and gear options guaranteeing a perfect match for every conceivable application. In other words, if you purchase one now, you'll have about six different combinations possible based your current product. If you look at our Proteus rails system, the modular Brevis MP.1 (and another surprise next week), you'll see where we're going with this.
 
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Modular products rock. We were actually trying to make the proteus system hold the indy focus we have until we get something that fits 19mm rods. The cool thing with the proteus is that it looks like it will work with what ever size the Scarlet will be and you can't beat those solid CF rails you have. Your FF can clamp 3 tons and I don't think it will faze the rails at all. The race now for adapters will be to have a GG that can work with a 3K sensor and not show up on the footage.
 
The next two little surprises will have at least a few folks peeing their pants :-) The good news is that they're 100% non-hype and 100% shipping in 2 weeks. We're flying the stillmotion.ca crew up next week (if you're in Thunder Bay, Wednesday night at 7pm..you're invited...party at Cinevate!). They have no idea what awaits them ... If you've got an HPX500 and you're looking for a follow focus..more good news.

Aram, you can imagine how thrilled we were with Scarlett when the 2/3" removable lens brain was announced. I know a lot of folks believe our 2/3" mulit-format relay lens is vaporware, but rest assured that it will be here very soon. I'm still driving a 1984 VW to prove it :-) The Proteus rails system, follow focus modular packages, our two "surprises" and three more "NAB fodder" projects are all about making 2/3" imaging happen directly to our adapter. The fact that we've spec'd resolution requirements well beyond native 1920x1080 chips means I have zero worries about 3K from a 2/3" chip....we were planning for this.

For third party adapter users...you'll be happy too :-)
 
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Dennis, if I purchase one now, will I need to purchase another part to make it work with the RED on 19mm rods and will it be a "cheap" upgrade? or should I just wait til a native 19mm is available? The only reason I want to order one now is because of the 4 weeks lead time...
 
Yes, a single part, and based on what I know right now, ~$200. This would allow use of both 15 and 19mm rods, with a 60 second parts swap.
 
ok great! I think I am going to place an order on Monday then. Would you happen to know an approximate time frame for the 19mm part?

P.S: I had trouble falling asleep so i read your scarlet user post....and it makes me want to buy from your company even more. :-)
 
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Great design. Love the simplicity.

Can the gear switch sides?
Will you have smaller gear options for small focus draw lenses?
 
3X, about 4 weeks, Tim thanks, and Aram...read on.

Zacuto's Jeep would work based on what I've seen of it. Our part however, will be less expensive..and the end result a lot simpler/stiffer. Read on though as to where I"m going with this. You'll see two things coming shortly from us...and they don't count really as "new" projects I've been alluding too.

1. We've now got 100mm universal rails blocks in stock that would allow folks to use their 16mm camera base plate with all of our gear. This takes our solid carbon 15mm rods and spaces them at 100mm on center..instead of the standard 60mm.

2. Full 19mm rails systems using our bulletproof carbon system. Offering the 19mm option is a very significant investment (to maintain our +- 0.005mm tolerance) but count on seeing this before NAB.
 
The jeep will enable adaptation from 15mm to 19mm. However, it provides better stability with follow focuses requiring dual rods. Seeing as this is a monorod follow focus, you might be better off to wait for Cinevates solution.
 
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