A fantastic alternative to costly Zip gears

hoarp001

hoarp001

Veteran
Zacuto Zip gears are the cleanest and most compact way to add a nice gear ring to your lenses, but they are expensive. At IBC today I stumbled upon another solution, made by Vocas. This works in much the same way, but I feel the clamping mechanism is easier to fit and overall, looks nicer than the zip gears.

They are still not pennies, 70 euros each (100 dollars)


The guys at Vocas kindly gave me one for testing with the HoFo, and whilst sitting on my hard hotel bed, I thought id take some photos for you.

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the teeth look to small....

imagine a lens that wanders slightly. even Super Speed Mk1's travel a little....
 
You think that costs pennies to make?! That block on the top is a complicated machining, worked from two sides, then anodised. The plastic racking isnt worth much, but the clamp block is a complicated peice....
 
I've thought about using zip-ties (the big electrical ones), backwards, but haven't tried it yet. Anyone tried?
 
pmark23 said:
I've thought about using zip-ties (the big electrical ones), backwards, but haven't tried it yet. Anyone tried?
Click to expand...


Im going to go look for some of those.


When I saw the zacuto zips I laughed. Paying for one of those is the biggest waste of money. Filmmaking gear is so overpriced its retarded!
 
We will soon be offering the same solution, we have had this blue flexible gear in our workshop for the last year or so but never did get around to utilizing it.
 
We will likely be charging the same as our current gears - 1x £29, 3x £69 or 5x £99. These will be reduced if purchased with our upcoming follow focus.
 
Wayne, Are your teeth any wider?

I was concerned about what Timurcivan said about lens travel - esp true with Nikons.

Lenny Levy
 
The teeth will be the same, it is the same racking as the Vocas photos I posted.

Most follow focuses offer a wide drive gear, so it should be ok.

If you dont want to use lens gears at all, True Lens Service has just shown an amazing follow focus system that uses no lens gears at all. It has a belt that goes round the lens. Sounds stupid, but its really neat, accurate and totaly universal. It is quite expensive at £600, but when you consider that it needs no lens gears, you could save the differnce easily if you were planning on buying zip gears for six primes for example. This would save you the differnce between the TLS follow focus and anotehr system that requires the rings.
 
And just to add to the collection, Cinevate's new focus gears will be debuting this week. The original design has been completely re-worked after 3 years of field feedback and use of our focus gears with ENG lenses, still lenses etc.

The cost per gear will be in the $30 US range, or approx £15 for comparison. That's about 80% less then the zip gears mentioned in post #1. Like our Durus FF, the gears carry a lifetime warranty. Being that our designs have been "borrowed" in the past, we're not letting this one out until our patent-pending status is in place.

Changes from our older design other than the drastic reduction in cost (we've made a very large quantity), are as follows.

1. They offer over twice the lens travel distance of the current design. Btw, the zip gear mentioned here would be useless (or require very frequent repositioning) with any SLR lens with typical focus ring physical "breathing".
2. The gears are fiber-reinforced composite and use brass thread inserts.
3. Our "spokes" (stainless steel) now feature custom integrated nylon tips.
4. Enlarged inner diameter for easier use with ENG lenses, larger cine lenses and video camera stock lenses.
5. About 50% lighter with a 40% reduction in profile.
6. Because they are matched (we're talking gear thrust surfaces) precisely with our FF drive gears, they have what I'd call perfect engagement that is silent, with lash near zero measurable. What this means is super smooth, self-lubricating and silent performance that we would be completely comfortable holding up against $4000 Arri systems.
7. Installation is now much, much quicker. About 2 minutes per lens.
8. We don't and never will use zip gears. Flexible gears cannot guarantee consistent tooth profiles (tooth distance at tip varies as you flex them), nor can they ever handle full 360 degree rotation. They're cheap and can be made in one mold (very cheap to make) however we pretty much rejected the concept from day one.

Finally, they're just a lot sexier :-) We're expecting to be shipping them this week. It sounds strange to be excited about something little like this but this addition raises the performance of our Durus Follow Focus to a new level of excellence in terms of its function and design. Those who know what we do here will agree that we're always pushing incredibly hard to improve our gear...and I don't get excited too often.

Later this week...an SI-2K camera with our full 2/3" relay setup as well as a straight 2/3" B4 lens. Both will feature the Durus FF on the rig.

Cheers,
Dennis.
 
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Where can we find info on the True Lens Service system. Also, who makes the Delrin hard press rings found on RP lenses, anyone know?

The Zacuto rings look wider than the Vocas and the CNC milled tightening block offers good control over the lens versus a zip tie type lock which is dependent on the actual teeth of the gear itself. Basically the .8 mod spacing of the teeth affects the distance allowed for each "click".

Is this true with these? Also, can the ends be cut off and would that affect the tightening box?
 
Cinevate's new focus gears are working great on lenses such as the LOMO cine lenses, as well as the Fujinon 17x lens that ships with the HPX500. You'll want to check them out vs zip gears...check my previous post.
 
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