Best Follow Focus for Gimbal

S

spinkscapes

Well-known member
Hi guys,

I've recently placed the Moza Lite on pre-order. A Panasonic GH4 + Olympus 12mm will be the combo used.
This gimbal will be used in a one-person setup, thus may require a follow focus system.
I see that Tom Antos has done a review of the Silencer Pro:
He was quite pleased with this piece of gear.
Just wondering if anyone had come across something similar that was better?
 
I haven't watched this review yet, but I have the silencer pro and I do have mixed feelings about it.

PROs:
- the battery (just one) lasts forever
- you get a decent baseplate with rods
- the short motor (i.e. the black one) is not too noisy and moves slr lenses with no problems
I tested it with both the samsung 16-50 2.8 and my set of samyangs.
- cables are thin and light and do not interfere with the balance of a camera on a gymbal, at least on my helix jr.
- cheap enough, even though there are wireless products that cost the same if not less.
- wired ff means that you'll never run into problems with interferences.

CONs
- The trigger. The concept is brilliant. It's a small unit that you can mount in 5 seconds wherever you need it.
However I wish that it came with a speed control (slow, medium, high). The trigger is too sensitive and it's easy to miss focus, or moving focus either too slow or too fast.
I would have rather preferred a wheel, in a redrock style. But I understand that it takes more efforts to build it.
- Forget the rubber band. It causes shift movements on a lens, as it applies too much pressure.
- Of course, there are no marking points. The solution is to draw marking points directly on the ring that you should mount on a dslr lens, on the side facing the operator.

Hope this helps.
Diego
 
Looks decent. You could slow it down by using a very large gear on your lens. Since it uses a two year drive, you might be able to get other ratios for the drive transmission to slow it down even more. The clutch is a nice touch to keep from wrecking gears and draining your battery. This might be easy enough to convert to a knob, but would need to see how the electronics in the trigger work.

Another good option for the trigger would be some kind of mechanical limiter for the trigger so you just can't pull/push too far.
 
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