Best Sub-500 Dollar Follow Focus Choice

Very happy with my Redrock V.2. One thing to be aware of is, the square "gearbox" on it doesnt allow it to get close enough to the lens gear on some small lenses if your using a low profile gear like Zacuto's zip gear. The gearbox hits the camera below the lens mount. After switching from the Zacuto DSLR base to the narrower lower profile Redrock one, the problem went away. Using the larger diameter RR gears would help as well.
 
Vitaliy Kiselev said:
This is their taobao shop - http://tilta.taobao.com/?orderType=price&search=y
Prices seem to be quite high.
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hm... depends, not cheap as india's product, but build and material quality were acceptable to its price.

the Matte box are swing away, made with real solid piece of metal... quite heavy for handheld.

follow focus were copied redrock design, but better friction.

7" monitor with hdmi, sdi input (not HDsdi...) could be power by DV's batteries... comes with power arm and sun shade... hm... its not that cheap, but acceptable to its price.
 
I have the Cavision FF. It is very good for the $$$. It is very compact and has a real cool easy on off system.
 
You can order it with a few different rings (different kits at B&H for example), it comes with 1. It should be fine on the AF100, although some of the smaller lenses like the "pancakes" probably will not work w/o some special adaption.

A lot of my Canon L's don't need gear rings, unless you want a longer throw on the focus, then you can put third party large rings on. Genus makes a zip tie style of ring gear that will work on a lot of different lenses, should be available from B&H as well.
 
Jeez, that combo looks tempting, especially for 650 Euros.
Love that tactical look.

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Wherever you end up getting your FF from, I highly recommend the cinecity / dvcity gear rings. Yes, a lot of the India-made RedRock knock offs are cheaply made (matte box, follow focus, etc). But it's pretty hard to screw up a piece of plastic and a thin metal screw. For $12 each you get gear rings for all of your lenses, just like the $40 RedRock ones. Their rail system spare parts are also a good bargain. I've heard good things about their small matte box, but I wouldn't get anything more professional than the gear rings.

I can clamp them to my lens, pick up the lens with the gear ring and shake it around. This is not something I would normally do to a lens, but that's just how tight the bite is on these gear rings.
 
I went ahead and ordered a D|Focus from Jag35 the other day. I ordered on Tuesday night at 9:30pm and it just arrived in the mail today. For $140 (about $165 with tax and shipping) I'm impressed.

My other follow focus is a Cinevate Durus. I also have a Redrock Micro v2 on the way and might sell the Durus to use that with the AF100 if I like it. I prefer the two rod mounting than the one rod mounting that the Durus uses. I think it will be easier and quicker when changing lenses and readjusting the follow focus. We'll see though.

Anyways, I got the D|Focus so I'd have a second follow focus for my GH1 (soon to be GH2). I didn't want to spend much on it since I'll primarily be using the AF100. First thing I did was take it apart and flipped the gear box upside down to reverse the gear for use with my Zeiss ZF's. Now I get the focus wheel spinning for focus like with cinema lenses. No reversing gear necessary. That was nice.

The gears are exposed and they are plastic, which I don't like, but I guess that's partly how they got the price this low.

There's no play. None. As I just typed that I checked it again. I'm amazed, no play.

It's very, very lightweight. Seriously, it weighs almost nothing.

The marking disk is a kind of plastic that I can imagine won't clean up very easily, but we'll see. The focus marker is an allen wrench which I used to take it apart and reverse it. You need to remove the focus wheel to change the marking disk, which is annoying, but how often do you need to do that. It's also probably another way they got the price so low. I wish the wheel was larger for more fine focusing.

It's pretty tight, but I don't think too tight.

That's about it. It's a simple follow focus and works and cost only about $165 shipped, and I got it in only 4 days even with the holiday (so really only 3 days).

Oh, and nothing against the Cinevate Durus. It's an awesome follow focus and very well-built. I just think I prefer the 2 rod mounting style, which is probably why most are like that. I'll post my thoughts on the Redrock Micro when I get it probably in a week or so.
 
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I used Cavision mat boxes on my Sony PD 150 and 170 for years, their stuff was well built and I found the company great to work with.
 
hi everyone, is anyone here use tilta products for real ? I plan to buy the ff and the matte box, with their rotating hand grip, but i want to be sure that's this products are not crappy. I actually use proaim but now i need to have something more accurate than indian stuff. Thanks for your help.
 
I have the Cavision basic mini FF, and I am very happy with it. It manages to have just about all the features I wanted, which RR and SGpro didnt have at almost twice the price. It is better built than RR (I'm not a fan of RR for various reasons after using it a ton). It is very lightweight and small, which some people may not like, but I'd definitely recommend it and it lives on my rig. If you are looking for something <$500, its really the only option, but id take it over most of the ~$500-1000 options.

The Cavision basic mini FF:
-can be attached without having to slide on and remove other rod-mounted aks (RR does this, SGpro does not)
-can have the gear(s) installed on either or both side of the gearbox (SGPro does this, RR does not)
-Has an adjustable, locking indicator mark (SGpro does this, RR does not)
-has an indicator that actually lines up with marks made on the marking disc even if viewed at an angle (SGpro doesn't quite do this, RR is terrible for this)
 
nyvz said:
I have the Cavision basic mini FF, and I am very happy with it. It manages to have just about all the features I wanted, which RR and SGpro didnt have at almost twice the price. It is better built than RR (I'm not a fan of RR for various reasons after using it a ton). It is very lightweight and small, which some people may not like, but I'd definitely recommend it and it lives on my rig. If you are looking for something <$500, its really the only option, but id take it over most of the ~$500-1000 options.

The Cavision basic mini FF:
-can be attached without having to slide on and remove other rod-mounted aks (RR does this, SGpro does not)
-can have the gear(s) installed on either or both side of the gearbox (SGPro does this, RR does not)
-Has an adjustable, locking indicator mark (SGpro does this, RR does not)
-has an indicator that actually lines up with marks made on the marking disc even if viewed at an angle (SGpro doesn't quite do this, RR is terrible for this)
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What lens gears are you using with this?

Edit: I also noticed there are a few different ones available. One for canon lenses, fujinon, and cine lenses. Which one are you guys using?
 
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