Confused about Varizooms, focus, and jibs

M

musman

Member
Was thinking of trading in my old pd150 and buying a DVX100b or an HVX200 and getting the new Varizoom VZ - RockPZFI controller. Thought it would be nice to be able to control focus remotely, like while the cam is on a jib, but I don't understand how you could get the focus info from cam to do a proper follow focus while the cam is way up in the air, etc and you can't read the cam's lcd.
Am I missing something obvious here? Thanks ahead of time for any help!
 
The Focus controllers for the 100b and the HVX are absoloute, so you can put marks on the controller.

- Mikko
 
Thanks for the responses! I know I;m very green here, but I'm still a bit confused. I'm thinking the LCD wouldn't work as wouldn't have the numerical focus readings, right?
Mikko, about the Varizoom controllers, are you saying they don't spin indefinitely? Also, judging from the licture on their site, the knobs just seem like plain, unmarked knobs and don't seem to have much room for marking on them or the controller itself. WOuld this come more down to feel and be sort of an inexact science?
 
You can make it so that the LCD has the numerical focus readings as well as all the other info.

I did a project for school a little while ago and hooked my dvx to an LCD, works like a charm.

DSCN2047.jpg


eeeeeeeeeeeek!!!!!!! big...oh well
 
Cool! I stand corrected. I don't think my pd150 can do that, but I could be wrong.
Anyway, very cool and thank you for posting that!
 
Musman,
Though I have not yet tried them, I am under the impression that the focus controllers (from both Varizoom and BeBob) for the 100b and the HVX no not spin indefinatly. - That they have hard stops.

They won't work for a PD150 though. (No that it's an issue for you :) )

- Mikko
 
The Varizoom doesn't spin, no; it has hard stops. It's directly digitally positionable. By that, I mean that each position on the wheel directly corresponds to a position in the lens. For example, if you're using the Varizoom to manually adjust focus to, say, MF87... and then you switch to autofocus and the lens goes to MF33... and then you switch back to the Varizoom, then lens will instantly jump to MF87.
 
Hmm...
So with 2 focus controllers and a switch you could make a memory system with 2 presets.

Or just a box with multiple potentiomiters and pushbuttons - preset with the pot and then hit the button to engage that one to set focus to that "mark"..

Hmmm...

- Mikko ... wants 10%
 
mikkowilson said:
They won't work for a PD150 though. (No that it's an issue for you :) )
Click to expand...
I like that. No, that's definitely not an issue! What made me realize I need to sell the pd150 is that I only use it as a video out transcoder and I either shoot film or borrow a dvx if I have a shoot. So now I have a nearly untouched pd150. Looks like I'll be visiting ebay.
 
Very interesting possibility. I wonder if would be used if available or if people would still prefer to do things by hand.
Of course there are some circumstances that it wouldn't work. This is probably an extreme example, but the last shot of my most recent short had my lead character walking in slow motion from down the street towards the camera and eventually basically running into the camera. The focus puller told me what he did was make some measurements, but then it became a matter of feel.
But, I don't really know much about focus pulling and never get asked to do it, so y'all would be much better judges on how practical a programmable focus controller would be.
 
What interests me about the PZFI is that it could function as a cheap follow focus, could it not? If I have the DVX mounted on a DVRIG Pro or a SteadiCam type set up, would it work to stick the control in an AC's hands and use the controller to focus and such? You could easily create some sort of marking plate that could attach. There has got to be some reasons why a $1500.00 follow focus is preferable but why?
 
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