DIY Gearless Follow Focus

Ted Ramasola

Ted Ramasola

Veteran
When I made several Plywood skaters, which use 3 skater wheels, I ended up with several extra wheels since the wheels and bearings come in a set of 4.
So one day I was intimately touching and caressing one of the wheels and felt a slight spongey and sticky characteristic that really "grips" so I got one of my lenses lyin around and tried putting em together and found out I can actually use the skater wheel to turn the focusing ring without gears.

Now this wont work on some lenses.
AND this is NOT a Replacement for the real Geared follow focus.

-But so far it works on my old 50mm nikon, 105mm nikon, 20-40mm sigma and the 80-200mm nikon.

Give me a few minutes to prepare and label the construction pics. In the meantime heres the FF on my DSLR rig with other DIY stuffs.

1254853882.jpg


I hope this will save money for some of you guys.

Ted
 
Last edited:
think you would be able to post pics of the rest of your rig seperate as well? i am interested in seeing your rails and mount on their own
 
A video during my quick tests a few hours ago.

Also shows different lens types being mounted near the end.



[size=+2]DIY Gearless Follow Focus Test[/size]
 
Last edited:
Geez Teddy Bear! You are the FREAKING MAN! This is EXACTLY the type of inspiration that has me coming to this forum everyday. I'm so inspired by the creative solutions that you have put together. ....and ESPECIALLY....thank you for sharing with the rest of us!!! YOU ROCK!!!
 
Hi Sheldon,

Check out the last picture on the DIY Rail Block clamp I posted above.
You'll see the FF holder(the part i am holding), which also acts as the rail clamp, goes through a hole which i "elongated", for lack of a better term, so it can slide/adjust to maintain contact with the focus ring of different lenses.

Ted
 
Last edited:
Ok, lets take this further, I just finished making a cheap WHIP. The whips for sale goes for more than 130.00 US.

Mine's less than 4 US dollars.

Lemme prepare the pics.
 
Ooo Baby. I was researching this last night. Trying to come up with a socket type male / female snap in connection for the wheel. You're way ahead of me! :)
 
DIY Whip for DIY Gearless Follow Focus

DIY Whip for DIY Gearless Follow Focus

To make the gearless FF i made fully functional it must have a whip, especially for those dolly moves and when using the plywood skater.

I needed a material for the whip that is flexible BUT WONT TWIST.

I got the idea for this while I was poopin. While sitting inside the toilet I was able to see under the sink and saw the flexible hose!

Hope you guys can use this not only on my gearless FF design but also if you wanna cheaply retrofit or mod the ones you already have.


1255456380.jpg
 
Last edited:
Oh my god, this is genious. I have been looking everywhere for a cheap material that will bend but not twist for a whip... have experimented with all sorts of clunky options. If the sink host works as well as you suggest, this is is a small miracle for me. Tomorrow: to the hardware store!!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top