follow focus gears for dslr lenses?

MPB

MPB

Well-known member
i guess there are half a dozen sub-forums i could post this question in, but anyway...

with all the other add-ons i've been buying for the f3 rig (which i have to say, is getting pretty shootable now, even on the shoulder) i'm thinking a follow focus is next. someone mentioned the edelkrone recently, which looks like a nice design and fairly affordable. but i'm wondering if gear rings are all much of a muchness, or if some are better than others. i have a set of zeiss primes in nikon, and i'm thinking most gear rings will bite pretty well on those focus rings, but then i've got a nikon 24-70 and a tokina 11-16, which have rubber rings and i would think would be more prone to slipping.

any suggestions?

that, and a grip handle and i ought to be set... probably just in time for the f5 to come out. :D
 
that's a good idea, i didn't realize they might do just the focus rings. do you have any experience with these conversions/gears applied to the rubber focus rings on a typical AF lens?
 
I've used redrock gears on nikons, and even the black gears you can find on ebay from china for cheap with no complaints. Just buy enough of all the right sizes you need for your lenses - and they don't even need to go on tight. I like that because I can slip them on or off as needed, and you can rotate the gear on the barrel itself to a position where the gear screw won't intefere with the follow focus gear.

I haven't tried a gear on my Tokina 16-50 yet, but don't suspect any issues.

SonyF3campic1.jpg
 
those cinevate gears don't mar the lens, Morton?

Starcentral, i guess i'm a little surprised to hear that slippage isn't an issue. the redrock rings always looked flimsy to me.
 
I have never missed a moment pulling focus with the rings and truth be told I'm mainly using the even cheaper 3rd party "ebay" rings found here: http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Mod-0-8-DSLR...641?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f14cfcdf1 ... and like I said I can leave the gear loose enough to slip on and off if I really want to.

What I really like about the RedRock v2 follow focus unit is that you can mount and un-mount the FF unit without having to slide it off your rails! This means if you already have an arm, mattebox, and grips mounted it comes off in a breeze! Looking at the newer v3 model looks like that feature was removed. Add an after market FF whip and you are off to the races.

Somewhere once upon a time I watched a very good video review of various FF units and RedRock performed really well in a test where they lock the barrel and turn the focus knob. Cheap units will have a lot of "play" in them.
 
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Shoot35 in britain has very nice gears and follow focus. Everything Wayne makes is well designed and reasonably priced starting with his SGPro 35mm adapter a few years ago. highly reviewed if you look around.

http://www.shoot35.com/
 
Best advice I can give someone shopping for a follow focus is to spend a little extra and get one with hard stops that you can set yourself with screws. I think otherwise, it's not much more than just moving a focus ring that you can write on about 5 inches to the side. The hard stops make a planned rack focus a no-brainer.
 
i have to say, i like the idea of the press-fit gears, though apparently that could be more an aesthetic choice than a practical one, if the cheap strap-ons do the job.

and yes, hard stops also sounds very appealing.
 
Starcentral, i have that same mattebox. (i didn't purchase it, it was an "award" for a piece that i shot.) do you use the standard doughnuts or some other solution? also, i find that since the bottom of the 'box is in the path of the rods, i have to use shorter rods when i use a short lens. is that your experience as well?
 
I use the donut rings that came with it when I can, sometimes I don't use any.

Overall I think that mattbox adds too much weight to the rig (but it is 2-stage/rotatable so I understand there are a lot of pieces to it). I also just upgraded from all 4x4 filters to 4x5.65 glass. Yes I have the SAME challenges with my setup as you. Sometimes is I can not get the matte box close enough to the lens once I add all my other accessories. But I don't use shorter rails, I just slide the camera up the rails to be closer if that makes sense. Then they hang out the back more but that's okay. By the way I'm using 18" carbon rails.
 
i agree about the size and bulk, i frequently wish it wasn't so big. i have, on one or two occasions, had an issue with reflections when a lens didn't happen to be a good fit with one donut or another. i guess it wouldn't be too hard to cut some sort of collar for the lens that would cut the gap, but that's just another piece to fiddle with.
 
I definitely plan to replace the matt box at some point, something lighter and something that will clear the rails instead of hitting them..
 
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