Follow Focus Issue with 7d 50mm 1.4

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dus10

Well-known member
So I just picked up at 1.4 50mm and love it. I put the size B lens gear from redrock on, mounted her all up and am running into a problem. The lens is short and therefore forcing the follow focus to be so close to the camera that the gearbox bumps the body before I can get the two gears to meet up correctly. I am wondering if there are any workaround that I may be overlooking to make it work. If the gear box was on the other side of the gear, like not between the gear and camera body, things would be fine... like when mounted on the right side of the camera its ok, but I prefer the left side to pull focus. I have the v1 redrock follow focus and from what I see in pictures I think the v2 would be no different.

Maybe I am still hungover enough to be missing something super obvious and someone can textually slap me in the face on here.

Thanks
 
I don't know about the red rock, but on many FF set ups you have to put the FF on the other side to use it on a short lens. A bit of a a pain. The other solution is a bigger gear on the FF.
 
Has anyone used the 28mm 1.8 or the 85mm1.8 with the redrock FF? These are my two main lenses, and Im planing to buy a redrock package soon.

The lens you guys are talking about is also a planned purchase for me so Im re-thinking that. Also the 35mm 2, only $300, is VERY SMALL... so Im guessing that would have problems as well?
 
I think this is a problem with any short lens. Another pitfall of using still lenses for something they were not made for, cinema. As said, try mounting the FF on the other side. If you really need to have the FF on the same side the only solution would be a dual sided FF.
 
I guess I'm kind of amazed at how often people are using FF here. I guess the reason I'm perplexed is that I just don't rack focus much or see it terribly often in movies. Are people using it just for regular focusing?

Maybe I don't understand the concept of FF :(
 
Follow Focus isnt just for the rack focusing. It helps remove hand torque from manually grabbing the focus ring, creating a much much much smoother focus, with a crank you can zip right to a focus mark. Once you've got one on it's hard to part with!
 
boulder said:
I just don't rack focus much or see it terribly often in movies.
Click to expand...

Yes you do see it all the time, but not so much for moving focus between two objects in frame as much as keeping the subject in focus when changing distance to the camera - be it a actor walking, a car rolling or the actual camera moving. Hence the name follow focus. The added function of using a follow focus like Redrock is the white ring where the focus puller sets marks during rehearsals to be more precise in timing the focusing to the action.
 
dus10 said:
So I just picked up at 1.4 50mm and love it. I put the size B lens gear from redrock on, mounted her all up and am running into a problem. The lens is short and therefore forcing the follow focus to be so close to the camera that the gearbox bumps the body before I can get the two gears to meet up correctly. I am wondering if there are any workaround that I may be overlooking to make it work. If the gear box was on the other side of the gear, like not between the gear and camera body, things would be fine... like when mounted on the right side of the camera its ok, but I prefer the left side to pull focus. I have the v1 redrock follow focus and from what I see in pictures I think the v2 would be no different.

Maybe I am still hungover enough to be missing something super obvious and someone can textually slap me in the face on here.

Thanks
Click to expand...

reverse gear from same ff manufacturer solve this
 
I use a redrock FF with a 50mm and though i udnerstand what you mean, i just dont have that problem AT ALL. My FF is nice and snug on my lens, not touching the body, nothing. I have my FF on the left side of the camera if thats why. Lemme know if you want and i can take a pic of my rig and you can just replicate whatever i did. though i dont even think i did anything different.
 
yes if you could shoot a picture or two I feel that would be helpful. Is it the same v1 FF and the 50 1.4? I think it may have to do with the rails you are using and way the camera is mounted. The DSLR plate doesnt seem to raise the camera up enough.
 
THAT could be the issue. i've raised the cam up quite a bit with the "risers" or whatever they're called. i dont know if my FF is V1 or V2 but i bought it about 2 months ago brand new if that helps you know what Version it is. I dont have my still cam here (obviously cant use the 7d if i'm taking pics of the 7d lol) so as soon as i get my cybershot back i'll upload some pics for you..hopefully tonight.
 
any luck on those pictures? I saw that I could probably get it to work properly with the Redrock microriser, but for $175 it's a little out of the question right now. And I am not SURE it would solve the problem.
 
you have v1. mastermind v2
they're different.
there's a standard height from rods to cam. it would be better respect that if you later want to use other accessories.
B.Valente putted a bigger gear on v2, that's why mastermind don't have this problem

1) You can solve you're problem "upgrading" the gear (to the "newer" one). See Redrock site.
2) You can solve you're problem buying "reverse gear" from redrock

cheers
 
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