Follow focus & shoulder rig

hjrt

hjrt

Active member
Hi there!

I'm currently still shooting with my HPX-171 but I'm planning to make the move to a bigger sensor camera within 6 months - 1 year (when I will have the money to do it properly, with a good set of professional glass etc). It is for sure that I will need a proper rig and follow focus as well. Now it would be useless if I bought one CP.2 lens right now without being able to use it (other than for photography), but the investment in a shoulder rig and a follow focus is one I could make right now.

Now, I don't want to spend an awful lot of money on it, but on the other hand I do want to use them for a long period of time. So it seems build quality is key, features are maybe less important. What would your recommendations be? What kind of money should I spend on this? What are the good types/brands and what are the ones that I shouldn't even consider?
 
I've said this before, but your best bet for a good system starts at the top with a nice Arri follow focus and a wooden camera shoulder rig and arri-style dovetail plate, but thats looking to be maybe a little under or around 3000$

What you want to look at is how you can make your rig as minimal, comfortable to use and easy to use. Problem with ALOT of rigs I've seen is that they tend to have way too many parts and have a huge mess of things that just to take it off the shoulder rig you have to unscrew millions of things. And worse when you have to leave that shoulder rig mounted on to use a tripod.

With a dovetail plate you just slide it on, and off. Thats nice, but its a pricey feature.

Some lower end models for follow focuses, the one I'd recommend the most (it still has its quirks) is the trusmt follow focus which is around 400, for something a little under 1000$ I've heard the Genus one is pretty good, but I can't personally say buy it.

The shoulder rig depends on what your camera system is going to look like, you could buy a simple shoulder rig where you can mount up a smaller dovetail (not a bigger one like the Arri) and buy another set and leave the other one on your tripod. So you're just sliding it off and on.
 
I have Olof's shoulder brace and nano bracket which mounts to the side of the AF100 and isn't dependent on a rail system. It's also light enough to remain a permanent fixture.
http://www.westsideavstore.com/index.php?p=product&id=21

For rails to mount the follow focus, Shoot 35 make a robust, affordable baseplate and rail system for the AF100. I find the 12" rods that come standard with it on the short side so would recommend buying longer rods or rod extensions.
http://www.shoot35.com/products/rodsupport/af100baseplate/af100baseplateframe.html

For follow focus, Ive gone cheap with the Hondo Garage. its rudimentary but works with or without gear rings. I tried Jag 35's Sidekick friction follow focus but found, while well made, it wasn't a good match for some of my Lumix lenses or my Voigtlander.
http://www.hondogarage.com/index.php/product/landing/follow-focus
 
Thanks for the tips so far.

Spending 3000,- on a rig + ff is a bit too much for me. The Trust MT looks pretty nice I have to see, so does the Shoot35. As for the shoulder rig: Ricky, you make a valid point mentioning the annoyance of leaving the shoulder rig attached to the camera when using it on a tripod. To be honest, I was thinking of doing it that way, also because I use a Vinten Tripod (Vision 3AS) and the quick release adapters generally found in rigs aren't compatible with a Vinten baseplate...but I think there should be a way to work around that...
 
hjrt said:
Thanks for the tips so far.

Spending 3000,- on a rig + ff is a bit too much for me. The Trust MT looks pretty nice I have to see, so does the Shoot35. As for the shoulder rig: Ricky, you make a valid point mentioning the annoyance of leaving the shoulder rig attached to the camera when using it on a tripod. To be honest, I was thinking of doing it that way, also because I use a Vinten Tripod (Vision 3AS) and the quick release adapters generally found in rigs aren't compatible with a Vinten baseplate...but I think there should be a way to work around that...
Click to expand...

In the end its about how easy the equipment is to work with. If you're there getting blisters, cursing and trying to tighten things to get it right, you've made a bad choice, but if you find a way to deal with it and get it all working, then you're set.

Most quick-release systems should use a 1/4" and/or 3/8" screws under them, I recall most video tripods should have that
 
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