Indifocus lens gear setup issue

Arrik

Arrik

Well-known member
Hi all,

Ok so I received my indifocuspro package yesterday, and I have a question about the lens gear. I cant center the lens within the lens gear without the set screws still sticking out on the other side. This makes it impossible for the gear driver to turn the lens gear past any screws. It seems as if the set screws are too long. Which means my 85mm is definitely not going to work. I read the lens gearing instructions that came with the package, but it didn't mention anything regarding this issue. I can offset the lens gear driver and the lens gear so that they are barely touching from the sides. This will avoid the set screws which protrude through the center of the ring. But there's gotta be a way to get a better fit right?

Also, those set screws really did a number on my Zeiss ZF lens. I understand most lenses have the rubber focus ring, but the ZF lens I have are all metal. Its totally superficial but kinda hurts my resale value :( . Anyhow, any info on the lens gear setup would be appreciated.

THanks.
 
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If your indie focus comes with the standard cine .8 gear setup..you could look into getting the lens gears from Redrock Micro. They don't use screws to hold down the lens.
 
Yeah i did get the cine .8 gear driver, but I was really trying to save by sticking w/ the indie gears. I guess I'll just offset the gears to avoid the screws. It works perfectly. Just takes a minute or two longer when setting up.

Thanks for the info.

I am really impressed and love the indifocuspro otherwise.
 
im not sure i understand...

the screws that tighten to hold the 35mm lens in place stick on the outside of the ring? What the hell is the point of havingthat if it gets in the way of the follow focus gear?
 
order shorter screws
i did that and it works perfectly... unfortunately the screws are too long for some lenses
 
Shorter screws are definitely in order. My 85/1.8 has like a 77mm thread size I think. The lens gear just fits on so the screws stick out alot. The only lens that did not leave me with screws sticking out on the outside was my 25mm. If it was only a problem with odd sized lenses, then I wouldn't have so much of a problem with it. But for having this issue with most all my lenses, I'm not so happy with.

I think Tim should include a set of shorter screws in the bag of accessories. He's thrown in enough other goodies, why not shorter screws. I think it should also ship with the shorter screws installed. I don't see too many lenses would require the longer screws. Tim provides superb customer service. I was planning on callling him Monday, and I'll be sure to give him a little feedback on this. While buying screws is not a big deal, I don't believe customers should have to go through an extra step to have a fully functional product.

Don't let this deter you from the indiFOCUSpro. The performance of the FF is impressive and it's built solid. It's simply the lens gears I have a problem with.
 
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Arrik,

I use the indiFOCUS gears on my Zeiss nikon. My screws were the smaller ones which will fit perfectly and there will be no issues with the screws sticking out. He supplies long screws as most people use the smaller Nikons that will fit to them better.

Something you can do to protect your Zeiss's is to get some rubber pads [and when you screw the lens rings onto the lens have these between the screws and the lens.

It sounds like there's a case for saying on the site that if you have bigger lens diameters like Zeiss's then to state you need smaller grubs when ordering. I'm sure he can throw in the smaller screws as well. A good suggestion.

thanks
Richard
 
Hey Richard,

Good to know he has the smaller set screws. Maybe I should have mentioned that I would be using the zeiss lenses. But yeah, I definitely think both should be included as people always pick up/sell new lenses.

I currently have my focus rings lined with a velvet black cloth from some fabric laying around. It's pretty thick and does the job. Its not really an eye soar either. I didn't have any rubber padding solutions around the house. Maybe i will pick something like that up the future. For now they are a protected with only one casualty. :)

Thanks Richard. Glad I picked it up.
 
No problem dude !

if it helps, I also put my rings straight on a Zeiss. I did know what would happen but I also knew I wouldn't be parting with the lens anyway so i didn't mind.

The rubber pad idea is from hearing that you also made marks so I thought what would work when I buy my Zeiss 85mm in the new year !

Enjoy !

Richard
The Major
 
Guys,

you can get those shorter set screws from home depot/Lowes (and they are cheap)...that's where I got mine...not need to order them from the internet.... :-)

I mainly needed the shorter screwes for bigger lenses....as far as using the Red rock micro lens gear...be aware that they stick out pretty far and your Indie focus may not be able to pushed far enbough on the L bracket to accomodate them on certain lenses
 
Tim @ indifocus says

Mike,
First off the set screws are #8-32 and they are 1/2" long. (Good idea, I'll stock some 3/8" and 5/16" and include a set of each in future orders.)
Click to expand...

Like I said before, not a big issue, but nice to have everything working out of the box, and Tim agrees. Good guy.
 
bump.

I too just received my indifocus in the mail. and wow, there were tons of neat this in this case.

I set it up with my cinevate rails, and letus extreme, and it seems to work fairly well.

Two things came up, however.

1) the issues of these screws that tighten the gear ring around your 35mm lens, is still somewhat of an issue even when you tighten them down enough to avoid hitting them with the gears as you pull focus. If your lens isnt PERFECTLY centered between all of these screws, then as your pulling focus, your center mark of the lens shifts ever so slightly, which results in a stronger friction between the gears at some point during the rack focus, and then sometimes it can slip.

2) all of these neat gear attachments, that attach directly to the body of the follow focus are tightened to a round spinning mechanism and held down by a single screw. Could this design not have been changed to include a mount with hard edges? And not perfectly circular. This means that if any of my lenses have a somewhat more stiff focus, i will spin the focus wheel of the indifocus, and due to the overly large friction of a specific lens, it will just turn and not move the gear, but slide inside the connection. I know that isnt very clear, but those who own this piece will understand what im talking about.

i will post pictures to help understand my issues when im home. But otherwise it seems to work very nicely.


Question: When i attach the lens gear to the follow focus ( on 35mm lens ) the focus pulling seems to be very smooth. But i figured i would try to simplify things by attaching the focus pulling gear directly to the 35mm lens without the gear ring ( for the 35mm lens ). This result works, but makes for a somewhat bumpy ride as i pull focus.

Any way to solve this?
 
Regarding the centering of the lens within the lens gear, I think that is the downside to this style of lens gear. The upside is that you can switch it to another lens if you need to. I'd suspect the wrap around style lens gears are more effective but once you cut to size, you are stuck with that lens diameter.

Regarding the circular mount. I don't see how youre getting any slip from your gear driver. The round mount works fine for me. Once I hit a stop on my lens, even if I somewhat force it, it won't slip. If youre saying that you have a 35lens whos focus ring has so much resistance that it causes the lens gear driver to slip than I'd say you have either a defective unit or there must be some mistake in the set up.

I'd call Tim, Papa.

As far as using the indifocus without the lens gears, well, that's what the friction wheel is for. It's not so reliable from what I hear, but I'm sure its better than you attaching the gear driver directly to your 35mm lens.
 
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also, this isnt a big deal, but inside my focus wheel its just black with muddy glew marks. Where is my nice indifocus pro logo?
 
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