Lens gears find - good quality on the cheap!

Michael Carter

Michael Carter

Veteran
Tried one of these from a Hong Kong eBay seller. $17, free shipping, got here fast - just as good as my (fifty bucks plus shipping and what, you're outta stock??) Redrock rings. Nice PHAT gear, about 1/2" thick which I love.

Great find, especially for the low-on-cash guys who are swapping rings from lens to lens on set. He sells all sorts of rail parts & doo dads as well.

(I don't know the guy, never been to hong kong, not on commission, etc etc... just spreading the word).
 
That is a good price for sure. I went the route of, for about that same price, you can buy zip gears and just put one on every lens. Gotta have a couple of this style around for borrowed/rented lenses though.
 
I've got a proaim gear permanently on every lens, similar design to these (maybe a bit narrower), similar price

they work great, but:
* I hate the long screw, it creates problems with long focus throw lenses, so I cut that bit of the gears and hold them with a wire
* having them permanently on the lenses makes them difficult to store (the foam job for the bags has to be very detailed and takes a long time)

if I found a way to get my followfocus closer to the lens, I'd go for permanent zip gears
 
NormanBates said:
if I found a way to get my followfocus closer to the lens, I'd go for permanent zip gears
Click to expand...

Which FF do you use?
The majority of the ones I've seen going around (even the budget ones) come with a width or even height adjustable setting...

I find them a heck load more convenient as they're so thin you don't even need to remove them to chuck them in the bag.

I'm going to have a look and see if I can't scrounge up a nice fat one from somewhere!
 
well, my problem with the FF is that I shoot solo and have found a great place to put it: it's mounted (with a DIY contraption) to the hot shoe, and sits on the top of the camera, facing to the right, just a bit further than where the top controls are; this allows me to hold the camera (or the shoulder rig's handle) with my left hand, and operate everything (all the buttons, and the FF) with my right hand - but it only works with these big ff gears, not with zip tie gears
 
I see... haha, that's quite a unique set-up. Do you have some photos around??
What's the advantage of that over say a shoulder mount with a double or single handle??

It'd be interesting to see if it's possible to find some extra fat zip gears which might help... post up a pic or two so I can get an idea and I'll have a look around.
 
Ye, I got the same gear for my lenses. The Kit GH2 lens and my Nikons all are about the same width. Then I got a zipper gear for the rest of the lenses. It works just fine, Although its a bit tight on my Nikon's (50 f1.4, 35 f2, 28 f2). The zipper gear is great to have since it fit almost everything and its fast on and off.
I paid about $7 for the zipper belt and about $16 for the Lens gear.
Zipper doesn't look very professional, but it works. The Lens gears look the part... just fyi for anyone else looking to buy.
 
I use the same Nikkors for still gigs that I use for video, so I like the plastic gears as they come on and off fast - and with my setup, the zips aren't wide enough to reach the FF. I don't like how they look, though that's not major.

I use a big roller case for my DSLR video rig (canon) and made stacked trays with foam inserts; the lenses rest in those with their gears on. My still bag (D7000) is much smaller (I never take the Canon from the rail system, I like to grab and shoot vs. assembling everything). So the night before a gig, I'm either putting gears on or taking them off...

For focus on a shoulder rig (I have shoulder and hand mounts that just slide on the rods) I hold the left handgrip with my left hand, and sort of cup my right hand under the cheeseplate. I use my fingers on the focus gear to focus - the teeth are nice and grabby. I leave the FF connected to the gears, it adds some nice drag. First time I tried shooting this was was a 3-hour event. It became instantly second nature. After weeks of looking into handgrip FF solutions, I found this to work fine for me.

Lens boxes:

DSC_0004.jpg
 
very nice bag setup, Michael

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this is my crazy DIY followfocus setup
you'll see how it allows me to control everything in the camera with just one hand (followfocus, and all buttons except menu and disp), and how it wouldn't work with zip tie gears
if I wasn't using this, I'd definitely go for zip tie gears, putting stuff back on the bag is much easier, and takes less space: I could use a smaller bag and/or take more lenses with me
(and yes, it looks horrible; I've got an idea for how this could work with tiny standard rods fixed to the hot shoe, but that will have to wait until I know what my next camera will look like)
ff1.jpg
 
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Wow Norman, that has to be up there in terms of the craziest rig I've ever seen, hahaahah.

I'm going to be fooling around with some machining over the coming months - I think I might have a play around with that design if you don't mind. I'd be happy to send you the end result, if I'm happy with the quality, if you'd like.

From the looks of things you have a hot shoe mount with 1/4" screw to the bracket. The side part attaches directly to your viewfinder for extra support and the other end sticks out to hold the Follow Focus.. interesting!

And is that a Flamenco thumb I see sticking out in the middle photo?
 
yep, I told you: crazy rig, weird requirements - I think I'd be using zip gears if I didn't use this setup - it would be VERY easy to get something like this out of standard rig parts from ebay for about $80 (much better looking, and very easy to adjust for any lens, take out for changing lenses, etc) - I just haven't built that yet because I'm not sure what my next camera will be (e.g. if it has the buttons on the left, I'd design something entirely different)
 
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