Ldom
Active member
Hi there,
As we see often some questions about focus remotes, I tought I'd share with my experience with the Bebob Foxi that I just bought.
To cut the long story short: I'm very pleased with it.
Now the details: shooting a documentary on music and rehearsals as my own one-man team, I have to be pretty responsive with the focus when switching from one subject to the other. (I won't elaborate on the need to have a perfect focus with DVCPRO-HD, read this instead.)
Before acquiring the foxi, I was doing it by recording the distance with each of the band players in my little brain. Each time I'd move, I'd quickly focus accurately on each one (using the focus assist button) and remember each distance again. Then during the shoot I would focus manually when panning from one subject to another. Remembering 3 or 4 numbers isn't hard in itself, what was failing in this setup was the ability to quickly get to the accurate number with the hvx focus ring. Often, I would turn the focus ring too fast and pass the distance I was trying to reach, then back out, etc.
So I decided to buy the foxi. I chose it because it's electronic, there's a dedicated input for it in the hvx and I didn't feel like adding a mechanical system for a digital tool such as the hvx (although I agree that focusing isn't per se a digital operation).
Anyway, the main reason for me to get it was to be able to mark positions on the white track around the knob. My new setup being to measure the distance each time I move by focusing on each subject (that hasn't changed) and then using a dry marker to put a little dash and a letter next to it (the first letter of the name of the player). This way, when I move from one player to the other I just have to move the mark on the foxi to the proper name. That's it, it takes 0.2 second and the focus is always right.
Nice aspects of the foxi:
- The wheel is firm and fluid. Very accurate and pleasant to use.
- There's an Iris control knob as well. I used it less often (I prefer the ring on the hvx).
- A very cool thing is that you can unplugged it very quickly. I have attached it to the tripod (I'm shooting most of the time on a tripod) but when I decide to move around doing hand-held shots, I just unplug it and it stays with the tripod. I figure that when I'll buy a mattebox, I'll fix it to the box support and it will stay with the camera all the time but right now I'm happy to travel light when shooting handheld.
That's it. I hope it will help. What I said also applies to shooting fiction.
Regards,
Laurent
(PS: I don't work for Bebob etc)
As we see often some questions about focus remotes, I tought I'd share with my experience with the Bebob Foxi that I just bought.
To cut the long story short: I'm very pleased with it.
Now the details: shooting a documentary on music and rehearsals as my own one-man team, I have to be pretty responsive with the focus when switching from one subject to the other. (I won't elaborate on the need to have a perfect focus with DVCPRO-HD, read this instead.)
Before acquiring the foxi, I was doing it by recording the distance with each of the band players in my little brain. Each time I'd move, I'd quickly focus accurately on each one (using the focus assist button) and remember each distance again. Then during the shoot I would focus manually when panning from one subject to another. Remembering 3 or 4 numbers isn't hard in itself, what was failing in this setup was the ability to quickly get to the accurate number with the hvx focus ring. Often, I would turn the focus ring too fast and pass the distance I was trying to reach, then back out, etc.
So I decided to buy the foxi. I chose it because it's electronic, there's a dedicated input for it in the hvx and I didn't feel like adding a mechanical system for a digital tool such as the hvx (although I agree that focusing isn't per se a digital operation).
Anyway, the main reason for me to get it was to be able to mark positions on the white track around the knob. My new setup being to measure the distance each time I move by focusing on each subject (that hasn't changed) and then using a dry marker to put a little dash and a letter next to it (the first letter of the name of the player). This way, when I move from one player to the other I just have to move the mark on the foxi to the proper name. That's it, it takes 0.2 second and the focus is always right.
Nice aspects of the foxi:
- The wheel is firm and fluid. Very accurate and pleasant to use.
- There's an Iris control knob as well. I used it less often (I prefer the ring on the hvx).
- A very cool thing is that you can unplugged it very quickly. I have attached it to the tripod (I'm shooting most of the time on a tripod) but when I decide to move around doing hand-held shots, I just unplug it and it stays with the tripod. I figure that when I'll buy a mattebox, I'll fix it to the box support and it will stay with the camera all the time but right now I'm happy to travel light when shooting handheld.
That's it. I hope it will help. What I said also applies to shooting fiction.
Regards,
Laurent
(PS: I don't work for Bebob etc)
