Redrock Follow Focus Ripoff

Neurodancer

Neurodancer

Well-known member
I bought the Redrock follow focus and did not get to use it till several months later due to my production schedule. When I used it, I discovered that it was useless due to a sloppy gearbox. It has 4mm of slop on the dial before the gear moves.

I sent two emails to them of which they never replied. I got a notice a while back that they are selling an "upgraded" gearbox to solve this problem. I sent them another email voicing my displeasure at them wanting to sell parts to fix their factory defective unit. No reply again. I guess that is why they do not want to list a phone number.

I will buy their "upgrade" but not without letting my discontent be known. If I ran my business like this I would on welfare.
 
Im there with ya. I bought a redrock FF and had the same experience. The only response that I got was that there is a kit for purchase to fix their crappy manufacturing. How much is the kit? I think its like $60! This should be considered a warranty issue.
I have worked for Cadillac for the past eight years and anytime there has been a manufacturing issue with a car that has been sold, a fix is provided to the owner at no cost. This is the way a real business is run.
 
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Redrock FF junk

Redrock FF junk

Yea, I suspect there are a lot of unhappy people out there. Maybe they will get wise and contact all the owners and send them the non defective parts for free.

I will be posting this issue to all the user boards I know of since they aren't interested in hearing it directly from me or doing anything about it.
 
Anyone making and selling follow-focus units should feel obligated to publish the backlash specification.

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my Cavision has no detecable backlash. Showed up from freaking Canada the day after I ordered it. Radically tight and awesome build quality.
 
I love the Cavision FF - I've never had a complaint on any that we've sold. That many of our customers have shifted from Chrosziel to the Cavision units is a testament to the quality of their design and build quality.

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Good to hear Overlandfilms, I already own Cavision mattebox & rail, handle/shoulder kit and I was looking for a FF. I'm please with my Cavision equipment, if the build quality of the FF is the same, I wiil stay with Cavision.
 
Just one more reason why I love this site. I was ready to buy the Redrock FF until I read this thread.

Now that NAB is over, I hope that they focus (no pun intended) on correcting this issue (at no cost to the user).
 
In defense of RRM - I know firsthand through helping indiFOCUS with their beta follow-focus just how difficult it is to find and keep quality 1:1 ninety degree gear boxes.

Tim Ovel at Studio4 exercised incredible diligence to track down and secure gear boxes with minimal backlash. That little ¾ x 1 x 1" lump is the trouble piece of the entire contraption - everything else is simple once you have that sorted.

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Perhaps I bought the redrock follow focus after the upgrade, but mine works great! No play in the gears when set up correctly.
 
You can use it on the HVX without the m2, and you do need the rod supports. They don't sell a ring to put over the HVX focus ring, but the cavision ring works fine with the redrock ff gear.
 
They're actually asking customers to pay for the swap? That's ridiculous.

The primary - actually the only - function of a follow-focus is to accurately match focus between two or more marks. That's it. It serves only one purpose. So, if the unit never held its initial calibration, then it is defective.

Boxes with nylon or plastic gearing will loose their calibration as slop is added over time. Most real follow-focus boxes utilize high-precision brass gearing for this reason.

I'd send the lump back and tell them to replace it with a functioning unit.

Anything more than a degree (don't measure in mm) is unacceptable in a follow-focus application.

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Wow, I'm sorry to hear that. Honestly, I used to shoot stuff long ago and I always did that with the help of a DoP so I never found all these customer service issues. I had a henchman of sorts.

I'm trying to shoot my own thing, next, and between the learning curves on these new 35mm adapters and how bad the CS is on them (and they each seem to have problems), I'm thinking of just going back to my old ways.

I'm genuinely sorry you're going through this. I know how it feels. I was considering getting an m2 with the ff and I guess I'll read a little more about it and take your situation into view before I buy. Thanks.
 
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