Remote follow focus for £150/$300

Yeah, it has a motor silmliar to the M-One type thing that you use with the bartec that just meshes with the lens gear. You can get the gears on their own from shoot35.com
 
I used that motor setup on the last film I worked on, I just mounted it straight onto the 15mm rods. The proper mount grips both rods and has an adjustment knob to engage the gear to the lens.

Every operator has their own way of trailing cables, some hang it off the sled and tie it off on the vest, but I found it kept getting caught on the batteries, so I led the cable down the arm and taped it at the hinge blocks which worked very nicely, I find that operating tethered is no different, aslong as the person on the other end of the cable keeps up with you.
 
Looking good. Fit and finish will always help sell a product and I think you're on the right path. What is the estimated lead time?
 
I could but that would mean getting my own knob machined which would add about £100 to the price of the unit... Maybe RFF v2 could do this, but to keep it in this price bracket its not really an option....

Small price to pay, I think. How many people can claim to have had their own knob machined?
 
Hi,

The case is being custom machined for me which will save time. I estimate that if I have everything infront of me, a hot soldering iron, everything in little pots ready to go and no annoying phonecalls, I can do one unit an hour....

Im going to do it in batches of 10 and probably one batch a month as it takes some time to rear up the parts for the next batch....
 
Hi,

The case is being custom machined for me which will save time. I estimate that if I have everything infront of me, a hot soldering iron, everything in little pots ready to go and no annoying phonecalls, I can do one unit an hour....

Im going to do it in batches of 10 and probably one batch a month as it takes some time to rear up the parts for the next batch....

Sounds great. I will likely need 2 or 3 units if they turn out as good as they look. If you have a list started put me down. I like having one follow focus per adapter so Ill likely take the same approach to this remote FF. Redrock sounds like theyre being delayed from the tone of the emails.
 
Just thought I ought to point out that the price quoted should be regarded as only a guide. With so much interest I want to make sure that I can produce a properly engineered and tested product which is going to take a bit longer than I had hoped. Whatever the final price is it will still be the most cost effective way of having a remote follow focus
 
Just done a bit more servo research. Good news - new servo is much quieter and stronger. Its slightly more expensive but its well worth the extra cost.
 
The viewfactor FF is very nice indeed, but it is still a far cry from hoarp's $300 FF

EDIT: $900 for the motor, $775 for the remote, and close to $100 for the power cable
 
Last edited:
Don't be discouraged.

What you are doing is quite different than what viewfactor is doing and you can find your own market if you keep the cost down and the quality reasonably high.

Best of Luck
 
Nah, Im aiming for higher quality components, better, more accurate potentiometer and stronger more reliable servo etc etc. It wont go up much, certainly wont double or anything like that.
 
Back
Top