Still looking for a Follow Focus?

PaPa

PaPa

Major Contributor
First off, let me just start off with a disclaimer stating that I am being paid millions of dollars by Tim over at indifocus.com to promote the (newer) indifocus pro... I wish

I gave Tim a call the other day because I had received my new cam and unfortunately the distance between the gearbox and the gear ring of my first generation indifocus pro was too large making it impossible to connect the FF to the geared lens rings ( due to the bubble on the af100 that is there to adjust aperture on electronic lenses etc.. )

So i call him up saying that I had taken a look at a couple of pictures on the site and i noticed that here was a significant redesign of the newer unit and that i would very much like to give it a shot. The camera being so new and very few people having it he couldn't confirm that it would work but did confirm that the new design was about half the space between the box and gear ring so that theoretically it should work.

All that to say, paid on the website, received the unit 2 days later... And what showed up... Sweet

It came with his snap rings, which are basically the rings that attach to your lenses to allow contact between the follow focus and the lens. Previously i had the version with screws where you literally had to spend a couple of minutes centering it around the lens and adjusting each and every screw until it was snugly in the middle. IF you were slightly off, then while you were pulling focus it could lose contact or become too stiff that the lens gets stuck. The quick and easy use of the snap gears is freaking sick. Setup time literally went from 2 minutes to 10 seconds.

Nice to know, the old accessories i got with my first gen still work. Those being the whip and speed crank. So i get to keep those.

Anyway, here are a couple of snaps of it with the af100. Their website is www.indifocus.com and it's run by a member of these boards called Tim. Great guy, been in contact with him since he pretty much started his company a few years ago. Speaking with him on the phone he is obviously really passionate about his products and getting consumers to spend as little as possible while maintaining a high quality product and I really can't recommend them enough.

Shoot me if you have any specific requests:

afff01.jpg



afff02.jpg



afff03.jpg



afff04.jpg



afff05.jpg



afff06.jpg
 
William_Robinette said:
How does it feel and will it break apart if I look at it wrong, or is it going to stand some abuse?

Thanks for the review Papa
Click to expand...

I've been using the original indifocus pro for about 3.5 years and i had absolutely NO complaints. It never gave out, never broke, never sent it in, and yeah, it took a fair bit of falling, taking on and off. No issues there. The new indifocus pro is even more solid.

The mattebox is decent. The swing away feature is a little flimsy because of the plastic and i lost the magnet that allows the mattebox to swing away so now i just wrap one end with elastic, but my design doesn't require a swing away to change the lens. i simply loosen the camera mount bracket, slide it back on the rails and change lenses that way. But for the price i really don't mind. it does the job, flags work well, easy to adjust and take off.

My setup is a bit of a Mutt.

Rails were a mix of indifocus and cinevate. The Z style riser i jimmy rigged myself with a bunch of brackets from the Letus days so it allows me to constantly rebalance the contact point between the camera and the tripod mount. Then i have the indisystem shoulder rig which works great and is easy to counterbalance with weights in the back. Got all good gear that has standed the test of time, for at least 3 years and still works really well. The money saved i have been able to invest into other gear. So i'm a happy client. And my communication between myself and Tim has always been excellent.

Now I don't know if I'm at liberty to talk about it, but with the money you save there is something very very very interesting coming out at the end of the month that will be worth the investment. It's going to change the way i shoot from the ground up ;) While still being friendly on the wallet.
 
Thanks PaPa for sharing this excellent product and website.

I already wrote them asking which bundle they recommend for the af100. ;)

And now I am extra curious about the new product coming in February!

I get my AF100 next week. It is being shipped Monday! :)

Simon
 
That camera pictured sitting on that lightweight little still camera tripod sure make me nervous!
 
Yeah, i know...

It's not what i shoot with, it's just that i stripped the screw that attaches my tripod legs to my 503 head from using the sliders so the head just wobbles even when it's tightly on the tripod. Ordered new legs and waiting for them to arrive any day now. But it's much easier to setup the camera when it's being suspended on something than on a table. Don't worry, everyhing is very centered. so it won't teeter. heh
 
I've been looking hard at their AREEBA pkg. It looks affordable and pretty usable.

http://www.indisystem.com/products/areeba_package

Any thoughts on this?

How do you like the Matte box? I've been looking at it HARD. For me, it's this matte box or no matte box. i really can't swing $1000 on a matte box right now with getting the AF100 and a set of lenses up front.
 
I had the indiMattePro very briefly. Mine was defective so I sent it back. I opted for a refund because it was a pain to move it around on the rods. They give you a thumbscrew for the height adjustment, but you need an allen wrench for loosening/tightening for sliding on the rods. That's backwards to me. You're going to adjust the height only once most likely, but you'll always move it around on the rods when changing lenses. It also seemed to flop back and forth a little bit, which concerned me about filters moving back and forth in front of the lens when shoulder mounted, handheld, or doing quicker pans and tilts. Otherwise it's a good matte box. If they change those factors of the design I'd buy again.
 
Last edited:
I'll have to go against the grain here. I purchased the original indifocus pro and was less than pleased.
My review on the Internet sums it up.
 
I love my CINEfocus both version 1 and V2 that was launched not long time ago!! Shoot35 products are just well made and the material is meant to last...

I have Indisystem Mattebox before and was sold due to incompatibility with my rod support when using with DSLR and huge L lenses.
 
Let's see if i can break it down:

IndiFOCUS PRO Geared Ultimate Review.

Taking delivery of the IndiFOCUS was not as easy as I expected. As it took two emails, a phone call, and what I would consider a longer than normal wait for the product to arrive. When it did finally arrive most of the parts were loose in the packing peanuts, and many of the screws for the lens focus gears had backed out and were loose in the bottom of the box.

I ordered my new indifocus pro over the phone on tuesday night and received it thursday before noon. Perhaps they were back ordered or receiving many orders at the same time? Remember, back in the day Tim was doing it pretty much as a one man show. His team has grown significantly since then to better serve, some of whom i've had the chance of speaking with on the phone. Very nice people.

The Geared Ultimate package ships with both Indi's proprietary pitched drive gears, as well as Cinepitch 0.8 drive gears, which will work with standard cine focus gears. I was not able to test all of the gears in the Geared Ultimate package, as a couple of them were missing from my order. A response from the company revealed they were on their workbench and would be sent out right away. After contacting the company multiple times and waiting for over a month they are still not here. The gears I did test worked fine.

Can't really comment on that. Seems like it's case specific. Again, Surely it has to do with the manpower running his business before. Your review is from December 2007. Things change :)

The supplied lens focus gears ship with only one size mounting screw, which means if your lens is not the proper diameter you will need to either purchase new screws or possibly cut the screws to the proper size. Fitting the lens gears requires measuring the inner screw area of each screw during the tightening process to make sure the lens is centered within the gear.

This was slightly frustrating, as the 50mm lens was the only one amongst my arsenal that was slightly larger in circumfrance than the rest so i too was not able to get a good grip from the focus gears. This problem is solved with the indiSnap.

The lighted handle has a much larger diameter than any of the other follow focus units I have used over the years, making for an unnatural feel while trying to focus. Because of it's larger than normal diameter, there is insufficient area for marking focus pulls on the ring, as well as insufficient area for mounting the supplied hard stops. The light itself is rather dim and does a poor job of illuminating the focus ring.

Didn't have a light on mine. The hard stops that came with mine were lost within a few days, but even when tried they were not very useful. I actually liked the larger wheel, it made for a smaller margain of error when pulling focus.

Access to the battery is via two cover plate mounting screws, which have heads that extend past the outer diameter of the handle. Feeling them during a focus pull can get annoying. The battery itself is not held in place with a mount, meaning it rides loose and makes noise during a focus pull. So much for all quiet on the set.

Again, can't comment, i guess you had the version up from mine cause mine didn't have a light.

The Hard Stops are made of lightweight aluminum and appear to be designed for the regular non-lighted handle, as they tend to fall off in use since there is insufficient mounting area due to the oversized lighted handle.

On the original indifocus pro, yes. No question. Didn't receive any hard stops on my new unit. Don't know if it was supposed to come with it.

The Whip has a great handle, but that is where it ends. The whip is shrink wrap coated, which does nothing to enhance it's good looks. The large diameter of the whip makes it clumsy to focus with, as it does not flex properly, wanting to hold the bend during focus. The Speed Crank works just fine, but looks like it would be more at home in a mechanics tool chest rather than on a film set.

Very true. The whip is quite large and thick making it hard to bend and what not. But it works perfectly and no one on my sets have ever complained. I can see where it could become troublesome if people are restricted to a very tight spot and have no choice but to pull focus from an awkward angle. I have yet to run into this situation but I can definitell see where it can come into play.

Overall I was a little disappointed by the workmanship of the product. For example, glue used to adhere some of the pieces was not cleaned off before it had dried, rough filing marks remained on the hard stops, a stamped code number was visible on the focus handle, and the use of socket wrench parts does nothing to enhance the look of the unit.

When you take a hit in price, you will also take a hit in the eye candy. For me, it was practicality versus affordability. The unit, for the price, does everything a filmmaker needs at a fraction of the cost.

In practice the IndiFOCUS Pro is what it is: an inexpensive way to pull focus.

Exactly. And that's what it does! And let's not forget, the new unit is only 300 and in my opinion is far better than the original.
 
Last edited:
Hi Papa!

I really like the idea of those Snap! Gears. Do you have any idea if they would work with my D|Focus V2?

Sami
 
As long as they are the same pitch size ( i think that's the term for the spacing between each of the teeth) it should work. And man do they ever save time.
 
Swweet, good to know.

Maybe Tim will chime in here if he still frequents the boards.
 
Hello Papa, which lens is that? The only lens I've used my Indifocus with was the 14-140 and it sucked (I know it's not optimal but It's the only one I got to test for now), sticky, couldn't start a smooth pull, my (hopeful) guess would be the lens ring is too sticky for FF usage.

Have you used with other lenses, fully manual and not, if you can give me some feedback and light on this subject, it would be great.

Thanks man.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top