Sub $150 RJ Follow Focus Review

Darren Levine

Darren Levine

Veteran

Overall, this unit is a big win, of course you shouldn't compare it to $1000+ pro units, but it feels like a lot more than the price tag suggests and i feel that many people in the indie budget range will have a hard time justifying paying 2,3,5,8x the price for higher end units.

the most important thing is that the gearbox is great. it has some dampening, which for most of you out there with other budget units will appreciate that it does not freely spin if you give it a whirl. this helps make sloppy lenses feel a bit better.

The gears are pretty nice too, i have to use them on a shoot or two to see if i truly like them.
 
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that looks to be the best cheap FF ive seen so far. ive recently bought the Genus Bravo and im very happy but i have to say it i was buying today id really consider this unit.

on a side note...what lav system are you using? good sounding voice audio.

david
 
i purchased one of these, not completely sure of what i was getting (this is the first review ive seen), and your review makes me feel alot better. thanks.
 
Yea i'm very pleased with it. i have on hand another unit from indiesystem and one from cinecity and both are no comparison. i wish i had some of the better sub $200 unit on hand to compare to but as it is i don't feel anything lacking in this unit. though there is of course the chance i come back in 2 weeks after a shoot and find some things to nitpick about, but it's pretty strait forward and in my opinion when something is this cheap, you can't justify any nitpicking.

I really like that it's dampened, that's one thing i forgot to specify in the review. it's not that silky smooth dampening of an arri, but anyone who expects that for this price is just plain loony.

cheers
 
david_p said:
that looks to be the best cheap FF ive seen so far. ive recently bought the Genus Bravo and im very happy but i have to say it i was buying today id really consider this unit.

on a side note...what lav system are you using? good sounding voice audio.

david
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the good ol' sennheiser G2 wireless with the standard me-4 lav i believe. i know there were two different possible lavs with the G2 series, but pretty sure its the me4
 
There are two sellers on ebay selling these for under $40.
Ripoff or bargain?

I'll let you decide.
 
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wow those light my scam alarms up quite a bit. one seller with 0 feedback and the other with 6, all private auctions so you can't see what they were.... it looks like almost 20 people have bought into it.....
 
imdjay said:
wow those light my scam alarms up quite a bit. one seller with 0 feedback and the other with 6, all private auctions so you can't see what they were.... it looks like almost 20 people have bought into it.....
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Yeah I was thinking the same thing.
But you know what? I've taken some chances on ebay before and come out ahead. Like this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...KEmLyRM%3D&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK:MEWNX:IT

...and I came out WAY ahead. Maybe I'm due for a ripoff.

Also one seller is in Canada...with free shipping? UPS is expensive.
 
i just poked one of them with asking if they could get me 15 units at 25 bucks each and their response: "sorry , lost money , this is best price ,thanks"
 
I'm experiencing way more play and backlash with my RJ than is shown in your video. Any tips, or did I just receive a bad unit?
 
OK, just finished digging around inside the gearbox. Looks like there are three gears inside surrounded by grease. The gears on the ends each have one 5/64" allen screw on them. The screws were both loose so I tightened them up. Now there's absolutely NO play whatsoever! Works great.

Though messing with the grease seems to have lessened the dampening effect minimally. But I imagine I can always add more grease in the future.
 
I got one of these FF units from RJ in late July I think. The unit was slightly viscous feeling at first but after spinning it a few times I think the grease redistributed and it was less viscous feeling.

The big defect with these units I think is that the spindle holding the plastic drive gear is wrongly designed, making it weaker and giving a potentially huge backlash. The machined slot in the spindle is too big. It's about 2mm and the pin it fits is about 1.4mm, so on it's own this fit will lead to a lot of backlash. If the sides of the split spindle are bent out a bit then the tight fit to the outer brass sleve helps, as long as the focus ring on the lens is not too stiff. I didn't try yet bending the spindle halves inwards to reduce clearance to the pin. The way the spindle is machined makes it a bit weak, it won't last if people have to bend it all the time, and also it needs a longer section of plain round shaft going into the gearbox just to give a strong accurate connection.

When I can find time I am going to just machine my own spindle. A shorter, more accurate slot. Or maybe make a new spindle that replaces the brass sleve, staying in the gearbox, protruding on both sides and come up with some way of mounting the drive gear. Maybe another idea is maybe just increase the size of the pin in the brass tube. That's assuming the tube comes out easily.

Replacement drive gears with integral spindle are available cheap from RJ, also he just put out a 12" whip that fits that unit (it has a unique square hole size).

There are some other minor defects with the design of the mounting bracket on this follow focus. The bottom part of the umit that clamps on the rails needs to be a bit thicker si that it bends less and the clamping happens more definately. Also the machined flat bar that slides in a chanel in the clamping unit has too much clearance. Another thing that comes to mind is that the gearbox is a bit more bulky than it needs to be. My geometry constraints may not be relevant to the main market for this unit, but as a general principal, the bulk of the gearbox should be minimised.

I had some good emails with RJ. He was very interested in recieving ideas, but rather than make a new spindle for that unit he wanted to have a completely new unit designed.

I've been listing the defects, but I expected it to have some for the price. It has good hardened brass gears in the box and the drive gear can be flipped from one side of the box to the other in seconds.

Did anyone else try to fix the spindle fit problem?

Cheers
Gregg
 
HD-tography said:
Yeah just shim it! Done! Tight, Problem Solved, Zero Play... All Valid Points, But Still The Best Budget FF Under $300, Next Would Be The Trusmt With Hard Stops, Followed By The Shoot35 CINEfocus R2 And The Zacuto Z-Focus... Finally The Whole Chrosziel Line Of Products But We Stopeed Talking "Budget" At The Trusmt.
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How did you shim it? What material? I had thought of bending a thin strip of plastic ot metal into a U shape and supergluing it into the slot in the spindle. I need to be able to flip the drive gear from the front to back of the gearbox when I change from zoom to prime lens, without shims falling out.

Gregg.
 
HD-tography said:
Yeah just shim it! Done! Tight, Problem Solved, Zero Play... All Valid Points, But Still The Best Budget FF Under $300, Next Would Be The Trusmt With Hard Stops, Followed By The Shoot35 CINEfocus R2 And The Zacuto Z-Focus... Finally The Whole Chrosziel Line Of Products But We Stopeed Talking "Budget" At The Trusmt.
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I think I'm just going to pony up the extra cash and get the Trusmt FF. I can see so many uses for it's hard stops, quick release and adjustable height!
 
Bryan said:
OK, just finished digging around inside the gearbox. Looks like there are three gears inside surrounded by grease. The gears on the ends each have one 5/64" allen screw on them. The screws were both loose so I tightened them up. Now there's absolutely NO play whatsoever! Works great.
.
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Bryan,
Did you just work on the first cear, the one that's visible when you open the gearbox?

Did anyone try removing the shafts and gears from the box? I'm thinking that maybe after removing the allen screws the shafts will be a very light press fit in the bearings. After removing the brass tube shaft the pin may be replaceable with a bigger diameter one, fixing the backlash. The hole will need to be well centred. I didn't have time for this yet.

I tried a cardboard shim which worket well. A long strip of about 0.3mm busines card bent in a U shape, slid that in the brass tube first. Worked but a bit flakey if shifting the drive gear from one side to the other a lot.

Cheers,
Gregg
 
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