What follow focus to go for?

F

FitnessRegiment

New member
What should I be looking for in a follow focus?


Like how do I choose between these:


Tilta FF-T05 Single-sided
Tilta by Ikan FF-T04 Double-Sided
Cinevate CIFFAS00015M 15mm Durus
Ikan TT-03-GJ


Or more, what do you guys think? The Double-sided is slightly outside of my budget though.


Camera: A7S for now with Atomos Shogun upgrade later
Lenses: Cinema Zeiss lenses
Cage: Rolleiflex 4K S-Cage
 
Lensse S5's look good and cheap, although I cancelled my order because they delayed the shipments for a month...so I guess if you don't mind waiting.
 
Double sided - do you really need to adjust on both sides during a single shot? A quick mount style allows you to flip from one side to the other as needed without taking the matte box off the rails.
 
If this helps FitnessRegiment than great.

The follow focus is of great importance when it comes to the easy detach mechanism on it. Letting you to detach the follow focus and readjust to fit your new needs, say if you wanted to change lenses or any other helpful items on your rails but didn't want to have to slide/take things off your rail. (E.G if you had a matte box)
It's compatible with standard fitting 15mm rods and 19 as you probably researched, so there's a √.
The choices of gears are + so you can future-proof yourself. That adjustable gear system is cool because the ability to position it to accommodate for different lenses is definitely a +. That's the extension of my knowledge for the 1st one.

The second follow focus has many features as the last. Maybe a little more though. Like on the last one, this follow focus comes with different gears to accommodate different pitches in the teeth of various lenses. Having to hand wheels is always beneficial for quickness and other production needs. When the system talks about "belt driven" to have littler play from the initial torque to the spinning of the focus on the lens is a + as well.

Your third choice is more on the scale of what I work with on a daily bases. As youve seen, it has 0.8 pitch gears, fits on 15mm rods, 1:1 gear ratio, and is reversible. Realisticly so far I would go with this one. Reason being: Wallet/purse savings, gear on the market can play with it easily, construction. Not to say the other follow focus systems don't have great construction and plays well with others. Unless you have many scenes that call for major different setups or just want faster breakdowns then this would be my choice.

The final choice, the IKAN TT-03, is a neat package. I own a Ikan rail system( my quick-release was manfrotto) and I like their stuff. As for up&down adjustments for the focus system (right behind the hand wheel) I don't see a lever for that. I do like the losing screw under the system to get the left&right movement out of it. The build and that sort-of extend hand knob is a +.

All are good choices. My follow focus was a fraction of the IKAN TT-03 and has been fine ever since. Hope this helped.
 
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