WOW, Good Cheap Follow Focus

I wanted to know how the drag mechanism works and how the thumbscrew worked so I took it apart.

It's just as Bill described. If you don't happen to line up the drag thumbscrew with one of the holes, it may not lock in place well.

[edit] Notice the heat shrink tubing on the thumbscrews to suppress noise.

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Hi Paul, nice job. So what was holding it to the shaft? If your going to take it apart any further, how about more pics? I'm going to do that heat shrink mod to mine. Very nice job. Amazing what you can buy for 100 bucks.

Bill Wojo
 
The shaft is held on by a metric set screw under the marker. It is on very tight. You will think your allen wrench is going to break.

I took the hards stops off to see what made them scrape a bit in some positions. I didn't find anything. I put it back together and there is no scraping feel at all. It is nice and smooth throughout rotation. It is metal on metal with some grease to make it smooth. One quality control issue and perhaps the reason for the scrape is seen in the second picture. They resurfaced the bearing surface. As you can see, it was done unevenly and it is done quite crudely. It doesn't look pretty close up.

So all together, it is a great unit. The one minor complaint I had (the scraping) is gone. $98 is a remarkable price for this much machining.





 
Hi Paul, Good job getting that apart. That scratchy sound was probably a bit of grit left in the assembly. Not surprised that they sanded it to fit. You should see some of the poor quality parts I find in Chinese machine tools. Did you get a pic of were the shaft enters the gearbox? I'm guessing that there is a lock ring like on the sides of the cross shaft.
I sure hope you don't do this to new lenses. LOL
Take care
Bill Wojo
 
Paul F said:
I took the hards stops off to see what made them scrape a bit in some positions. I didn't find anything. I put it back together and there is no scraping feel at all. It is nice and smooth throughout rotation.
Click to expand...

Well, now I know what I'm doing first thing tomorrow morning.
 
BillWojo said:
... Did you get a pic of were the shaft enters the gearbox? I'm guessing that there is a lock ring like on the sides of the cross shaft.
I sure hope you don't do this to new lenses. LOL
..
Click to expand...

It's not the same on the shaft. There is a groove in the shaft and a circlip holding the bearing in place.

Well.... not new lenses anyway.
 
Mine came in yesterday and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to do something about the blue anodizing, it just looked hideous.

After a little research, I went to the store and got some Greased Lighting and some Easy Off degreaser.

After about a five minute bath in the Greased lighting 95% of the blue was gone, Another 5 minute soak in the more powerful Easy Off took care of the tougher 5%. Be careful not to leave it in too long as its some strong stuff and will start to eat the aluminum away.

Here are the results (Later I took some metal polish compound and a dremel to it and it looks even nicer):

photo 3.jpgphoto 2.jpgphoto 1.jpgphoto 4.jpg

So much better!
 
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Hey guys - how about some info on the repacking with grease? What to take off, what kind of grease, etc? Anyone tried this and did it make a diff? Pretty happy with mine so far.

I have the Fotga version (amazon, I think it was $180 or so). Blue anodizing, same stops, etc.

I've found this is about the limit for DSLR follow focus, since the lenses kind of jump when you touch the knob. My guess is since they're still lenses, they were never designed for the elements to all be solid when focused? Every FF I've used for DSLR, you have to use a whip or handle it very carefully, even super-solid vintage metal Nikkor primes. Is a nice Arri PL Mount lens going to do the same thing?
 
I'm not sure these are the same as the Fotga... the gearbox and mounts look different. As for grease, I don't have a need to mess with this FF. I've done it to every other FF I've owned but this one doesn't have any play so there is no reason to.
If you have play and want to tighten it up a bit (never the same as a tight gearbox) you need to open the gearbox and fill it to overfull and then repack it. The grease forces the gears to move. I have a tin of white machine grease but there are lots. Ask a machinist and tell him what you are doing and he'll know the one.
 
I found that the play in mine was the output gear - it was tightened but not aligned where to mesh properly with the gearbox. Mine has a thumbscrew that holds the gear on (their website shows different size gears available - but their site is only a photo of their units, no links or contact info). So the gear was flopping around on the post. Removed the thumbscrew and re-tightened it, now the unit is very tight.

I'm getting the scraping sound from the stop-rings though, might mess with that at some point.
 
That white grease is lithium grease. It may mask the problem for awhile but I would just ebay the FF and buy one of these. It's easily one of the best deals out there.
Bill Wojo
 
Right the white was lithium and I didn't use it on my ff it was for my front house door hinge... Sorry. It was red coloured grease for the ff.
 
Nope, that's not it. Look for Chinese Ebay seller Bucks-Saver. Should run you about 120 to 125 with shipping. He sell's all sorts of gear including some of the high end Chinese gear made by Lanparte and Tilta for good prices. I think this FF was actually made by one of those company's, more than likely Tilta, compare a Tilta to the one that he is selling. it's very high quality, worth a lot more than what your paying for it.
Bill Wojo
 
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hi
got mine today looks great
thanks !
can i change the direction of the ff ... to go the opposite way ?
 
You can't reverse it , but as long as you are using it to pull focus marks it shouldn't matter. Its from one mark to the other. If you are using just to focus and you have lenses that go the right (?) way then you might get mixed up and blow a run n gun shot.
 
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