Zacuto Zip Gears - Not Impressed

waefre

waefre

Well-known member
Ok So I've been considering getting some gears for my lenses and the Zacuto gears looked pretty nice. They're pricey, much like everything Zacuto makes, but they looked like a very nice permanent professional solution. I've used the Redrock type gears a lot in the past and although they work fine they seem little goofy. So today I had the chance to use a set of lenses all equipped with the Zip gears minus one which still had the redrock gear. My conclusion was simple; you sacrifice function for looks. The problem is that with the gears right up on the lens the circumference is too small. Nearly all still lanses suffer from the same flaw of having a very short range of motion when focusing from one limit to infinity. Its usually not even a half rotation. Film lenses have a much broader range of rotation. With the Redrock type gears you have a nice fat circumference and end up with nearly twice as many teeth for the FF to turn on. This Translates into much smoother pulls. With the gears right on the small lenses you loose your range and ponts are harder to hit with ease.
So in my opinion Save your money and buy some cheap gears from Redrock, Or Ebay has practially the same thing.
 
Stick with the Redrocks. They work like a charm. I only use the Zacuto's on my big barrel lenses (ie. 135mm 2.0). Another one worth looking into are the gears sold at ZGC. Those seem absolultely pro.
 
I was considering stripping some of the rubber grip back on my lenses and then taking a suitably sized aluminum gear, anodizing it and machining the center out. I could then heat the gear ring and press it onto the lens so it is permanently attached. It would look like it was ment to be part of the lens...
 
Mmh, I'd be wary of doing that to your lens Hoarp, you might damage your lens' body or the optics inside with the heat or once the gear has cooled down. All in all, wouldn't it be less expensive to buy proper lens rings than risk to permanently damage an expensive lens? ;-)
 
Nah, 20 year old canon lenses are built to last, aslong as you protect the glass, you wont break it with abit of gentle modification....
 
There's absolutely nothing wrong with RedRock gears. They work perfect for nearly every application and they're not permanent.

I do like Trudd's lens set, though. Good set of lenses to own.
 
I never ment there was anything wrong with them, im just saying the SGpro ones are more solid and more perminant. I never take mine off anyway...
 
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