follow focus
 

is anyone making any units for sale? Dan's only offering the ones he has to his mpic customers. I know some people were trying some DIY. I'd really like to buy one for a good price.

andrew

Working on one. Doing the research into the parts, trying to get the price down. Found another place yesterday to make the gearbox yesterday, going to see how it turns out. I will let you know.

awesome.. looking forward to it..

Would definitely be interested ... hey, keep the price down please :)

Yeah, during the prototype stage and pre-production - the price is sky high because I am sourcing out material, building and rebuilding. Hopefully when all is said and done, it will be easy because everything will have been sourced and planned out. I am trying to keep this under $100 if I can, but I can't say for sure. Right now it has cost me about $150.00 for tests, tools, materials etc and that doesn't include my time!

Indifocus
 

Hello Andrew,

Have you seen the one on this website?
www.indifocus.com

Its design is a bit different, but the price is lower than some of the "name" ones.

Redrock is wokring on an SLR follow focus, fairly cheap. Check it out.

www.redrockmicro.com

for under $500 the micro looks really nice. I'll definately have to look at getting one once they're for sale.

Hi

I made my own follow focus for about 50$.

http://filebahn.com/host/files/630/rod1.jpg
http://filebahn.com/host/files/630/rod4.jpg

The most expensive part was the gear box. I first tried it with plastic bevel gears but they couldn't hold the torque. The one on the picture has metal gears.

The big plastic gear next to the lens might look stupid but that was necessary to keep around a 1:1 ratio. And I'm convinced it works as wel as a 500$ ff.

cheers

want to make me one?? im looking for one that i dont have to pay $400-$1000 for. It would be much appreciated.. if you have the time of course

Hey Jelle,

Nice job. I was thinking about buying that gearbox, but it was alot more expensive on my end to get it - the gearbox alone was worth more than $50.00 when I researched prices. I noticed that you used the long rod for the actual turning part, pretty cool. I am making my own gearbox (no easy feat), so I am going to make the size alot smaller.

Oh yeah, can I see some stills of how you got the LCD on the shoe? Is that homemade or a purchased grip for the LCD?

Just finished my second generation prototype gearbox. Darn hard road. About a week, 6 hour days worth of work, and preproduction planning not included. Might end up being better just buying the darn thing, but haven't given up yet. A reliable source for aluminum boxes is had, just need a reliable source for bearings (certain type with housing) and I just might be on my way. If I can get all the parts and get this thing right, I can do it under $100 bucks.

sounds like your getting closer.. keep p the good work .. so i can get one cheap!!

I'm also needing a FF.We encourage to keep up the good work your doing.

Well the only hard thing to make would be the gearbox but you can just order that for 30 euros (shipping not included), so I don't know what else I should make for you :-) All parts can be ordered and can be very easily assembled. You need a rod support ofcourse. The most difficult part could be the gear which clamps over the lens itself. I found a gear with the right diameter in an old printer, cut out the inner plastic and voila. There no backlash when turning it because it's quite tight and the small teeth of the lens keep it into place.

I'll post some pics tonight when I'm home.
Good luck with your gearbox!

i have gears already for my lenses from dan diaconu. If one of you guys ever get a chance a DIY guide would be cool

Thanks Jelle, I would love to see the monitor setup. The encouragement is most welcome!

Andrew, doing my best - sometimes it takes longer than most people want, but hopefully it will be worth it in the end. Also Andrew, what kind of rods do you have?

no rods right now.. waiting to see how the letus35xl will fit then ill choose some to match. Ive been using a different kind of support system.. manfrotto telephoto lens support for my regular letus.. no rods.. but its worked for me so far.

Do you have a pic of it Andrew?

pic of the support or the new letus?

new letus should look close to this: http://letus35.com/35XL1.JPG
the cheaper no-rod support ive been using, : http://www.adorama.com/BG3420.html

Hi
I mounted the grip of the lcd on a small wooden block. The pictures make it clear.

http://filebahn.com/host/files/630/rod5.jpg
http://filebahn.com/host/files/630/rod6.jpg

Finally finished my first FF that works perfectly! I am extremely happy about it, needs alot of tweaking to get it right, smoother and more stable - but considering I built my own gearbox, I have no complaints. Still sourcing out materials to try and build this on a mass scale, but it is no easy task...

Can you post pics? You can do it!

A nice breakthrough today for me. I worked out a way to make the gear move adjustable depending on the size of the lens. This way it can be moved away or towards the lens and locked into place once it is there ensuring a tighter fit.

What is the general spacing for rods? And is the spacing measured from the middle of the each rod to the next rod or from the edge of the rod to the other?

Next, waiting for my camera to get back from the repair shop!

It's 6cms from the middle of each one. The actual rods are 15mm as standard.
Have a look at http://www.provis.com.au/products/ac...atte_boxes.htm and scroll down to find all dimensions for rods....

Robin

could You give some links as well - gearbox, wheels ??

Interesting link to the Provisual site, I but I couldn't make out the distance between the rails...

Center to center is 60mm I believe.

I actually found a set of rail for an old camera matte box, I will double check that 60mm - thanks for that!

As I said before, it is 6cms... (or 60mm) :-) That what it is on my Arriflex rail set and matte box.


Robin

i know this post is a year old, but i was wondering if these guys are still around, and have plans for this follow focus...

Just wondering


-Zac

www.indifocus.com has one
www.redrockmicro.com has one as well
www.cinevate.com is making one
http://www.foveas.com/rff.html has built a wireless FF for cranes and stabilizers

The SGfollow focus is also about to be released...

what i meant were DIY plans for one they seemed to be planning to build...
ill check out the links though