Nice rig.

I'm also jealous.

Added are pictures of my case. I can put the A1 in the case 90% built, so run and gun shooting is a lot easier. Granted, the case weights about 50lbs :P

The case is a pelican 1650, and the only things that don' fit are my cavision shoulder mount and some extra lenses (but my 50mm and my 28mm stay inside)


http://www.notomatofilms.com/case1.jpg

http://www.notomatofilms.com/case2.jpg


WES: It's a varizoom SWIT monitor. It connects via component cables and is about 90% as good as Marshalls monitor. I love it.

my img code still didn't work, so here they are attached!

The SWIT monitor is not HD though is it?

Hey Matt, I live in Toronto as well.

Your pimp'of'an'A1 should duel my bare bones A1. I warn you, mine has a lot of heart even though it lacks muscle.

It also knows how to self destruct in dire situations, but I sure as hell hope it doesn't come to that. For your sake and mine!

Ah Lloyd, I see you bought the "Predator" model then (What with the self destruct and all).

Blake, it is not HD, but no small monitor really is. it is 800X480 which, at 8inches is enough resolution to focus reliably.

Absolutely impressive!!

what sort of monitor is this you've mounted on the left side? i've read on the fxsupport.de blog ( http://babelfish.altavista.com/babel...t.de%2f19.html ) about a 7" TFT with 800x600 being used as an external monitor and i am intrigued^^

Mathew,
I love what you did with the Case.. I posted about recommendations for cases between the 1600 and 1650 a couple weeks ago, and you just sold me on the 1650!!
Thanks, and like most people in here, I would love to see some footage from it when you have some..
Luke

Follow focus for A1
 

Hi all,
I have been looking for a follow focus system for the XH A1 but needed it to be usable on the fixed lens since i don't have a 35mm lens adaptor. I do use a Raynox tele converter so i ended up buying a set of rails to help support that, meaning i had the rails to support a follow focus, but so far, i have only been able to find one follow focus system that works with a "friction" wheel. Not knowing just what the quality would be like of that one, i decided to give it a go to make my own. I started looking into small gear boxes but was put off by the ridiculous prices of these, i mean, over $400 Australian i think is a joke. Anyway, in the end i just bought some gears, some bearings & some stainless steel rod to suit on the internet. The whole thing pretty much, is made out of aluminium, & i made it to suit the set up i have rather than trying to make it adjustable since i figured it was only for my set up & wouldn't need to be changed. The gear that drives the focus ring on the lens is a nylon gear that comes from a "hobby set" of gears, it just worked out that it meshed with the ribbing on the lens ring perfectly. I still need to do some minor tweaking with the nylon gear as it is not perfectly centered, but that won't be too difficult to sort out. I may even make up a whole new gear from aluminium, but first i'll see how it goes with this one.
I haven't played around with it too much yet, but from my initial tests, it works very well, & focusing is much easier.

Bryce

That Raynox is a beast! - I'd love to get one

I use the indifocus for the Lex and it has the friction wheel attachment, I've found it a bit 'jumpy' on occasion - your's looks pretty good

Hi Paul,
The Indifocus was the one i had seen with the friction wheel, but that's the only one from what i have seen. If i had added up all my time to make this, & the cost of the parts, then it probably would have only worked out a little bit cheaper than the Indifocus, but i sure had fun making it!

Bryce

Hi all,
Wow! I had never used a follow focus before i made this one, but now that i have, i wonder how i ever did without it! I have just spent a few hours using it, & i can't believe how much easier it is to adjust focus. Not only is it a more natural movement that you make when using it, but the adjustments to the focus that can be made are far more precise.
As i wrote in my first post on this thread, i need to tweak the friction gear to make it work better, & now that i know how well it works, i am really keen to get it sorted. I also want to drill holes in it to reduce the weight as much as possible, & do the same to the lens support i had made earlier to support the Raynox tele converter. I will then look in to getting them both anodised in matt black, which should make them at least look a bit more professional.

Bryce

Bryce,
Can you explain to me the situation in which you would use a follow focus?

I have never used one and am not sure exactly what it is for. Is it for when you physically are moving the camera closer to a subject and need to keep focus? Is that why it's called "follow" focus?

It looks like you just worked a mechanism so that you can change focus with a knob on the side instead of the ring on the barrel. Is this correct?

Now with this unit in the way of your aperture and zoom rings, how do you adjust zoom and aperture? I like the idea of the knob on the side for focus, but what else does it do?

Great. So it is just another way of using the focus ring. Cool. I understand that. But what about the issue with the zoom and aperture rings?

I'm sorry, I do event videos (car and truck shows) and move the camera a lot and there is a lot of adjusting of everything. I like the fine control of the focus with the follow-focus setup, but I need access to the other adjustments.

BTW, your setup looks nice and very clean. Well done.

Folow foccus is a necessary tool for cameras with low depth of field - like film cameras or video with DOF Adapter or maybe extreme teleconverters. This make focusing more sensitive and camera more stable. But in event video...
Zoom ring is for a fast zooming between shots - for news reporters etc. During filming you should use buttons on the right side of the camera with smooth motorzooming.
Aperture work in steps. You don`t need extra sensitivity.

Hi, so i got the follow focus and then I found this thread. Grrr. Life is not just easy...
Did anyone tried to remove the instant focus? I do not use it anyway.

Thank you very much. Any thoughts appreciated.

I use the IndieFocus FF (with the rubber wheel) on my A1 all the time. it works really well and as long as it and the camera are mounted securely on the rails, it doesn't slip. Honestly, it spoils you. You'll never want to focus the lens by hand again :)

Thanks Marcel for the tip. I will consider to replace it with the one I have got from India, which is also very good but unusable without their own gear rings which, of course, I cannot attach to the XH A1.

Follow Focus for Canon XH
 

My cameraman still complains about the sensitive/jumpy focus ring control on the XHA1. It makes it tricky to focus accurately on complex or developing shots.

Anyone know if controlling the XH A1 with the available focus puller will allow for easier focusing?

Is it possible they will make a firmware update allowing the focus speed to be better controled?

I found that adding a Follow Focus helps considerably. I use a friction wheel for the A1 lens when I'm not using an adapter and lens gears when I am.

Thanks for your help Marcel

Do you know of a friction wheel that is compatible with the XHA1?

Yes, I use the Follow Focus from IndiSYSTEM - Studio 4 Productions .

you can kind of see what it looks like here:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/874257-post49.html

Thanks again Marcel :)

I've never used a follow focus before. Do you need the rail system to mount the follow focus on?

Yes, you do need a rail system. But, besides the Follow Focus, a rail system also gives you a way to mount matteboxes, handles / shoulder mount, even articulating arms for monitors. Also, later on if you decide to get a 35mm adapter, you already have a rail system to support the adapter. Indifocus also sels some reasonably priced rails.

Thanks very much. I'll look into getting a rail and follow focus for my next production.

What size rail and which follow focus would you recommend?

If you're going to use the follow focus directly on the A1 then indifocus is the only company that I know of that makes a friction wheel for a universal control. You might do a google search to see if you can find others. I have to say that once you get used to using the follow focus, it does spoil you...at least it did me. I don't use anything in auto mode. everything is manual.

Or you could just change the sensitivity setting in the menu.

That's a good suggestion and might improve the response a bit if you haven't tried that already (I made the assumption that you did...probably erroneously). See if that satisfies your focus puller. It could save you some $$. My understanding is that most "focus pullers" prefer the FF though.

Unfortunately I've already tried changing the sensitivity in the custom setup but the focusing is still too sensitive and jumpy. I think the FF is the way to go.

So how is adding a cheap friction follow focus going to change things?
The sensitivity will still be the same, it will just be controlled from 3 inches away.

I'd say give your AC some practice time to get better aquatinted with the camera.

it's all in the ratio of the follow focus gear to the lens gear. If you use a small ff gear then it will take a more turning (i.e., slower response) to move the focus ring a certain distance than if you use a larger ff gear...then the focus ring will move faster.

In the case of the friction wheel, at least to me, that ratio to the A1 lens seems to work very well. I guess it's a matter of preference though. Unfortunately, the friction wheel only comes in one size so you can't change the ratio.

You can't put a FF ring on the A1 or G1 because the instant auto focus module blocks it. If you want a FF, you'll need to get XL H1a or H1s.

Jim Martin
Birns & Sawyer Inc
"At the ArcLight"

Yes, actually you can. I have one. you don't need the FF gear. It uses a rubber friction wheel against the A1's focus ring without a gear. Works pretty well.

You can sort of see it here on my camera: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/874257-post49.html

Marcel, I'm going to ask some really silly questions here...

Should I get the 12", 18" or 30" (deluxe) IndiSYSTEM rail for my XH A1?

Does the Shrigg Rig make the camera upside down for some reason? Do I need one of those?

There are four different IndiFOCUSpro follow focuses - normal, geared, geared deluxe and geared ultimate. Which one should I get?

Thanks!

It really depends on what you are planning on doing. I got the 18" rails because I planned to use a 35mm adapter as well. If you never plan on using an adapter, then the 12" rails will work.

The normal FF, I think it's listed as "Universal" is the least expensive one ($299) and that's the one with the friction wheel, or at least it was when I purchased it. I strongly suggest that you give Tim a call at Indifocus and tell him what you are doing so that you make sure you get the correct one. He's very helpful.

You don't need the Shrigg Rig. That's only for 35mm adapter users that don't have flip modules. It mounts the camera upside down so that the video comes out right side up and appears right side up when looking at the LCD flip out monitor.

Marcel,

I will go for the 18" rail in case I ever get a 35mm adapter.

I'll check with Indifocus on the FF before I buy.

Thanks for all the help :)

A1/G1 with Letus, Follow Focus and Shoulder Mount
 

I recently just experimented with using my G1 with my Letus, Follow Focus and Shoulder mount and found that even though the shoulder mount helps alot, things become extremely tricky to change the focus. I know that I need to counter-weight the rig to balance it, but while changing the focus, I become wobbly... Any suggestions to help change focus and not moving too much with this type setup?
Thanks!

-Jeremy

I have a sort of method which feels and is weird and un-natural when freehanding the Letus/camera combination on the shoulder or overhead.

I use the wrist-end palm of my right hand as support under the Letus body and work the lens focus directly from beneath through the rods with my right fingertips or support the right rod with the inner hook of my thumb and work the lens with the fingertips more from the right side.

I hold the camera from above with my left hand, thumb under handle, fingers on top of it. Rolling and stopping the camera gets a bit tricky. The Sony Z1s, EX1s and the JVC GY-HD*** have a second run button on top of the handle and I use the left-hand finger 3 or 4 to set it off. However being a musician, that comes easy.

The newer low-friction manual-autofocus stills lenses are easy to operate but the older and better metal-bodied manual lenses are harder as they have a high friction lubricant and are not so easy to snap-focus with finger pressure.

Supporting the main weight high from the camera handle induces a front-down pendulum effect which can be a little helpful keeping things steadier hand-held.

Hi Jeremy,

What kind of set up do you have in place at the moment for follow focus? I recommend you take a look at Philip Bloom suggestions here Philip Bloom Blog Archive My favourite things…

I'm thinking of investing in one of those follow focus systems myself, although would like to practice with them first to see which I like best.

Chris