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RJ Follow Focus, looks very good
  • 187 Replies sorted by
  • @chip et al.
    OK, so I just wrapped some blue tack (at least that's what we call it in UK/Ireland) around the crank to beef it up. Works great since blue track sticks as well.
    But yeah, so much for standardisation!!
  • That's great ed_lee83!
    For the rail rod system, I received mine today, first impression is good. You really have to tighten the knobs to have everything sturdy and solid after setting it up, but then it feels quite rugged. I was a bit worried about the clamps but they seem solid. The rig is not built for eternity, no highest quality stuff of course, but also far from being cheap. RJ follow focus fits great.
  • How well does the rod rig attach to a tripod (like the WF 717)?
  • I have it on a Manfrotto 701HD head and it fits with no problems, tight. If you mount the handles very close to the rig, they might get in the way of some knobs or handles of your tripod, but normal setup should be good for any tripod(head).
  • Hi,

    i have this Followfocus but the rotational direction doesn't fit my needs.
    Anyone know if it's possible to change this? an example:
    if i spin the wheel counter-clock-wise the focus point is coming to me, but i want that the focus point is going away from me. hope you understand :)

    greetings
    Marcus
  • I got one too, already have a Dfocus so will compare and post back
  • I got mine today. My first impressions are that it's OK and will be better in use than the Indifocus, etc.

    The plastic parts are molded, not machined. I somehow expected everything to be machined, although it doesn't make much difference really. The blue area you see inside the knob is actually a soft plastic sticker. Not really sure what purpose it serves other than for looks.

    A number of the descriptions mentioned "rubber" grip, but this seems to be "hard" rubber, like an LP record is made from, or it could simply be a plastic of some kind. Either way, it's molded and hollow, not solid and machined. Same for the white marking surface. It's a bit slick and my grease pencil doesn't really leave much of a mark on it. A dry erase marker is needed for this surface. Also, since the unit is hollow, any movement, touching, etc, makes that hollow plastic sound, which is a lot louder than you think on a quiet set..

    The best part of the whole thing is the gearing. It's very precise. There is NO play in the gears, which are metal. The grease is a little thick and dampens the gears fairly heavily. It's not hard to turn but it's not easy either. The worst thing by far is the reversible gear setup. It's extremely loose and flops around. I had to bend the fingers of the shaft a little bit just to get it to stay inside the outer shaft. Even then, it has a huge amount of play, more so than the Huco gearbox of the Indifocus and it's cheap clones.

    The rail mount assembly is very nicely machined and finished. It's not rough at all and the edges are rounded, unlike a number of the cheap-o follow focuses around.

    So far, I'm impressed with the unit. It's not as grand as some of the reviews have led me to believe but it's a step ahead of what has been offered in it's price range before. If someone can address the floppiness of the shaft on the reversible gear assembly as well as the hollow noise that it makes, then this would make this the clear winner of all low priced follow focuses.

    I have some thin self adhesive teflon so I might try to shim the shaft of the reversible gear to tighten it up. If this succeeds, I'll post the results here.
  • is there anybody bought from uk ebay seller?
    I am not sure , do I have to pay custom tax to europa if i order from China.
  • My follow focus arrived today, I got it from Alibaba. It's really nice and a steal for $150. Build quality quite good. And they give you a free lens air brush. The only other FF I've used is Red Rock, and this one compares to it.

    So I forgive Vitaliy for forcing me to buy the GH1 eyecup that I hated and didn't work on my Gh2.
  • >So I forgive Vitaliy for forcing me to buy the GH1 eyecup that I hated and didn't work on my Gh2.

    I kind of doubt that you can blame me on this one. :-)
  • Mine came today. It is better, heavier and more substantial than I thought it would be. I am pretty impressed.
  • @brianluce So I forgive Vitaliy for forcing me to buy the GH1 eyecup that I hated and didn't work on my Gh2.

    That was stonebat, but don't mention it else he call you out.

    Gee, with this rail rig, FF, Lilliput LCD, Matte box and Cheapo W96 LED lite, i can almost call myself a Pro ... all for under $500 bucks ... haha .... looks impressive, hope it doesn't all break at once :-)
  • @rambo

    I forgive Stonebat too.

    So you got the matte box without filter slots? Like it?
  • Like i said, i look Pro..hehe. seriously it's ok, i only really got the matte box to shade my Canon FD's that suffer badly from low contrast/ flare outdoors, and it works. A lens hood didn't do that. But i found a extra use for the rubber collapsible lens hood > use it as well as the matte box and it will block off the gap between the matte box and the lens, folded and unfolded. Cool Huh???
  • There u go again. Grow up!!!
  • +1 on previous reviews. Got mine, impressively small backlash, very solid build. If noise from the hollow knob is a problem, it should be easy to fill w. silicone or similar to quieten.

  • I got rid of the lens ring gears and converted mine to friction operated. Simply put a rubber doughnut over the reversible/removable gear wheel. It works fine on all my FD's as they have smooth consistent rotation. Much quicker to swap lenses, setup and you get full 360 degree rotation.
  • @Rambo
    Look at IndiSnap gears. They are easy and fast to mount. Also 360 degree rotation.
  • Anyone have a whip handle recommendation for this FF?
    I'm also going to order more lens gears.
  • @Samson
    Thanks, Samson for info.
  • the same manufacture of the FF has a whip handle in the works. Stay tuned!
  • Got mine, very nice build for the money
  • I used a thin plastic and shimmed the shaft of the gear where it goes into the gearing. It's much tighter and now works very well.
  • @svart
    interesting, can you give more detail, maybe even pics? I tried to fix it too in a similar way but failed.
  • One friend of mine used a toilet bowl hose and he said it worked pretty good.