DIY Chrosziel
 

Some of you may already know what this is -it's a device that allows a camera to be more easily focused by a focus puller. I think Chrosziel is the manufacturer.

Anyway, my HC1 has got a nice focus ring on it so I got to thinking whether I could use this to make a Chrosziel-like mechanism. B4 I get your hopes up the bad news is that my implimentation did not work for the reason that the ring is not directly connected to any focus mechanism -it is merely an electronic guide that lets the camera know whether you wish to zoom in or out. I.e. If you rotate the barrel by 90 degrees slowly then rotate it back quickly to the same position you will not be focused on what you where originally focused on. (Btw: I have noticed that -at least in NightShot mode- if you zoom in, focus then zoom out the object you originally focused on is now way out of focus! Try it.)

OK, my DIY Chrosziel. Take three matches and cut them in half. Discard the bit that goes up in flames. Take a couple of 1/4 inch wide 1" diameter rubber bands and put one on the ring and one on the body next to it -leave a 1/8" gap. Now insert the first matchstick into the band on the body leaving a little sticking out at the front. Put the other two matchstick on the focus ring about 90 degrees apart (under the rubber band) SO THAT THE ENDS HIT THE THIRD MATCHSTICK AND PREVENT THE RING ROTATING...

You should now have something that looks like this:

FRONT
XXXHXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXHXX
XXXHXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXHXX
H H H
XXXXXXXXXXXXHXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXHXXXXXXXXXXXXX
OOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

X = Rubber band
H = MatchStick

With one of the front matchsticks up against the body match stick you can now auto-focus on the subject then put the camera in manual and move the focus ring round untill your 2nd subject is in focus -this is where you adjust the 2nd focus ring matchstick to sit and stop further rotation...

OK, your still with me...great. So, the idea was that you now have 2 effective stops that allow you to manually snap-focus between two subjects/focal planes and it does work...for a while...Unfortunatley it only takes a few goes b4 the problem mentioned at the start creeps in and the focus ring matchsticks are no longer in the correct positions. You may be able to get the perfect 'pull-focus' shot using this but it would be "trying" to say the least.

Of course for subject matter that is static the inbuilt shot-trans function can be used and speeded up or slowed down in post.


Regards, Nick.