Diego's Wireless Follow Focus Project

[Diego Galvez]

Originally Posted by Charles Papert

I've been talking to Jim Bartell (the manufacturer of the Bartech) about the soon-to-be-immediate need for a lower cost lens control system--the folks who intend to buy a RED and plonk it on a Flyer/Glidecam/whatever will be needing something and sure they'll be unhappy spending the $4k it costs to get into a single channel Bartech and M1 motor ("that's how much my whole stabilizer cost!!!"). I'm sure someone will step up to the plate; it's going to be tough though.

Hi Charles, Abdulla and all...

we needed desperately a wireless system to control our HVR-Z1E + RRM2 rig, we really couldn't wait... so we decided to attempt building an economy wireless remote focus system. We plan to do it via R/C and a digital servo. We expect to have a prototype for testing someday in february 2007... You are welcome to follow up the progress of the project:
http://remotefollowfocus.googlepages.com/progress

Our goal is to build a reliable wireless focus pulling system to operate the lens when using a 35mm adapter + steadicam (stabilizers in general).

You can find all the info of the project and find out how we started here:
http://remotefollowfocus.googlepages.com/

Your ideas and suggestions are welcome:
remotefollowfocus [at] gmail [dot] com

Hope to bring you some good news in a little time.

Greetings!

Diego Galvez

[Obin Olson]

good luck, R/C stuff is very loud, the servos jsut suck. I would find a better servo

[Diego Galvez]

Originally Posted by Obin Olson

good luck, R/C stuff is very loud, the servos jsut suck. I would find a better servo

Thanks Obin, we will pay special attention to the loudness. We had this problem too with the Varizoom EFC that we modified, it isn't very quiet... To solve it, I was thinking about case insulation of the servo and the receiver, using some kind of material like the one is used to make the computer noiseless, you know?

As a result of preliminar tests we found that we can smoothly control the servo. For the prototype, we are trying a servo with similar torque as the Hedén M26T motor.

And about the R/C choice, i believe it is the only way to go if we want to come to something affordable...

All ideas are welcome!

Diego Galvez
http://remotefollowfocus.googlepages.com/
remotefollowfocus [at] gmail [dot] com

[Tom Wills]

Well, I know I'm definetly going to be watching your product like a hawk. I just hope I can train one of the camera ops who I work with at school to be my focus puller (they're all high school freshmen and sophomores). I think a simpler rig like the one you're thinking of would be perfect for ENG and DV setups on Steadicam too. Oh, and please make the mounts standard (15mm rods, with adjustability up, down, and in angle), and also make the ports as standard as possible, so if one of those afforementioned students should drop the thing, I have at least a hope of fixing it back up.

[Diego Galvez]

Originally Posted by Tom Wills

Well, I know I'm definetly going to be watching your product like a hawk.

Hi Tom,

just letting you know that we have just set a waiting list of the Remote follow focus. No money in advance, no compromise, we had internally discussed on how to organize it, but... we are filmmakers too and we dont want people to be obligated to compromise any money. Anyway we want also to have a clear the order in what we will ship...

So.. the first letting a message in the waiting list forum, the first that gets a unit out... if he wants finally, i hope he will want :)

Waiting list forum for the Remote follow focus

In case someone is not interested when order time comes, or does not agree the final price, their needs are not met with the production device... we'll just step to the next.

Thanks a lot for your interest!

Diego Galvez
http://remotefollowfocus.googlepages.com/
remotefollowfocus [at] gmail.com

[Diego Galvez]

The link on the previous post does not work, we changed the url of the waiting list, here it is the new one:

http://www.foveas.com/forum/index.php

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Diego Galvez
http://remotefollowfocus.googlepages.com/
remotefollowfocus [at] gmail.com

[Diego Galvez]

Hi there,

we are setting the packages, your help will be appreciated. We set up a poll to know what options are the best for most. Thanks!

Features and price poll:
http://foveas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5

Diego
http://remotefollowfocus.googlepages.com/

[Diego Galvez]

Hi there,

after weeks of exhausting work, prototype testing and so on... we finally have available the Remote Follow Focus and Wireless monitor. They are specifically designed to work with 35mm lenses. (We particularly needed both to work decently with Steadicam + HDV + 35mm DOF adapter)

We uploaded lots of resources (pics, videos,...) to give you an idea of how to use properly this accesory. We would sincerely appreciate all the feedback you can give us.

http://www.foveas.com

Thanks everyone for the support!

Diego
http://www.foveas.com