wireless follow focus with video receiver

[eric ramahatra]

hi all

 

i was asking myself why there was no video receiver on a wireless follow focus device...

 

Something like this may be great to help getting sharp focus.

 

is this useless ?

[Mike McGowan SOC]

i believe that the 'C motion' unit has this function?????

 

and it might be helpful in some situations (for example knowing what the operator is pointing at) but the conventional wisdom is that if you have time to look at a monitor to check your focus, it's already too late.

[Jess Haas SOC]

Personally I would prefer it having a little 2.5" screen to a bigger one. That would give the AC an idea of the frame without making it huge.

 

~Jess

[Amando Crespo]

i believe that the 'C motion' unit has this function?????

 

and it might be helpful in some situations (for example knowing what the operator is pointing at) but the conventional wisdom is that if you have time to look at a monitor to check your focus, it's already too late.

 

I spoken about this with my focus assistant and he said me that he prefers to put attention to the distance that is between the camera and the actor.

Mike has reason, if you´re looking the monitor to check focus, may be late. :P :P :P

[Thomas English]

On all these RED jobs focus puller are insisting on monitors. At least side monitors on the cameras. I swear they are glued to them and they always end up messing up on improvisation.

[eric ramahatra]

in my case i shoot without any marking steps because i shoot weddings 80% of my time. So i need to anticipate more than with marks where you already know where will be the actor at any time.

[Brian Freesh]

I've always found it amazing how often monitors are relied upon these days for focus pulling, for the reason given. I've always had far more success looking at the physical distance. That said, there are situations where that may not be easy or even possible, and in that case having a monitor (be it hand held or whatever) can be useful. Mostly to know that a certain frame represents a a certain mark, but also to at least limit the time you are out of focus.

 

Brian |-)~

[JimBartell]

No one does this because there are no companies that make both monitors and FF's. Monitors are high volume items made by huge corporations and FF's are niche products made by much smaller but much cooler companies. Also, monitor technology changes at a rapid pace along with the video cameras being used whereas FF's are designed so well that they never need to be upgraded. Really. Trust me.

 

Tom Gleason at Cinewidgets (http://www.cinewidgets.com/) makes a bracket that attaches to the back of a Preston that can hold a monitor.

 

Some people have made their own solutions. Jorge Agero built this little beauty:

Jorge Agero Focus Center

 

Chrosziel in Germany made a unit such once but it never made it into production.

 

Jim "Trust me" Bartell

[Charles Papert]

You also have to consider how the image is getting to the monitor. If it is for framing purposes only, a much smaller TV with receiver will suffice (I've worked with a few assistants who like the famed 1.5" screen VTV-101 (probably hard if not impossible to find any more--I bought one for $50 a year or two ago) because they can velcro it onto any hand unit. If it is for focusing purposes, it will need to be a decent HD display, and then you do have to consider how one is transmitting or receiving the signal. So far the digital HD transmission systems we've seen are all large enough that this will become quite a handful when the receiver is tacked to the back of the hand unit, along with a large enough battery to power all.

 

What Jim is probably thinking and not saying is--good luck designing the actual follow focus part of all this, because we've seen a lot of startups come and go and others who are years behind on their promised delivery of a properly functional system. From all of the stories I've heard, it's nowhere near as easy as it might look.

[Erwin Landau]

I am playing with that one right now:

 

http://www.cmotion.eu/index.php?mod=specia...did=2&id=20

[RonBaldwin]

does Heden make a special motor for the c-motion? Or will it work with any digital motor?

 

It's funny to look at the contact page on their website and see an address in Germany, Austria, Italy, UK, Japan and...Toluca lake!

[Erwin Landau]

Any Digital Motor works... as long as you have the correct motor cable... even though most have the same Lemo connector but are not wired the same...

[brian d goff]

hi all

 

i was asking myself why there was no video receiver on a wireless follow focus device...

 

Something like this may be great to help getting sharp focus.

 

is this useless ?

 

 

Our new FIZ the U-LEX will have that option in the near future. For now, the U-LEX can display all lens data as overlay onto any standard definition monitor. So even now, all you have to do is give the focus puller a small monitor and you got just what you are requesting.

 

http://www.steadicamforum.com/index.php?sh...amp;#entry52477

[Andrew 'AJ' Johnson]

On all these RED jobs focus puller are insisting on monitors. At least side monitors on the cameras. I swear they are glued to them and they always end up messing up on improvisation.

 

 

Yep, forget the RED monitor for "on the run" focus pulls.

delay + motion blur = too late.

 

A good focus puller will never look at a monitor, maybe only to check when an actor is coming into frame etc, but that's it. I prefer not to have any monitors on a rig, especially for all these new up and coming assistants who tend to fall apart when the monitor is taken away from them.

 

What happens when they do a film job...? 35mm Anamorphic, T2 1/2! :)

.AJ

[Eric Fletcher S.O.C.]

A good focus puller will never look at a monitor, maybe only to check when an actor is coming into frame etc, but that's it. I prefer not to have any monitors on a rig, especially for all these new up and coming assistants who tend to fall apart when the monitor is taken away from them.

 

 

Well that is simply not the case on "Dexter" My Focus puller is flat out amazing and it's because he is pulling focus off of a monitor