Remote Zoom/ Focus on Car Mounts

[Keith Mottram]

Anyone had experience with remote controlling lenses on car mounts? Providing the camera is mounted correctly is there any reason why this cant be done?

 

Keith

[Brent J. Craig]

The Preston FIZ is the Mercedes of wireless lens control systems. In my experience, you can use it to control Focus, Iris and Zoom (hence FIZ) from up to 500 feet away, which is plenty of distance if the focus puller to be in a chase vehicle. There are other wireless focus systems, but none compare to the Preston in reliability, accuracy and freedom from interference.

 

On car mount stuff where the car is driving around sometimes it can get so far away that your wireless is out of range. I have rolled entire mags before when I couldn't turn the camera off with the Preston. If it looks like that might happen, I usually find a way to ride inside the car. There's no better way to bond with your collegues than being crammed into the backseat of a car with yourself, the director and a maybe boom man while trying to stay below the seat back and out of the shot.

 

I've had some interesting rides with stunt drivers on car commercials, and with the occasional rock star on music videos.

[Brad Grimmett]

Brent is correct in saying that the Preston is the industry standard. A couple of other options would be a Scorpio or a Bartech. The Scorpio is kind of the European version of the Preston and the Bartech is a less expensive, but still reliable option.

If you're going to use a wireless system in any capacity make sure you have a 1st who knows the system. Don't try to figure it out on your own with no experience. These systems are pretty simple, but if used incorrectly you could make a costly mistake.