Matt Turner Posted September 20, 2014 Share Posted September 20, 2014 Hi Everybody, I am looking for a cheap follow focus solution. the best I've found is from Cinegears. Has anyone used them or know anything about their products? Thanks, Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Gregory Irwin Posted September 20, 2014 Premium Member Share Posted September 20, 2014 I've tried a few different wireless focus/iris/zoom systems out there and the only one that truly delivers is the Preston FIZ III. Not cheap but you get what you pay for. Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Satsuki Murashige Posted September 20, 2014 Premium Member Share Posted September 20, 2014 Lol, Greg you play in a different sandbox than most of the people here! The old analog Bartech is the most reliable single channel system under $5k. It's not sexy, but it just works. Can't say the same for the digital Bartech, Chrosziel Digifox, RT Motion, and other similar systems, they are all unusably slow at times and can be affected by radio interference from wireless video systems and other devices. The Bartech is also cheap enough to be a great backup system. I can recount a number of times where production had rented a crap system, and the old Bartech came in to save the day. Even the most expensive reliable systems go down occasionally. I worked a 100% Steadicam job a few weeks ago where our Preston FIZ 3 went down on the martini shot. Changed to a fresh battery on the F55 and both Hirose ports stopped outputting power to the MDR (powering via Hirose > d-tap > Preston power cable). We tried resetting fuses, switching to batteries with less charge, rebooting systems, repatching cables, nothing. No Steadicam sled power cable. Ended up switching to the Steadicam op's Bartech system instead and got the shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Gregory Irwin Posted September 20, 2014 Premium Member Share Posted September 20, 2014 Bartechs are ok. I owned several at one time years ago. I couldn't get the range I needed out of them and there wasn't a zoom option at the time. Now I own several Prestons and am much more confident with them in my hands. As for breakdowns, that's an unfortunate byproduct of technology. Everything breaks at some point and will require some TLC. Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Brereton Posted September 20, 2014 Share Posted September 20, 2014 I've had nothing but trouble with Bartechs. Unreliable and badly designed. It's worth the fight with the producers over the additional expense of getting the Preston for my 1st AC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Rodrigue Posted October 27, 2014 Share Posted October 27, 2014 Redrock wireless follow focus is good.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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