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Are there affordable option to control manual fixed cinema lens focus on a gimbal


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Hello,

 

I have a music video shoot coming up soon, and this is my first experience using a cine lens. We are using a gimbal system, renting an A7sii and a Xeen 50mm cine lens. What we forgot is that cinema lenses are manual only, so from what I found online, does that mean no electronic wireless focus systems will work for example the Aputure DEC wireless adopter? We don't have the budget to afford the standard $1k to $2k remote motor wireless follow focus systems.

 

Is everything I've said so far actually correct and are we really stuck with no way to keep our shots in focus?

 

Thanks

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That's all correct.

The Aputure DEC is essentially the same but it uses a motor inside AF lenses. Cine lenses don't have those so an external motor is needed for wireless use.

 

There are some affordable options that you can rent by project or if you're going to do it a lot, look into purchasing.

 

RTmotion and Hocus Products have very good options for gimbals (including thumbwheel control) but are a bit more expensive to buy outright. DJI have a passable product which should be ok for you.

If you have a dedicated focus puller, something like the Bartech or chrosziel Fox would be in your rental price range.

 

Tilta now have two options that are fairly affordable but they are unproven at the moment. Avoid Cinegear and cheap ebay products as they break more often than they work.

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  • 2 years later...
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I use the Tilta Nucleus Nano as well. The motor is not very strong but it works OK with most still lenses and I believe it would be totally fine with the Xeens. 

Another option is renting but that is only if you can get a better product that way... like significantly better. If just wanting a low range product then the Nano would be OK I think and it is much more affordable than the DJI Focus 

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one of the things with Nucleus Nano is that the motor is a bit slow turning compared to higher end remote focus systems. It may not be the right choice for very high paced handheld action scenes where you would run around with the camera doing lightning-fast focus moves. But for gimbal use would be totally fine I think if more expensive product is not an option. I have used it with PL-modified oct18 Lomo primes and it is just barely enough force to focus them. If the Xeens approximately compare mechanically to Compact Primes then it should be fine. A bit slow focusing but should work OK for most gimbal uses I think

Edited by aapo lettinen
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