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I promised you more Sunrise, here is more ! Here we have a friction Follow Focus to
test. Last monthes and even last year, the rod and shoulder rig market tends to slow down
- well obviously everyone is equipped now - but a follow focus is always convenient.
Friction follow focus has been criticized a lot because it often needed a lot a strength
on the lens to make it work so mechanical (with gears) follow focus became a standard
So why to start a new product that is "friction', maybe there's a trick here, let's find out
! Hi everyone, Xavier for Xm STudio, and as
promised, we're gonna review this follow focus. So today I haven't much time, so nothing fancy
here, we're gonna do that quick, I still have a lot of footage to edit. But I wanted to
show you this follow focus, once again lend by Digistored, since here it their test model.
So, our equipment here is fairly simple : I have a rod support. I fix my DSLR as usual,
and we're gonna try this with two lenses here : first my Samyang 14mm f2.8. Why ? because
it's heavy and the focus ring is pretty resistant. That's the most resistive one that I have.
In opposition with this other one that has no resistance, and that we're gonna test as
well because the focus ring is very tiny ! On this 50mm it's quite tight !
Well, as usual, the logo is on the front, standard, it work with 15mm rods
You have the square plug to put a extension. You have to marks on
the both side - references for focusing- Their rubber is a bit hard, I find, but you can
still handle it well. Their's as usual a little screw to slide it. Talking about that let's
try it ! So yes, in general, fiction mean to put a lot of pressure on your lens and that's bad. Here on the 50mm
the focus ring is very short : we might have something like ... less that 1cm. But it works
anyway ! without pulling to much on the lens, and that is good news ! Now we're gonna try
this with a way harder lens. Honestly I don't put too much strength : I just bring it to
contact. So let's see if it's enough or if we need to push it. Nop. Only by bringing
it to contact, it works. I can eventually come closer to the camera. Since it's my camcorder,
it should focus... You can see, how simply it works. even if I go fast. uh... yes...
The friction ring is not super fix and so if I pull or push my follow focus I more or
less lose the contact. Oh it looks like this ring is mounted on a spring ! Their's a bit
of elasticity in this follow focus. But you can still focus, it forks quite well !
So why this FRICTION follow focus works that well ? If we compare to, for instance Jag35,
this model is fixed on the two rods, and that brings stability. But also if you look at
the profile, you can see that the ring comes with an angle and if you do the maths, with
a 45° angle, you reduce the force to apply by one third. So that might explain why it
works that well. So first it gonna be for small budgets, this
follow focus, and it work quite well ! So it a good surprise ! So I can tell it's a
very good deal for a cheap follow focus ! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this very quite
test, I invite you to subscribe, to join my Facebook page to see the news, to check my
website and I thank again Digistore for lending us the Follow Focus. I think I've said everything,
so seeya next time ! Ciao