Choosing follow focus gear rings

Canon 5D Mark II w/Fotga DP500 II follow focus and generic 60-70mm fixed diameter ring

The cinemazation of DSLR cameras have created a need to add 0.8 pitch follow focus gears to standard photography lenses. Many such gears exist on the market; however, not all are created equal - a fact that is not immediately apparent until you've already experimented with a few.

The prevalent types of follow focus gears available to the prosumer cinematrographer today come in three different variants:

• Left: Plastic, adjustable diameter gear ring with friction lock and lever
• Center: Rubberized, adjustable diameter gear ring with tooth lock
• Right: Fixed outside-diameter ring w/10mm variable inner gear ring diameter (various sizes available), made by Cinematics and others

I've used all three in the field - following are my thoughts on each:

Semi-hard plastic, adjustable gear ring with lever

The adjustable plastic gear ring is my least favorite in that the toothed reverse of the plastic isn't that grippy. I've yet to have it slip, but it does not inspire confidence. Likewise, the lever locking mechanism of the lever is cheap, damages the gear teeth, and the lever gets in the way of follow focus units unless oriented to the opposite side of the rig.

On the other hand, the plastic gear teeth engage well with follow focus units, and it is especially handy when using an older, manual telephoto prime for focus control.

 

Rubberized adjustable gear ring

The rubberized gear rings can are soft enough to grip a lens - and grip well - but this also causes the teeth to flex while meshing. The toothed receiver also works well to keep the ring tight.

Unfortunately, coupled with small-diameter lenses and a follow focus mounted in certain places, these rings will jump teeth - and visibly so on screen. Nevertheless, they are effective on larger-diameter lens barrels.

Cinematics 80-90mm at left, generic 60-70mm at left

These fixed-diameter rings are my personal favorites, having the ability to reach a follow focus unit with ease, regardless of lens barrel diameter. This style of gear ring is presently available as a generic (only one at present, it seems) and by Cinematics with slight differences between each. Both companies produce inner diameters ranging from 60-70mm up to 108-116mm. In my experience, the generics have enough adjustment to fit barrels down to 57mm comfortably; possibly smaller.

The generic's plastic-knob bolt is durable, despite its cheap appearance.

Cinematics' units have a smoother finish than the generics and have an allen head bolt with a proper steel nut, but otherwise show no superiority over the generics in operation or durability. Unlike the generics, they are available in red and blue (I've also seen purple) as well, which is fine if you're a hipster who must color-coordinate your camera rig to your fixed-gear bicycle and Macbook. Personally, I see no point to it - why call more attention to an L-series lens by putting red gear rings on it?

Additionally, a pair of these rings can provide both focus control and a precise zoom control for lenses with fixed zoom rings - such as Canon's L-series. Given the lack of perfect video-quality fluidity in even the L-series lenses - not to mention the fact that most photography lenses are varifocal - controlling zoom through a second gear ring and follow focus unit can be a stress-free method of ensuring a perfect take on the first try.

-Kurt "Man with the 5D"

No monetary compensation was provided for the mention of the any of the products mentioned or shown in this article.

Aperture Flicker: Why you should have a manual aperture zoom lens...

...and why electronic, variable aperture zoom lenses are a poor choice for DSLR filmmaking:

Aperture flicker is a phenomenon of zoom lenses with variable apertures at the open end. For the purposes of this explanation, let us consider the following Canon EF 28-135mm zoom lens - it will run open as low as f/3.5 when at 28mm, but will close to f/5.6 when the focal length increases to 135mm.

As the lens has an electrically controlled aperture built into the body, the lens will automatically stop down from f/3.5 to f/5.6 when zooming, causing an abrupt reduction in light as the iris is closed in individual clicks/stops.

It is the same look you'd get if you operated the iris/aperture of a manual lens that had not been de-clicked for film/cine use.

Now, at this point, you're probably saying: "Wait - what if I simply stopped down to f/5.6 for the entire shot? That makes perfect sense, doesn't it?" It certainly does, and you'd be dead wrong, despite what many DSLR photographers (as opposed to videographers) would like you to believe.

In short:  

Even if you stop down to an f-stop that works across the entire focal length of the zoom lens, IN MANUAL MODE, the electric aperture will flicker anyway.

The problem lies in the hard-coded programming of DSLR cameras, which checks at each of the critical stop-down points in the focal range to see if the aperture needs to be stopped down when you zoom, activating the iris mechanism for a split second, thereby causing the momentary darkening of the image. It will do so even if you already stopped down the lens to prevent the system from stopping it down for you.

That's right - so long as you have an variable aperture zoom lens with electronic iris/aperture control (more or less a Canon EOS and M43 issue), you cannot use the zoom on your lens without getting completely uneven light. 

For those of you who want to see this as a video, following is a direct comparison of an all-electronic Canon EF 28-135mm zoom lens  - with a variable f/3.5-5.6 max aperture - against a 1980's Tamron 28-70mm zoom. Just to make the comparison more stark, the Tamron is also a variable maximum aperture lens (f/3.5-4.5, specifically), but it adjusts mechanically - and therefore does not distract from the image.

 

Obviously, aperture flicker is not a problem for still photography, but it proves to be a severe issue for videos.
 
DSLR filmmakers are left with three options to get around aperture flicker:

1. Use zoom lenses made for your existing mount that will run a constant open f-stop across the entire focal range
• Some common zoom lenses are manufactured as described (the EF-mount Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 L - both the original and the II - and Panasonic's 35-100mm f/2.8 for M43 come to mind), but this may needlessly restrict your lens options.
• Note that if you are shooting telephoto-length lenses, using a modern, constant aperture lens is your ONLY option, due to the requirement of image stabilization and a fixed zoom ring. Admittedly, this solution is pricy, I cannot think of a better excuse to justify a 70-200mm Canon f/2.8 L IS to your significant other.
2. Use a lens made for your existing mount that has manual iris control.
• To my knowledge - short of Cinematics' customized (and pricey) cine lenses - non-existent at the prosumer level. Rokinon/Samyang's budget cinema lenses for EF mount are all primes, as are Noktor's SLR Magic series for Micro 4/3.
3. Use an older manual zoom lens with an adapter, preferably de-clicked.

Redrock Micro's LiveLens MFT

But there is a fourth way too:

Granted, this option only exists for M43 users who wish to use EF-mount lenses, but it is an option at any rate: Redrock Micro's M43-to-EF LiveLens MFT, shown at right.

Upon request, Redrock was kind enough to report that the LiveLens controller does not cause aperture flicker when used with a variable aperture lens. Specifically, the LiveLens was tested with a Canon 20-35mm f/3.5-4.5; when set at at f/8, the lens exhibited no aperture flicker when zoomed and retracted.

One last note: Obviously, photographers don't need to worry about this problem, but it hasn't prevented a number of discussions about aperture flicker to appear on photography forums. Be forewarned that a good deal of the advice written on these forums - though well-meaning - are often misleading, or do not apply to DSLR filmmaking.

Kurt K. - "Man With the 5D" 

No monetary compensation was provided for the mention of the LiveLens MFT for this article. LiveLens MFT image and data was provided by Redrock Micro upon my request.