One of the things I always love when I go to the movies are those gorgeous follow focus shots. Without cutting, focus control pulls your attention deeper into the shot, revealing things in the plot and pulling you deeper into the story in such a creative way. Controlling focus is an important element of being able to tell a story well on film. As a documentarian, it’s cool to get that perfect FollowFocus to add beauty to your piece. However, when directing a dramatic piece, focus can be a key tool in helping to reveal plot points at crucial moments in your film. Red Rock Micro’s commitment to make products for the filmmaker that are reasonably priced with the quality necessary for the demands of film production is evident again in the Micro FollowFocus adaptor. This adaptor is designed to work in conjunction with their M2 Adaptor but can also be used with most Professional DV and HDV cameras, as well. (Obviously, you’ll get much more dramatic results with the M2. You can read our review of the M2 by clicking here.)
Ease of Use
The concept behind the Micro FollowFocus is very simple: focus control is taken from the lens ring to a position where someone else can pull focus. This is most useful on dolly shots when the videogapher is concentrating on framing and the focus is constantly changing. The Micro FollowFocus was so easy to use that I was really shocked.
It slides easily on to the rails already on the camera if you are using the M2 adaptor. If you are not using the M2, you will need to purchase rails to use the FollowFocus. The most difficult part will be putting the gears on the lens. There are a variety of gear rings which are designed for different size lenses. These gear rings have rigid teeth that are designed to interlock with the gears on the focus knob. Once you have chosen the ring that fits the lens you are going attach, it slides over the lens and locks down with ease. After that, you just have to line up the gear teeth to cover the full focus range. This is easily done by loosening the screw on the lens gears and lining them up correctly.
Depth of Options
The Micro FollowFocus works on a built-in lens on most professional DV and HDV cameras. However, as I mentioned before, it works best in conjunction with the M2 adaptor, since one of the advantages of using the M2 adaptor is the ability of having a lens with set focal lengths. The Micro FollowFocus will continue to hit the mark every time once you have set up your focal points. When the FollowFocus is set up on most fixed-lens cameras, the inherent lack of reliability with the built-in camera lens prevents it from exactly hitting the mark every time. It still provides advantages to rack focusing by hand, but it can only be as accurate as the lens it is controlling.
