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Fly By Wire Panasonic Lenses. Bluetooth Follow focus / handheld Gimbal combo?


Austin Hatala
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Ok maybe I'm missing something but I feel like this would be a massive selling point for Gh4, Gh5, or any camera company that sells fly by wire lenses.

The Gh4 already offers basic connectivity between a smart phone app and the camera. I have not used it, but to my understanding it enables you to adjust various things including the shutter.

Why doesn't Panasonic offer a small follow focus device that can be connected to the camera via bluetooth? 

I'm a GH4 wielding wedding videographer, and am looking at handheld gimbals like the new Tilta Gravity G1. It has a handle accessory, and several mounting points. With weddings, shallow DOF is key, so focus is a constant issue. I'm picturing using this Gimbal with the handle and an attached wireless follow focus. You could use find focus using the on camera screen, while using the handheld gimbal. It would be a incredibly minimalist approach, that would appeal especially to a wedding videographer looking for stabilized shallow DOF shots, in a minimalist package.

What am I missing? Why is this not a thing?

2016news-birtv005.jpg

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16 hours ago, Cinegain said:

You mean, like...

Not a big user of the app myself though. Guess you meant something more refined? There's the Aputure DEC system for EF lenses.

Ah, somewhat. I found exactly what I'm talking about:

DJI has this follow focus and you can also attach your phone as a monitor. 

Screen Shot 2016-10-26 at 1.32.56 PM.png

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@Austin Hatala You do realize that the DJI Osmo Raw kit with proprietary SSD and follow focus will run over $6,000, while the Aputure DEC Wireless Focus & Aperture Controller for MFT is selling for just $250, don't you? But you'd have to be sure that whatever lens you're adapting doesn't exceed the payload capacity of the gimbal you're using.

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@aldolega Yep, I just did some research, and the DEC does indeed have some limitations. First, the stepping you mentioned, which may also be accompanied by noise, and which varies according to the lens. The system also requires the use of lenses which have built-in focusing mechanisms, which rules out lenses like the Voigtlander Nokton. It is also awkward to mount on a gimbal, and may require modification, which admittedly is not hard to do, but which may void the warranty.

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@aldolega, @jonpais The DEC also does not have a form factor that would work well with a handheld gimbal. I just found the Slincer Trigger follow focus. http://www.24shots.com/silencer-pro-trigger-controlled-camera-follow-focus/

Pretty great design, especially if you were to combine it with a single handle gimbal. This would be ideal, but scrap all the mechanical belts and control the focus electronically!

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Lens regain. Period. Wireless aputure and focus control. Keep the dongle around your neck, in your pocket or clamp it as a handle on your rig or tripod handle (clamp included). 10 hours of  continuos  batterry life. I have been using it for 3 months on gh4 and micro cinema camera. Oh, and its a speedbooster to. Gh4 + regain and transmitter work  on zhiyun crane or similar with tokina 11 16 or native 12 35 or similar. 

I never intend on looking back.

Just looking forward to upgrading  to the newest  version with  a remote controlled nd filter. 

I am surprised it is not in every mft kit bag, but maybe it has some drawbacks I havent seen yet that would make it unsuitable for certain jobs where ectra crew need something to do. I dunno...

Edit: however, do not buy  a huwei p8 lite, I cant control the beast when typing. Maybe its me... less gear, new phone.  Next months plan.

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The drawback for me is... it's EF mount and the only thing by Canon I've ever had is a Powershot SX1 IS and A1300. :tounge_wink: Maybe a handful of printers too. Though... speaking of Canon. If you want to have a gimbal and sweet AF... maybe just get one of those with Dualpixel AF and let it do its thing. Maybe a 1080p one, if you don't absolutely need 4K. I think everything else is just cumbersome. Either stick with fixed focus or go Canon.

And maybe your phone's screen is too small, maybe instead of Huawei, try the other one: Xiaomi, their latest one is radical! http://www.mi.com/mix/

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3 hours ago, Don Kotlos said:

The problems with a bluetooth flybywire focus mechanism is that it will most probably suffer from delays that for follow focus control of relative shallow depth of field can be pain in the $ss or even unusable. Look at the delay that the remote display has... 

Interesting! I wonder how that compares to the metabones XL. I've never seen that product

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@Austin Hatala One thing holding me back is that most of my EF lenses are too heavy to use with Lens Regain on the Zhiyun Crane. 

2 hours ago, Austin Hatala said:

Interesting! I wonder how that compares to the metabones XL. I've never seen that product

CheesyCam did a comparison on YouTube, LensRegain compares favorably with Metabones, costs less, and throws in the follow focus to boot. 

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