Rapido Single Focus Solution

[Jim Chang]

Introducing Rapido Single Focus Solution: http://www.rapidotechnology.com/

Test Video: https://vimeo.com/213997325

 

[Hans Punk]

Looks great Jim!

is it possible to have the FF encoder on a separate rail mount so that focusing can be made by hand (or is it hard coupled to supported FF models?)...would be great option to have as an independent encoder, being FF type agnostic and act as a slave for other FIZ motors via mechanical input/relay. This would be a very flexible solution for existing owners of FF units that are not on your list...as well as allow motion control /remote focus rigs with FIZ motors to be mechanically synced to a taking lens slave.

I guess now the only issue now is taking lenses that considerably extend (travel) when focusing. Having the setup locked down to rails could limit the proximity of a lens to anamorphic rear...maybe a mini flexible donut connector would work for many scenarios. 

can different taking lenses be calibrated on the fly with a remote?...or does it have to be done with external software. Would it be practical to save presets for different taking lenses and switch settings after a lens change?

I look forward to more info...this looks very much like the solution I was thinking about experimenting with. I can see it being a very attractive solution for larger lenses that require rail mounting anyway...lomo nap type lenses might be going up in value soon

 Big kudos for getting something working!

[webrunner5]

Wow that is a pretty slick setup. And the price for the kit is not too bad either. Well done.

[racer5]

Jim I love your clamps and this looks really interesting. My main reservation is that taking lenses of choice are often small, old, stiff little numbers (like the Helios), which are not suited for FF gears - and pushing/pulling heavy anamorphic fronts back and forth.

That said, this is a great development and very much look forward to seeing more.

[Jim Chang]

10 hours ago, Hans Punk said:

Looks great Jim!

is it possible to have the FF encoder on a separate rail mount so that focusing can be made by hand (or is it hard coupled to supported FF models?)...would be great option to have as an independent encoder, being FF type agnostic and act as a slave for other FIZ motors via mechanical input/relay. This would be a very flexible solution for existing owners of FF units that are not on your list...as well as allow motion control /remote focus rigs with FIZ motors to be mechanically synced to a taking lens slave.

I guess now the only issue now is taking lenses that considerably extend (travel) when focusing. Having the setup locked down to rails could limit the proximity of a lens to anamorphic rear...maybe a mini flexible donut connector would work for many scenarios. 

can different taking lenses be calibrated on the fly with a remote?...or does it have to be done with external software. Would it be practical to save presets for different taking lenses and switch settings after a lens change?

I look forward to more info...this looks very much like the solution I was thinking about experimenting with. I can see it being a very attractive solution for larger lenses that require rail mounting anyway...lomo nap type lenses might be going up in value soon

 Big kudos for getting something working!

Hi, Hanks, 

Thanks for the suggestions, really appreciated.

I am working on an independent encoder unit, that can be mounted on the side to measure the rotation of the anamorphic focus ring. As you mentioned, this will help people with non-supported follow focus units. 

To work with non internal focusing taking lens, I plan to create an Adapter Housing connecting the V2 clamp's rear 77mm thread to the stationary part of the taking lens, so even the front element moves out, it will be hidden inside this Adapter Housing,  A prototype design is undergoing for Helios 44-2 58mm f/2 lens. Will update soon. 

After calibration, the controller stores the calibration result, so you don't need to re-calibrate the lens after power-off. Just move both lens to the starting point, and power on, you are ready to go. Only time when you need to re-calibrate is when you switch to a new taking lens or a new anamorphic lens. I plan to implement trajectory recording functions, and user can switch between multiple trajectories on the fly, without need to re-calibrate.

Thank you again, I will keep you updated. 

 

Jim Chang

Rapido 

 

 

 

 

8 hours ago, racer5 said:

Jim I love your clamps and this looks really interesting. My main reservation is that taking lenses of choice are often small, old, stiff little numbers (like the Helios), which are not suited for FF gears - and pushing/pulling heavy anamorphic fronts back and forth.

That said, this is a great development and very much look forward to seeing more.

I am working on a re-housing solution for the Helios lens, which hidden the protruding front inside a adapter housing, this housing connects the V2 clamp's rear thread to the stationary part of the Helios. Thanks, 

[Hans Punk]

8 hours ago, Jim Chang said:

Hi, Hanks, 

Thanks for the suggestions, really appreciated.

I am working on an independent encoder unit, that can be mounted on the side to measure the rotation of the anamorphic focus ring. As you mentioned, this will help people with non-supported follow focus units. 

 

Jim Chang

Rapido 

 

This would be ideal.

Also, having the encoder (with 0.8 pitch gear with 15mm rod mount) would allow it to be moved and positioned for larger, awkward lenses...that would not work well with traditional FF units (and may be more practical to focus by hand). Having the encoder engaged directly to the anamorphic focus rotation also maintains 'absolute' calibration...if encoder is reading from FF shaft input rotation, sometimes the gear teeth can jump the lens gear if a stiff focusing lens hits a hard stop. That would then throw off any precise sync that would be driving the taking lens stepper motor.

Very interested in the setup, I can see many great applications, especially being able to integrate with other focus solutions.

[Hans Punk]

@Jim Chang Also...and a non focus motor option to the kit would be awesome for those (like me) who would like to use their existing Berkey focus motor. If you could supply an open ended 4 core cable (with pin-out description) would make it very easy to wire a compatible cable. By the looks of it, the Berkey motor would have a bit more of a flexible reach and slimmer profile to get closer to smaller taking lenses. I use mine with a motion control rig, and have never encountered a lens that I can't use it on... (including pancake lenses).

http://store.berkeysystem.com/focus-motor/

Unless your motor has encoder to register position data for the controller?...in which case third party motor support is not possible I expect.

[racer5]

20 hours ago, Jim Chang said:

I am working on a re-housing solution for the Helios lens, which hidden the protruding front inside a adapter housing, this housing connects the V2 clamp's rear thread to the stationary part of the Helios. Thanks, 

That sounds great. I'd be curious how you work the aperture ring into the housing. Please share pics once available, thanks.

[Jim Chang]

10 hours ago, Hans Punk said:

@Jim Chang Also...and a non focus motor option to the kit would be awesome for those (like me) who would like to use their existing Berkey focus motor. If you could supply an open ended 4 core cable (with pin-out description) would make it very easy to wire a compatible cable. By the looks of it, the Berkey motor would have a bit more of a flexible reach and slimmer profile to get closer to smaller taking lenses. I use mine with a motion control rig, and have never encountered a lens that I can't use it on... (including pancake lenses).

http://store.berkeysystem.com/focus-motor/

Unless your motor has encoder to register position data for the controller?...in which case third party motor support is not possible I expect.

I certain can do that, but different stepper motors have different voltage & current ratings, it may not be compatible to the current controller, which could end up overheating your motor & drain up your battery very fast. If you really want to use the berkey motor, I would have to get a full spec of that motor & adjust parameters in the controller accordingly. btw, the current motor doesn't have encoder on it. 

[Hans Punk]

8 hours ago, Jim Chang said:

I certain can do that, but different stepper motors have different voltage & current ratings, it may not be compatible to the current controller, which could end up overheating your motor & drain up your battery very fast. If you really want to use the berkey motor, I would have to get a full spec of that motor & adjust parameters in the controller accordingly. btw, the current motor doesn't have encoder on it. 

Cool.

Pretty sure that the Berkey motor is 12v 1amp...but I'm running it at 6v I think with no torque issues. I've contacted Brian Berkey to get a proper spec sheet. Through luck I wired a custom cable to integrate it to my Dynamic Perception NMX controller and it works perfectly. 

I cant really see if the Berkey motor is massively better than your solution, but I know that a lot of people in the motion control world use them because they are compact and can be configured in many ways... I can get the gear within 1mm of the camera body when using pancake lenses or (as seen in following pictures) when I remount lenses that have a focus gear very close to the lens mount.

Also if it can be an option to integrate into your controller and encoder, there are a few owners out there with Berkey motors on custom live action/ animation motion control rigs that would also appriciate encoder driven control that can act as a slave to rotational input. 

[Jim Chang]

Hi, Hanks, 

The current motor cable connector in the Single Focus Solution is the 4 pin connector as seen below.

I can provide you a cable with open wires at the end, and the pin layout, you can wire them to the Berkeley cable connector, by matching pin layout correctly. The current controller works fine with 12V stepper with max current around 1A. So only thing you would need is a special motor cable. I can provide that as an option to order. The price of the package without motor will be listed on the website too. :-), will update soon. Thanks for the input. 

Jim 

 

 

 

 

[Hans Punk]

Awesome...thanks Jim!

[Hans Punk]

15 hours ago, Jim Chang said:

Hi, Hanks, 

The current motor cable connector in the Single Focus Solution is the 4 pin connector as seen below.

I can provide you a cable with open wires at the end, and the pin layout, you can wire them to the Berkeley cable connector, by matching pin layout correctly. The current controller works fine with 12V stepper with max current around 1A. So only thing you would need is a special motor cable. I can provide that as an option to order. The price of the package without motor will be listed on the website too. :-), will update soon. Thanks for the input. 

Jim 

 

 

I just got a reply from Brian Berkey (very nice guy) - he said he does not have the exact model number for the full spec sheet to hand, but here are the important details for wiring. The Berkey motor comes with 4 bare wires for the user to solder to most common 4 pin connectors.

NEMA 14 
1A, 2.7V

Black A+
Green A-
Red B+
Blue B-

 

[Jim Chang]

On 4/23/2017 at 0:04 AM, Hans Punk said:

 

I just got a reply from Brian Berkey (very nice guy) - he said he does not have the exact model number for the full spec sheet to hand, but here are the important details for wiring. The Berkey motor comes with 4 bare wires for the user to solder to most common 4 pin connectors.

NEMA 14 
1A, 2.7V

Black A+
Green A-
Red B+
Blue B-

 

Hi, Hank, 

Here is the independent encoder unit, which can be rail mounted on the side to record rotational information of the focus ring. I also provide two controller packages for order, package A & package B. package B is the one without the motor unit, and it's part 0009 at http://www.rapidotechnology.com/home

I can modify the controller parameter to work with your Berkey motor, I can also provide an additional motor cable connector, which you can wire it to your Berkeley motor. Thanks. 

Jim 

Rapido 

 

 

 

[AndreasK]

Hello, I'm still using this system and would like to buy a second unit. Unfortunately Jim Chang doesn't produce them any longer. Would anybody be willing to sell his used system?

Thanks and best regards,

Andreas Kielb

www.scope4rental.com