ISCO Ultra Star Red - electronic single focus solution.

[anton.zimin@gmail.com]

Hello! I'd like to share with you my setup.

 

It is very simple to do, nevertheless I've spent about a $1000 to try different ways and ideas. I end up with a setup which costs about $200-300. It is a fully electronic dual follow focus system, controlled by Arduino Nano with two servos and powered by 2 3.7 Li-ion 4800 mAh batteries. The price very much depends on motors and potentiometers  you choose. You can calibrate it with any lens. 

 

Still it is a bit noisy and I'd like to make a wireless version as well plus add a monitor and a possibility to store more than one lens in its memory. 

 

VIDEO

[jonpais]

Nice job - but I’ll stick with spherical. ?

[Andrew Reid]

You have to give him more credit than that Jon, it's a pretty complex DIY project to pull off.

And if it works well, the lack of polish doesn't matter.

I'm curious if the SLR Magic Rangerfinder works on the red Isco though... It would have made the implementation of this far easier.

[kye]

4 hours ago, anton.zimin@gmail.com said:

Hello! I'd like to share with you my setup.

Very impressive! Well done!!  

I think it's difficult for people who haven't done it to understand what an achievement it is to create a project with custom hardware and software and get it to actually work.  Let alone be reliable, physically tough, etc in the real world.  Large companies spend millions of dollars on R&D like this.

It is a bit noisy, but I would imagine that with different servo motors this would be mostly / completely eliminated?  But if you were using a longer lens and sound via a shotgun mic on a boom pole it would probably be inaudible anyway.

Good luck with your wireless conversion - I would imagine that the system architecture would accommodate this without many issues?  Perhaps just putting the wireless transmitter / receiver between the potentiometer and the processor?

What kind of film-making do you use the setup for?

[zerocool22]

Wow amazing stuff
Allthough I rather save up for a single focus anamorphic, as the new ones are hitting the market soon. (atlas orion, samyang)

As they have a much better workflow and easier to work with. I dont have to worry the anamorphot falling off. + they will keep a good resale value, I'm pretty sure these anamorphot adapters are gonna drop in price soon when there are more affordable single focus options out there. 

[anton.zimin@gmail.com]

Thanks for your words!)

Here is a video I've shot on this setup: Hoop.

 

 

[KnightsFan]

This is amazing! Really fantastic. I'm considering building an electronic follow focus for just spherical lenses. Do you mind sharing more about how you made it, like what servos you ended up using?