Follow Focus and 2,5" HDD

[Slobodan Milivojevic]

Hi all,

hope we will receive our Scarlet with Canon mount very soon, and I have few questions:

1. What follow focus do you suggest? We want really a good and realiable one - We have a lot of Canon lenses from our 5d Setup, and we will buy more Zeiss Cp.2 ones. Currently, for 5d we have Redrock Micro FF.... Is there a better one on the market?

2. I have just received 2,5" REDMAG for mounting HDD on Scarlet.....Is it ok if we buy some good SSD Hard drive, or we should go safe route, and get some fast 2,5" regular HDD?

Thanks!

[Trevor Meeks]

The O-Connor O-Focus DM is fantastic. I suggest the Cine version for the CP.2s... that's what I use and it's absolutely the best FF I've used. Had a Redrock FF and I hated it. Sloppy, bulky, and very limited. You'll be impressed with the O-Focus. It's very full-featured and an incredible value. B&H has them in stock.

Don't know what you mean about the hard drives.... are you saying you expect to record to hard drives from the Scarlet....??

[Chad Bonanno]

The O-Connor O-Focus DM is fantastic. I suggest the Cine version for the CP.2s... that's what I use and it's absolutely the best FF I've used. .??

Trevor,
Can you mount this FF upside down from top rails or are you using a riser and mounting from the bottom rails?

Best
Chad

[Trevor Meeks]

Trevor,
Can you mount this FF upside down from top rails or are you using a riser and mounting from the bottom rails?

Best
Chad

Hey Chad, I'm sure you could, but I don't like having the FF up that high. I use top rods for my wireless FF motor, but not for the O-Connor.

I used a friend's Viewfactor FMJ bottom plate and 15mm LW mount, and they're perfect. Ordered them the same day. The RED QR plate bolts on the bottom of the VF plate and it all fits together perfectly. I use short redrock micro carbon rods, can't remember if they're 3" or 4", which fit everything perfectly under my CP.2s.

Edited to add: pic of my Scarlet w/ my friends' O-Connor O-Focus (photo version, with the smaller hard-stop knob.... I ordered the cine version with the slightly larger knob.)

[Trevor Meeks]

Trevor,
Can you mount this FF upside down from top rails or are you using a riser and mounting from the bottom rails?

Best
Chad

A quick update for you Chad,

I got my O-Focus Cine version today (same as the photo version that I was using for a while, just a different knob) and mounted it up top for you to see.

The way this thing comes apart and goes together quickly and cleanly is a huge benefit, and I found right away that its flexibility was needed for this setup up-top. I couldn't slide the focus onto the rods from the front, as my CP2s are quite large and the top rods are a little less than standard spacing. However, I clipped the quick-release on first, then slid the gear drive assembly into place from the side and locked it down... it all fits very nicely. Another benefit of the modular design is that you can adjust where the focus wheel sits. Mounting most follow focus units upside-down will result in the knob sitting at an awkward height, or maybe too far forward or back. The O-Focus can be easily adjusted, flipping the knob assembly up above the rods or down below, also angling it forward to clear an EVF or back to clear a mattebox etc. Hope that makes sense. Anyway here's a quick iPhone snap of the O-Focus mounted up on the top rods, quick 'n dirty.



Another thing to be aware of — one of the marking disks that comes with the O-Connor is glow in the dark. Redrock Micro touts their Follow Focus as having a light-up marking disk, but you actually need to buy their 'optional flares' for $20 to make that happen.

Hold the O-Connor marking disk under a bright light for a few seconds and it's glowing bright green, and at no additional cost. Just sayin'. This kind of thing is a no-brainer, but it was a welcome surprise to me. Little features that are just there and just work all add up, and you really start to realize the value of a nice unit like this. Being nickle-and-dimed sucks.

BTW, quick video overview in post #32 on the next page

[Todd T]

The 2.5 Inch Redstation does not connect to Scarlet. Scarlet(and Epic) only record to 1.8 Redmag SSD modules.

It is just a hard drive dock that you connect to your computer and use to copy/back-up files on to external disks.

[Slobodan Milivojevic]

Oh, ok....mistake....I thought it will work as HDD module also, similar like external HDD on RED ONE....
Can you tell me then what is the capacity in minutes od 64 Gb SSD?

[Trevor Meeks]

Oh, ok....mistake....I thought it will work as HDD module also, similar like external HDD on RED ONE....
Can you tell me then what is the capacity in minutes od 64 Gb SSD?

about 25 minutes

[Slobodan Milivojevic]

HI, sorry for my RED dumbness, until now I was only using it from rental houses, so I was not able to pick up all technical bits and pieces......
Can we connect SSD and HDD station on location to make a backups directly to HDD which will be in 2,5" RED station?

[Peter Majtan]

HI, sorry for my RED dumbness, until now I was only using it from rental houses, so I was not able to pick up all technical bits and pieces......
Can we connect SSD and HDD station on location to make a backups directly to HDD which will be in 2,5" RED station?

YES, that is the purpose of the 2.5" station. You can dock them on top of each other - the feet click into the top of another one. You can then interconnect them (including power if you have the power base) via the included cables...

Peter