DSLR RIG REVIEW

by Sebastian WöberJanuary 23^rd, 2010

The best part about the Arri rig is the MMF-1 Follow focus. It really kicks all other follow focus’ butts hard, real hard!

The mounting is a clip-on, versus a slide-on system, so you can attach and detach it, even though for example the matte box is still on. That’s a great feature, that can save you a lot of time. If you are in a controlled environment with plenty of time and money to waste, you can do without the clip on feature, but on a professional film set think of time as money, we all know how people get around the green stuff.

This follow focus unit has a very movable articulation, which makes it possible to use big and small lenses (lens gears) alike, and with a light twist of another of those heart stopping screws the articulation is locked sufficiently hard.

The gearing itself runs extremely smooth and light. It just felt perfect to us.

The small gear that translates movement to the lens gear, can be taken off with a screwdriver and mounted on the other side. This feature is very important, when you use small lenses as the matte box, or the camera itself, can quickly get in the way. Without that feature, it’s sometimes impossible to use a certain lens, as in this example, where you can see that the matte box didn’t fit at first. We will see more of such situations, in the other reviews.

We also like that this follow focus has a very small base, so it won’t take up much room underneath the lens.

One of the most amazing features of the follow focus, are the built in hard stops. By moving the red or blue knob to a certain position, you can limit the focusing range. This comes in handy, when you use a still photo lens that doesn’t have hard stops built in.

Most of the older lenses have a hard stop at either side of their focal range, but some of the newer autofocus lenses have a focus ring, that twists forever. This “flaw” will disarrange focus points a camera assistant might have pre-marked, on the marking disc (that’s what the white disc on the unit is for if you didn’t know.). You can limit the range to a minimum of 0, and maximum of 360° of knob rotation. This feature can also be turned off, by the push of a button inside the knob. Awesome.

What we also noticed, was that the wheel translates to a little more rotation on the lenses, than other follow focus units we tested. Camera Assistants won’t like that, because most still photo lenses have much less focus travel distance than real movie optics anyway, so you can adjust focus less accurately as a camera assistant, maybe more accurately when you are pulling your own focus, with your hand always on the knob, because little movement of your hand will translate to more movement on the lens.

We like the marking disc because it is sufficiently thick to write on.

Wow. This follow focus leaves no open wishes, only that it would be more affordable.