Follow Focus

Okay, let’s talk about follow focusing. This is a follow focus; it attaches to your camera typically by 15mm rods. It has an arm that comes out that affixes to your lens. So, when you turn the knob, you can adjust the focus. Nice and smooth. It works best for Cine lenses because Cine lenses have a longer barrel rotation and they have gears, so the two interface very well.

If you don’t have a Cine lens and you just have still lenses, there are options. One is a friction mount, or you can attach a variety of types of gears on the lens to allow for a gear interface. But, when operating a follow focus, you have a couple cool accessories: a crank, which pops into a universal opening in the focus knob. Allows for fast focus pulls! You have a whip, similar to a crank, in that you can get faster focus pulls, but if you’re not close to the camera, it a really great tool. Don’t use it all the time, but it is helpful in particular instances. So that’s follow focus! They’re super nice and, though you don’t always need them, they’re a good tool to have on hand.