If you ever wondered how film makers get those shots where the focus goes from foreground to background, it’s done with a Follow Focus. Which is basically a gear attached to a handle that allows the focus on a lens to be adjusted without touching the lens itself.
They’re great, but they can be a bit of problem. While moving the point of contact to adjust focus on a camera seems insignificant, actually getting a follow focus setup is kind of a big commitment. You need to get the follow focus itself, but you also need to get rods to attach the tool to. And because nothing is easy, you’ll need some sort of mount for the camera that can accept the rods that have the follow focus mounted. After getting through all of that, you then have to contend with how to get the gears onto your lens. Chances are, you haven’t skeeted away all of the dollars on Cine Lenes with follow focus gears built into the housing, so using the included universal lens adapters is usually the only option.
Well, not anymore.
If you’ve been looking for an inexpensive way to get seamless follow focus gears, then look on further. I decided to get some printed and here’s a recounting of that experience.
It’s quite easy. So easy, in fact, that I’m also go to show you the video that I followed to make my own gears.
Now I know not everyone has all the time in the world, so I’m here to help. Just a bit further down, you find the .STL files for the gears that will fit on the Sigma 18-35 f1.8 ART and the Sigma 50-100 f1.8 ART. These are the files that I used to get the gears printed. All you need to to is send them to a 3D printer and wait.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!