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Wondland wireless follow focus system on ebay
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    http://www.ebay.com/itm/WONDLAN-Wireless-Memonic-Follow-focus-for-NIKON-CANON-DSLR-5DII-5DIII-D800-D700-/251173251246?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a7b17a8ae

    This is by no means cheap, but if you compare it to a wireless preston it is a much better deal. The size of the receiver box seems too big. Has anyone had a chance to use one of these?

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  • I bought one of these from Hong Kong a couple of weeks ago for £385 and paid £20 import duty on it. On first try I noticed that the rotation of the gear in one direction was quite smooth but in reverse really very choppy and unusable. I have sent videos of the gear rotation back to the sellers and they have acknowledged that there is a problem and have claimed it is most likely the motor unit itself is the culprit. I am in two minds now whether or not to send the motor unit back for replacement, the whole kit back for replacement or ask for a full refund. I will keep you up to date on the issue.

  • That's some very useful info, thanks, guys!

  • make sure to use on your lens a complete focus ring without knob (not sure of the english word) or the balance of your glidecam will be off as soon as you change your focus position while the knob move frome left to right - the slight focus throw of the nokton might cause a front balance shift as well... maybe it well be less sensitive with the extra weight of the gear on the steadycam though.

  • Has anyone had any experience with this one? I wonder whether it would work with a glidecam

    It'll work on stabilizers.

    whether it's got enough power to focus the 25mm Voigt..

    Most probably yes. It is just noisy.

  • Has anyone had any experience with this one? I wonder whether it would work with a glidecam and whether it's got enough power to focus the 25mm Voigt..

  • I am sure that this thing will be improving with time.

  • Function Tree..hehe. Anyways, yeah, damn that is noisy. Looks like a really cheap servo used for RC cars. I thought it was something better. Also, from this video, when he focus slow via the knob, the servo looks choppy as all hell. Oh well. Still might be ok for boom and MOS stuff. I'll wait for a user review somewhere.

  • Yeah, no thanks, that thing is noisy as shit.

  • I wonder if the Wondlan is actually better.

  • Why does it have to be so cheap!!!!!!!!! I won't buy it! I won't buy it! I won't buy it!

  • This isn't that expensive. There are manual follow focus for around this price.

  • Yeah, I rented a serious one of these systems in New York and when I checked retail it was around 10k. In other words, if this works, it is cheap. I didn't understand why we were renting the damn thing in the first place until we started doing long jib shots...made a HUGE difference.

  • A friend in China said it's about $950 there. Might get one to try.

  • Sorry, and I hate that everything in the camera/film sector is so overpriced by default.

    Live with it. As it is not overpriced. Knowing economy behind some of the chinese stuff I can assure you that it is mostly underpriced (read - financed from credits).

  • @Vitaliy_Kiselev

    And no one know if it is Arduino or not. Big stuff of similar boards exist.

    You are right, but it still looks very like one of this board systems, otherwise all the electronics and buttons would fit in a much smaller box.

    You already tried and disassebled it? No? :-)

    No, but you can see the servo in the ebay pictures. And its much easyer to drive the servo with a potentiometer - its they same in normal RC applications and there a several ready-to-use driver libraries for microcontroller boards.

    And such claims I just hate.

    Sorry, and I hate that everything in the camera/film sector is so overpriced by default.

  • @Psyco

    You can't complain for idea copy :-)

    And no one know if it is Arduino or not. Big stuff of similar boards exist.

    To bad they went for the cheap but low quality solution by using a normal RC servo - its noisy and has only a very limited turning angle. And I bet they don't use a puls encoder but a potentiometer, which is not very precise.

    You already tried and disassebled it? No? :-)

    everything above $300 is a total ripp of (its not hard to programm the Arduino boards, most of it - like the servo controll - are open source libs!).

    And such claims I just hate.
    I can tell you this. This guys made product. If it'll sell good, it is right price. I can hate price, I can love price, no one gives a fuck.

    Seven notes are also open source. But still 99% of guys having education and equipment can't make anything useful out of them.

  • I'm not sure if I should lough or cry seeing this?

    Have a look at my project: http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/comment/88310#Comment_88310

    These guyes copied the idea from this forum stuck the parts worth $200 in a housing and are selling it for over $1500.

    Yes, the boxes are so big to fit the Arduino boards inside. They added some buttons and are using a wireless module (like the Xbee) with a bigger antenna. To bad they went for the cheap but low quality solution by using a normal RC servo - its noisy and has only a very limited turning angle. And I bet they don't use a puls encoder but a potentiometer, which is not very precise.

    I think they could at least give some credit to this forum and the people in the above mentioned thread for the idea.

    Oh well, and make it cheaper, everything above $300 is a total ripp of (its not hard to programm the Arduino boards, most of it - like the servo controll - are open source libs!).

  • Yep, far from cheap.