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Follow Focus Torque and Lens Adapter Mounts
  • itimjimitimjim

    Hi

    I was wondering if anyone could help of give me advice. I have the JinFinance Canon FD adapter for my GH2, which I've had no problems with, that is until now.

    I've put a follow focus on my rig, with one of those cable tie type gears. The torque that's applied by the follow focus moves the lens quite significantly when in operation, which gives an obvious wobble when recording, and even worse will slip gears. It looks like the base of the lens adapter is moving and is sloppy.

    Does anyone have any advice around a better adapter for Canon FD, or is this just a common pitfall with this line of lenses?

    Thanks in advance.

    Tim

  • 15 Replies sorted by
  • airboxlightsairboxlights

    I ahve the same issue with my Lanparte followfocus and my voigtlander 25mm. I thnk we need bigger gears on our lenses. Those small ziptie type ones dont make the lens any bigger and are putting a lot of force on the lens besides just rotary force. I can't stabilize the camera enough to stop this. I put an arm to the hotshoe on the top of the camera, but the frame still wiggles a bit when I turn the FF.

  • artiswarartiswar

    Where is the play occurring? Adapter to lens or adapter to body?

  • LPowellLPowell

    The best solution I've found is to mount the adapter itself to the 15mm rails, using a tripod collar made for a Canon telephoto lens. This eliminates any play between the adapter and the GH2. If there's play between the lens and the adapter, a 15mm lens support bracket can be used to stabilize the lens.

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  • itimjimitimjim

    Cheers Lee, that looks neat mate. I've gone with a ciecio7 for now as it effectively does the same. I should be able to use 2 screws on the plate. One for the camera and one for the adapter. It does help that I'm using FDs though.

  • itimjimitimjim

    @artiswar Definitely sloppy between adapter and camera. Lens and adapter is pretty solid. As I said, the ciecio7 should yield better results, having its own collar mount built in.

  • MeierhansMeierhans

    In short: MFT mount sucks, even with original lenses you run into this problem.

  • itimjimitimjim

    To be fair to mFT, they were designed for light weight lenses. But yeh, it's not the best.

  • artiswarartiswar

    Could try some Teflon tape typically used for plumbing. it shouldn't be too harsh on the camera, if you're willing to try it. there's no adhesive to it. it's similar to vinyl flagging tape in construction.

  • airboxlightsairboxlights

    See this post as well: http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/52/how-to-fix-lens-to-adapter-looseness

  • MeierhansMeierhans

    Had to find out its actually the plastic of the cam bending as well. Willing to try teflon stuff anyways. Does anybody kniw a good source to buy in germany?

  • nomadnomad

    Any "Baumarkt" has it for plumbing.

  • xntrggrxntrggr

    I had this problem too until I tightened up my adapter to make sure it doesn't wobble in the mount (check out airboxlights link a few replies up). I tightened up both sides of the adapter.

  • plasticatedplasticated

    I have this problem too. The lens wobbles slightly, but enough to look terrible, and the camera does slightly as well. Is there any way of fixing it when using Lumix lenses? What would be great is a metal shim plate that has a rod mount like in the picture on LPowells post to reinforce the structure.

  • kavadnikavadni

    I use Minolta lenses on the GH2 .. I tried several cheaper adapters .. I eventually bought a Novoflex $200 vs $40 .. I would anecdotally say that took away 95% of the issue .. the advice of other to support the adapter and/or lens is also valid

  • itimjimitimjim

    Just a follow up.

    The Ciecio7 FD adapter has been brilliant. It's a nice tight fit to the camera, and collar mount is sturdy. Actually the collar mount has some hex screws in it that spoil against the lens release of the GH2, so be careful or replace for smaller headed hex screws.

    As I said, it's nice and tight, both camera > adapter and adapter > lens. The collar mount is metal, but a flat piece of metal that does have some give if you really try. I still get a minuscule amount of give when using a follow focus directly on the barrel of one of my FD's that has a tighter barrel. That's the FD's fault, not the adapter's.

    I've also bought a very cheap Nikon mount for my Tokinas. This has a collar mount too, but is affixed by two hex screws through the feet. Once tightened up, it's sturdier than the Ciecio7, but it can come loose over time. Potentially dropping a bit of glue on the threads might help.

    However, this adapter was sloppier than Jabba the Hut to camera, to the point I thought it might just fall off. I contacted the seller, and he arranged to ship out an adhesive shim. Thankfully he sent two. I applied the shims, sort of a PTFE/felt material, very thin. It worked extremely well and the adapter is now as tight as it needs to be. My advice? If you're buying a cheap chinese adapter, ask the seller to send a couple of shims when you buy it.

    I just couldn't drop the $200 on the Novoflex.

    The lens support that is on the CatchIt deals looks like it could help out even more, but it looks a little bit fiddly to me. I might change my mind though.

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