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Extend physical (not focal) length of lens?
  • shaneshane

    I buckled down and bought the Voigtlander 25mm f.095 and I love it. But now it's time to put a follow focus on it. As anyone who owns this lens will know, the focus ring has old-school ridges that make it tricky to put a focus gear on, but right underneath it is a "smooth" area that I am convinced could be made to turn with my iDC System Zero follow focus (if not by itself, then with a standard office ziptie or something similar).

    The problem is, the shape of this device puts the rubber about a millimeter shy of where it needs to be. It's so close, but it doesn't quite touch:

    Photobucket

    Photobucket

    If I could find a way to add even 1/8 of an inch to the lens, I think that it could make contact and possibly work. But my problem is that all adapters tend to do something. I want one that does not do anything. Since it's a manual lens to begin with, I won't be losing any functionality.

    Does anyone know of anything like this, or another workaround?

  • 5 Replies sorted by
  • artiswarartiswar

    Try adding rubber bands or silicone bracelets (Livestrong) to the lens?

  • balazerbalazer

    Shifting the lens away from the camera would change your focal range. You'd probably lose infinity focus and gain a bit of macro.

  • shaneshane

    @artiswar

    That could actually work. I'll have to give that a try.

    @balazer

    Good point. I hadn't thought of that.

  • kburkemankburkeman

    Use tennis racket grip wrap (comes in a variety of colors including black)! It's cheap ($3 or so at a local sports shop), it's tacky enough to add the right resistance to the O ring on the follow focus and it works fantastically! I cut the wrap in half lengthwise and wrapped the focus ring pretty tightly and then taped the end off after figuring out where the follow focus wouldn't have to roll over that portion. In short, it worked like a champ for me!

  • shaneshane

    That is an amazing solution! I wish I had learned of this before, but I have already sold my iDC follow focus.

    Thanks for replying though, I am sure that this will be useful to others in the future.

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