Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Studio4 Productions Focus Puller or Indifocus

I have a Canon 7D DSLR and love it. But the challenge with any HD video machine with great DOF (Depth of Field) is keeping the focus where you want it.
Hence, the onslaught of 'Focus Pullers' as they are called. Mechanical devices that help you do the job of focusing.
After looking at several focus pullers I came to the decision to try the Indifocus Focus Puller made by Studio4 Productions.
The first problem I had was getting the item. It took about 4 weeks to get the item. During that time they never answered one email on the status. I created a 'chargeback' issue with PayPal of which Studio4 Productions never responded to. I was about to close the case when it finally showed up. Still no email correspondence with Studio4.
My first impression was "This is a pile of junk". After looking it over it is a conglomeration of off the shelf parts that probably cost about $20 which I don't have a problem with, but the main issue is the operation. First of all, the gear that operates the toothed belt that goes around your focus ring does not mesh. The gear tooth spacing and the belt spacing have a different pitch. They could have said "put a rubber band around your focus ring" and it would have worked better that this toothed strap which looks like it came from a car power window rack and pinion system. Second, the 'strap' that goes around your focus ring is very stiff, is almost impossible to securely fit on the focus ring (which by the way you have to attach foam pads to the strap or it will not work at all and they are cheap).
The other issue I have with this is the block that attaches to your rods is rough sawed metal that looks cheap as hell and is about as heavy as lead.
So my second impression after trying to make this work was, "Yep, this is a pile of junk". I have no hope of contacting them and returning the item as they say on there website they may or may not accept returns and as they have not replied to me by email on the shipping issue, I'm not going to waste my time. I'm also not going to put this junk on someone else by selling it on eBay. What I'm going to do is dump it in the trash, look up at the sky and say, "Dad, you were right. If you buy cheap, you buy twice."
I'm off to find a decent focus puller. Enjoy my $200 or so bucks Studio4. Have fun selling useless junk to other filmmakers.

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