Vimeo member geco campos provides an overview of the Opteka FFR-900 Shoulder rig that offers a motorized Follow Focus and Motorized Zoom feature. Each handle up front controls one of the motorized units, and variable speeds can be dialed right from the handles if you wish to zoom/focus slower or faster.
The motors spin the focus/zoom rings through a belt system - no lens gears required. My guess is you should be using a lens that has a smooth and easy to rotate focus or zoom ring. The rear holds a master controller that can be used to operate the motors when the shoulder rig is tripod mounted. The motors are powered by an LP-E6 battery (generic LP-E6 battery + charger included), and can be found via eBay (click here).
Opteka FFR-900 DSLR Remote Motorized Follow Focus Zoom Control System
For USA residents, the FFR-900 is also available via Amazon (found here)
bubs
Anyone else have experience with this? Olphus why do you say that?
Olphus
What a missed opportunity. You can't focus with a rocker switch, it's not tactile enough. If it had a finger-wheel control I would definitely be interested.
On the other hand it's great for zooms.
Alex
I'd rather pay more and invest in a wireless version. Much more uses for that.
Steve M.
Isn't this all getting kinda ridiculous? Replacement parts can be purchased at your local Volkswagen dealer.
Cfreak
While it looks great , and I have looked at web pages of it before, the video reveals it is not exactly silent, which is really too bad. Most of the cheap (>3000 U$D) motorized gadgets (Jag 35's come to mind) make way too much noise to be used in sync sound filmmaking, but, for music videos, etc. no problem.
apostolos
On paper it looks like a well-thought out product, even if rather pricey at around $400. My only brush with Opteka products was years ago when I had an extended battery grip for my Canon XTi and that thing even though it looked as good as the Canon grip, it would freeze up the camera at unexpected moments. So, if anyone has bought/used this let's hear some impressions.