Most of these DIY follow focus units will be more usable on still or ENG lenses. This is because those lenses are not geared like Cine-style lenses and a lot of these solutions depend on the sticky rubber of the still lens’ focus ring. Still, this could be a jumping off point if you’re trying to make a DIY cine-style follow focus
While searching the web and many forums, I came across a variety of techniques, but most of the methods fell into these five types:

1. Hose Clamps

The hose clamp method is fairly simple: You take a hose clamp roughly the size of the lens barrel, drill a hole into it, then use a bolt to attach a knob/handle to the clamp. Some other methods have used a rubber band underneath the clamp to soften it against the lens and help it stick better.

The Black and Blue | Read the Full Article

Kickstarter pulled support for this project when eagled eyed Helicopter enthusiasts noted that the helicopter in the pitch video was actually photoshopped images of the Chinese built Xaircraft which is currently selling for $669.

Furthermore, the team behind the eye3 Hexacopter, Grayson and Kellie Sigler were the owners of a CNC (Computer Numerical Control) company called Lumenlabs which was selling a computer controlled 3D lathe called the MicRo. But order fullfillment has been abysmal, customers reporting that they haven’t recieved shipment for orders placed 8-10 months ago. LumenLab’s Facebook page and Yahoo Group paint a very nasty picture of a company that simply can’t deliver.

According to a forum message on LuminLab site The company and the Sigglers had to stop production on the micRo due to Grayson Siggler’s recent medical battle with Lupus. In that forum message, Mr. Siggler seemed to indicate that the eye3 hexacopter project was designed to provide funding to keep Luminlabs in operation – a project that was supposedly started before Grayson got sick, but there’s no evidence they ever built or tested a model to begin with before launching the Kickstarter campaign.

In the same post Grayson seemed apologetic to customers who had bought the micRo 3d lathe but it doesn’t look like unfulfilled orders could expect any sort of refund (or product for that matter).

Whether the husband and wife team are just big dreamers who got in way over their heads or a couple of fishy crooks remains to be seen. Luckily a watchful internet community was able to spot a potential fraud and, under the rules of Kickstarter, no money was exchanged because the project had not reached it’s deadline.

But for the budding aviator, there’s still a silver lining. Paul Mather of DIYDrones.com put together a shopping list of parts that you’ll need to build the aircraft as seen in the picture. What’s not included is the hours of trial and error and fine tuning to get it successfully off the ground. But with a final cost of between $1000-1600, the possibility of flying your own Xaircraft hexacopter isn’t that far off.

And the demo video for the Xaircraft is way more impressive than anything in the Kickstarter Campaign…

The discussion on the server starts around 1:20

Parts Mentioned:

• Cinevate Base Plate (Option 1)
• Affordable Manfrotto Style Base Plate (Option 2)
• Friction Adjustable Arm
• Express35 Grip (Handle 1)
• Cinevate Grip (Handle 2)

Via: The Oregon Filmmaker

A How-To-Build Tutorial from Jorge

Parts:
1/4″-20 Tripod Screw to Flash Hot Shoe Mount Adapter
15mm “Spud”
Rod Clamp W/ 1/4″ -20

1. In this tutorial created for philipbloom.net, Eve talks you through simple to advanced lighting setups that are easy to achieve and produce beautiful results. She explains simply, how to get the most from your existing lights and some quick tips to create a really impressive shot.

2. Learn how to use Christmas lights, builder’s worklights and even your iPhone to add a little something special to your flm and video work!

3.In the last of three lighting tutorials created for philipbloom.net Eve takes us through the three steps of greenscreen work: How to analyse you background plate to ensure a convincing key, How to light your screen and subject to match the background plate and How to take the foreground and background elements and combine them in Adobe After Effects

For more like this, grab yourself a copy of Eve’s lighting guide DVD on their kickstarter page: