Review on Neewer Follow Focus with Gear Ring Belt for DSLR Camera: Enhanced Film-Making System Compatibility for Canon, Nikon, Sony, and More by Patrick Lets

A good tracking focus system costs hundreds of dollars. The Arri 4 I use on set is a beauty and costs $3,000. However, for this price of Neewer units, it works pretty well. Mine arrived broken out of the box. The person who assembled the gears inside did not fully insert the handle shaft before tightening the set screw. I had to use it the same day I received it so I opened it up and fixed it myself. Which was informative. The brass gears inside are of pretty good quality. Lubrication is a different story. This is the thickest and stickiest stuff I've ever seen. Get it on your fingers and you'll struggle to get it clean. The resistance you feel, which mimics the feel of more expensive focus knobs, is caused by this sticky lube. I plan on opening up the gearbox in the future and replacing this stuff with a better gear lube with less drag. Another downside is the single thumbscrew used to tighten the vertical adjustment (which is more than just a convenient adjustment). The slot machined into the back of the gearbox that attaches to this vertical support is wider than the vertical portion. The second time the focus is pulled, there is an offset caused by not very tight processing tolerances. It would be easy to fix if Niver wanted to fix it. Since I have a shop where I work on similar things I will fix this issue. The pointers don't move, which is typical for focus knobs in this price range. If you're traveling alone and need to do all the tagging, pan, tilt and focus yourself, I'd spend a little more and get a grip with dual marker stops built in. on the other side of the vertical adjustment rod by simply loosening the vertical adjustment thumbscrew and rotating the gear 180 degrees. That's why it has a pointer at the top and bottom of the label wheel. I only use DSLR lenses with this unit, so I don't know if it's far enough to accommodate some cinema lenses that might have a fairly large barrel diameter. Verdict: If you just need a tracking focus system for random shots. , it will work. If you shoot for a living, invest in a more expensive device. This will disappoint you pretty quickly. But it's much better than turning the focus ring by hand. It mounts perfectly on 15mm rails and is easily adjustable. I'm giving it 3 stars because it didn't work out of the box (QC issue) and sloppy handling that's easy to fix.