Review: $37 Follow Focus

I'm always poking around eBay and Amazon for good deals and sometimes I actually come up with one. Recently I was looking at gear-based follow focus units, the types with the large knob and gearbox setup. That's when I found the Newwer CN-90F on eBay for $37. This price might not seem low, but when everything else starts at $50, it really is.

These gear units are always rod-based, which means they have two clamps made to lock onto rigs using a two rod system. I don't use a rod rig, but The Frugal Cage, which uses flash brackets instead of rods. Fortunately the rod clamps are easily removed and I was able to attach it to my rig with some included parts (a nut and bolt) and a couple of not-included parts (a rubber washer and a 60-70mm follow focus gear ring). If you built the Frugal Follow Focus you have one of these not-included parts already.

As expected for something on the bottom end of the price scale, the unit works but has some obvious drawbacks. Whether or not the cheap price makes up for these drawbacks is for you to decide. Watch the above video to find out for yourself!

UPDATE: I managed to fix most of the slop problem. Click here to see how I did it.