trying to to tie a follow focus motor to a ultrasonic rangefinder has been done with varying degress of sucess. maybe good enough for T2.8 ot 4.0 with S35mm film, but not good enough for 4K+ and wide open. There is zero reason we can't have focus motors in cine lenses. Sure they would have to be a lot bigger to move the mass, take some power, but so what. those are pretty simple engineering problems to solve.
the real problem, which even a millenial at a show a few weeks ago gave me gave me was " we use manual focus in film" coppng a serious attitude I must be some rube after I said when are you going to put AF focus motors inside this well know cinelens brand. She didn't even stop to realize i've been literally shooting longer than she's been alive. when a I'm not even that old DP could see value in AF this harkens to perception and attitude rather than practical application. Remember film vs digital arguements ? especially the ones about how digital could never replace film ? um, ya right, we know how that turned out and AF in cine lenses is exactly the same arguement and mentality all over again. can we skip the middle part and just get AF motors in cine lenses and be done with it ? or at least external FF motors designed to do that job and talk with the camera bodies via generic standard protocol so everybody's gear plays together like MIDI ? sigh !
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That's just age talking! In my case I have doing Cinematography/Camera-Ops since 1987 usually with Betacam SP, ArriFlex-35/ArriFlex-65 FILM cameras and Hi-Def prototypes of 1125 line Saticon HD tube cameras and the first progressive scan 1080p HD DigiBetas so I understand your irritation at "Newbies". I should note we were ALL newbies once who thought we KNEW EVERYTHING and YOU (i.e. the OLD FOGIE!) knows NOTHING !!!
In terms of autofocus, modern GLASS lens of superb-quality are DAMN HEAVY and it will take us moving to scientific-grade All-Acrylic lenses in order to reduce the weight enough that putting high-end autofocus becomes monetarily practical.
We CAN do full autofocus on a T1.5 of Leica/Leitz Summicron-C lens BUT at what outrageous cost! It's already $260,000 for a full set of these:
Premium prime lenses designed for larger sensors on film and television productions.
www.leitz-cine.com
How far do we have to go to reduce the weight enough at a reasonable cost on heavy Glass lenses?
WE MUST GO high-refractive-index all-Acrylic lens elements in order to get practical AND COST EFFECTIVE auto-everything cinema lenses and pro-level still photo lenses!
if you want to find out THE FUTURE OF IMAGING, then read the following forum posts and attached documents.
It's a taste of what is to come! All this NEW technology, our parent Aerospace company has NOW MADE FULLY OPEN SOURCE and FREE TO USE, so it it's up to Canon, Sony, Fuji, Blackmagic, GoPro, Pentax, Olympus, etc. to use OUR FREE TECHNOLOGY to build into their cameras.
2K/4K/8K/16K+ Multi-Spectral Sensor System and Multi-Sensor rotating and linear image sensor block:
Fully free and open source under GPL-3 licence terms:
16K Resolution Camera Leak – Free and Open Source Worldwide Public Disclosure under GPL-3 licence terms - PART 1 !!! Free and Open Source Design and Device Disclosure under GPL-3 Licence terms for all described software and hardware systems and devices as of Monday, August 23, 2021 as...
www.canonrumors.com
The test cameras are in prototype stage and will be outlined here on CanonRumors.
The High Refractive-Index all-Acrylic lens prototype sets which have auto-focus ability
AND which are T/0.9 are also in prototype stages and will be open sourced too!
AND for the win, we've got short-lens-barrel up-to-9600mm equivalent ZOOM LENSES too
that have active optically-based AND software-based REAL-TIME heat-shimmer and atmospheric
distortion removal technology which will ALL be fully free and open source under GPL-3 licence terms!!!
So YES!, you did hear it here FIRST!
V