DJI’s new follow focus lets you remotely focus your drone’s camera lens from 3 miles away
Jun 7, 2016
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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Designed for both the land and air, the new DJI Focus remote follow focus system wants to change the way we record our aerial footage.
No longer are we limited to hyperfocal distance and infinity focus lenses that have everything sharp. Now, we’re able to nail focus on our subject and use cinematic focus pulling techniques while shooting from the skies.
If you want to control your camera in the air, then you are limited to using DJI’s Inspire1 with the X5 or X5R cameras, but with a cost of $1,999, it’s highly likely that anybody looking to spend that kind of money on a follow focus for a drone may already have one.
The follow focus motor does fit any standard 15mm and 19mm rod based rig when shooting on the ground, so the rest of us can still use it.
The advantages of getting the follow focus control off the camera itself are immediately obvious. No more having to chase the camera op around while trying to simultaneously deal with a focus whip and moving monitor while trying to prevent a collision between the two of you.
The DJI Focus is slightly less expensive than something like the Redrock Micro microRemote, although if you’re only ever going to use it on the ground then there are many much less expensive options out there. You could even have a go at building your own wireless follow focus.
It’s nice that more companies are starting to get into the remote follow focus game. Even if this one is above the range of most, and requires specific other hardware if you want to use it in the air, it sets a new bar for everybody else to try and meet, pushing the technology further, faster and ultimately cheaper.
The DJI Focus is available now and costs $1,999. You can find out more details on the DJI Website.
Do you use a wireless follow focus system? What do you love or hate about your current follow focus? Let us know in the comments.
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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One response to “DJI’s new follow focus lets you remotely focus your drone’s camera lens from 3 miles away”
Thanks for covering this, it sure looks like a winner! DJI is certainly coming out with some wonderful stuff. I’m just wondering about them overextending themselves on manufacturing. They’ve been charging the credit cards on orders for the Z axis arm for months (for the OSMO), but they’re still not shipping for at least another month. Also, my advice (and many others) is to not buy from their site believing any promise of a delivery timeframe. If another trusted vendor says a DJI product is in stock, use them. It’s not statement about the quality of their products but more about total misinformation of actual availability. Nevertheless, thanks for the coverage.. it looks sweet!