BEST Budget Wireless Follow Focus System - Smallrig MagicFiz REVIEW
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BEST Budget Wireless Follow Focus System - Smallrig MagicFiz REVIEW - In this video, Will reviews the Smallrig MagicFiz wireless follow focus system. This is the best budget wireless follow focus system for solo creators, small budget productions, or YouTubers as it pacts a ton of pro features at an affordable price.
🔴Get the wireless focus system here➜ https://smallrig.com/SmallRig-MagicFIZ
➜Batteries for focus motor https://amzn.to/3syKJ0j
➜Camera cages https://amzn.to/475WFpz
When I first got started in the film industry, I was actually a focus puller, and we used, you know, the best of the best, like high-end Preston systems. The Preston follow focus systems are incredible, but they are like $10,000. That's not really realistic for smaller productions with smaller budgets.
It got me thinking, maybe technology has caught up a little bit to the high-end systems, and there's actually a budget-friendly wireless follow focus system made by SmallRig. So in this video, we're going to be reviewing the Magic Fizz Wireless Follow Focus system. If you want a link to this product specifically or any of the gear or music we use to make our videos, all links are in the description. Let's jump in.
All right, so first off, why did I decide to buy this? As I mentioned in the intro, the price is very different from the $10,000 plus high-end Preston systems. This wireless follow focus system is only about $300, and this is not a sponsored video. SmallRig did not pay us to make this video; it is an honest review.
So why would you want a follow focus system when you can pull focus right on the lens itself? Well, it's pretty much just about convenience. If you're a solo operator or if you're on slightly larger productions where you have an assistant, you can set up an external monitor, and then that way, you have somebody else pulling the focus while you focus on, no pun intended, the camera work. That's how it's done in the professional high-end world.
And in some cases, as a solo operator, it's also nice to be able to control the focus on the side or in a different position using this little controller, as opposed to putting your hand all the way around to the lens and rotating the lens itself. Also, because it's a motor, and you're using a battery system, in some cases, it can reduce some of the shake that you would otherwise have if you did it manually with your hand on the lens.
This wireless follow focus system can be simply attached to just a cage. In this case, the SmallRig cage for the A7 S3, and the controller has an internal battery. This will last all day; it's lightweight. You can charge it through the USB-C port. And again, because it's wireless, you can either attach it to the camera on the side and control it within a couple of inches from your lens, or you can have another person potentially hundreds of feet away controlling your follow focus. It's pretty incredible.
And then you have your motor, which connects right here on top of the camera, and then it goes onto your gear. It doesn't come with the camera cage, so keep that in mind. And it also doesn't come with the batteries. Now, that means you will have to purchase at least one of the Sony L series batteries. Any L-series battery will work on this, and there are many different sizes for the L-series batteries. You can get larger batteries that are even bigger than this, and then you can get these little ones. I would recommend just picking up some of these little ones; these are the 2600 mAh batteries. So that was great on set in terms of not needing to worry about swapping batteries or if it's just going to turn off on set; this was great for the whole day.
To get this all set up, you're first going to have to see what lenses you have. If you don't have cine lenses, which are designed to work with professional follow focus gears, typically all zoom lenses or cheaper lenses, they have grip around it, but it's not enough. So you have to add a gear ring to your lens, and there are so many different gear rings on the market, but it's great that this one comes with it. And I have to say, these are excellent. So you get two of those in the package.
To turn the controller on, you press the record button, and then you'll have your frequency, and you just want to make sure that your motor is set to the same frequency. And then on the motor, you have the two buttons at the back, and you can turn it on by pressing one of those. And you can see it has started up and has the same frequency. And then I'm just going to attach this to the side.
Honestly, it's like it's such a lightweight system. It's so compact, and the fact that you can easily attach this for solo use or disconnect it if you have another person, it's really well thought out. I think they did a great job, and it seems to work every time you turn it on.
So, this is the first time I've turned it on in about a week. Once you have the lens gear on with the specific lens you're using, you then go to the motor, and you hold down the left arrow. It'll do a countdown, and then it will, uh, go all the way around the lens and then go all the way back the other way. Then you'll be fully calibrated to control the lens completely wirelessly. Or, you essentially just hold down the mark button, and then it'll say, "Mark confirm," and then you click again, and then it goes through and starts calibrating. And then it's done, and you're back to normal.
Just heads up, if you accidentally press the mark button, then you'll set a mark at whatever spot, um, around the circle around your lens. And that can be confusing because your follow focus won't work like this when you move it. It'll just go to that mark. So you want to make sure that on your system, you have the three dots. If you don't see the three dots, that means you set a mark. So just cycle through the mark works, and it will clear it.
Another thing I love about this system is how easy it is to set up in different configurations. For example, I have this set up at the top, but you could take off the top bracket and place it on the side. Then you could have the rail coming off the bottom and have the motor off the bottom as well. So, depending on, you know, the way you have this set up, like maybe you have a top handle and you don't want the battery system at the top, you can configure it at the bottom.
Overall, I'm very happy with this purchase. It's inexpensive, very convenient, compatible with tons of different lenses considering you have the two gears that come with it. And you can undo it and then put them on different lenses. The battery lasts all day. It uses basically universal batteries. Everyone, I'm sure, has L Series batteries, or if you don't, they're so cheap to buy on Amazon. I'll leave those links as well in the description. And again, the unit itself calibrates very quickly.
You can set it up in different positions, so I would say this is a product I would recommend, especially for small, uh, video production companies, freelancers, YouTubers. This is going to be the type of system that will work best for you and your budget.
Now one thing I don't like about this system is I don't like that you can't set two marks and then choose the duration of time that it will go between those two marks. So I hope they change that in a future firmware update so that you can set like, you know, 1 second, 2 seconds, 19 seconds. And then depending on the time you set, it'll slowly rock focus between the two marks you set. Um, because right now, I don't believe that is a feature that works.
Other than that, I'm very happy with SmallRig. I think they really thought this through. After testing this and using this actually on a commercial video shoot like a full-day shoot in the studio in Toronto, this performed very well. I had no downtime with it, and it's honestly a really good value.
Yeah, I would highly recommend it. If you are interested in getting this, I'll leave a link in the description. Or if you want to know any of the other gear or the music we use to make our videos, again, all links are in the description. If you like the video, give it a thumbs up and subscribe to see more videos from us in the future. We have over 200 videography-related videos, so lots of stuff for you to learn from. Thanks so much, and we'll see you next time.
🔴Get the wireless focus system here➜ https://smallrig.com/SmallRig-MagicFIZ
➜Batteries for focus motor https://amzn.to/3syKJ0j
➜Camera cages https://amzn.to/475WFpz
SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE FOR MORE! (200+ FILMMAKING TUTORIALS):
➜ https://youtube.com/alliandwill
🎵MUSIC & SOUND FX WE USE IN OUR VIDEOS🎵
➜ https://bit.ly/2NPCjd7
👉GET 50% OFF OUR PRODUCTS:
➜ https://alliandwill.com/featuredproducts
👉VISIT OUR AMAZON STOREFRONTS:
➜FOR VIDEO EDITING: https://amzn.to/3XSlIHj
➜FOR FILMING: https://amzn.to/3EB8DuZ
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