I’m on the reduser forum every day, checking the various threads and topics, including “accessories for RED ONE”. I stumbled upon a thread of Wireless Follow focus systems, where I read about RT Motion for the first time. I checked their website, had an email conversation with Kris from RT motion, and a couple of days later, I had placed an order for a Pro-MK2. Here’s why.
I wasn’t really looking for a wireless follow focus, but what really made me look first was the price. For £ 1’200.00, RT Motion is selling their Pro-MK2 kit, including a motor, receiver and controller. To be honest, I was skeptical at first, because other systems that do the same (or less) as this one often go for more than double or triple the price. At least. So I sent an email to Kris Bird, the co-owner of RT Motion, asking a couple of questions. The first positive surprise was the response time – Kris answered to my email within hours. After a few emails back and forth, I was sold and placed my order.
The Pro-MK2 is a 3-channel digital wireless follow focus system. That means you can use up to 3 motors to control focus, iris and zoom. Also, there’s motor mirroring support for 3D-work. It transmits on a license-free 2.4GHz band for worldwide usage. Right now, you get a kit consisting of the controller, the receiver, one motor, a 15mm rod clamp, a motor cable and USB cable for just £1200. You can get a very nice case with custom cut foam for £100 (1 motor) or £120 (2 motors), the prices for power cables range from £25 to £45 (all prices plus VAT if you’re in the EU and not VAT registered).
What immediately struck me when I received my unit was the excellent build quality. All the parts are beautifully built and feel very solid and professional. The focus wheel is extremely smooth, much smoother than a lot of follow focuses I have worked with. The wheel has 300° of travel to which all the lenses get mapped to. So whether you throw on a Ultra Prime or a photo lens, you’ll get a full 300° of focus control, which is beautiful. Right now, you can only use lenses with hard stops, but the RT motion team is working on new software coming out shortly that allows to set manual stops so you can then use whatever lens is out there. And that’s one of beauties of the Pro-MK2 – whenever there’s something new in terms of software, you can upgrade the firmware yourself and access new functions. But RT motion doesn’t stop there.
Right now, the one downside of the controller is that you can not have multiple marker rings, since the one on the controller right now is fixed. But Kris and his team are aware of the need for replacement rings for some users and will make that available soon. Just send in the unit and RT Motion will upgrade your controller. All the hardware upgrades will be done for just the cost of parts and shipping, so your investment will stay low. So RT motion really brings a lot of flexibility to this unit, allowing you to upgrade the software and the hardware as soon as it becomes available.
One thing you will notice is the size of the motor. It isn’t exactly small, especially the depth is different to other models out there. However, what that size gives you is a very powerful and quiet motor. Also, there will be a “flat” motor early next year that you can upgrade to. So again, if there is something that customers might want, there’s a good chance that RT Motion is already working on it.
Using the Pro-MK2 is very simple. Fit the motor to a rail system, turn the focus ring of the lens so that it’s not too close to either stop. Mesh the gears and plug in the motor cable coming from the receiver. The system will start calibrating automatically and after a couple of seconds, you’re all set. Turn on the controller, and you can pull focus. You can power the receiver and motor from a variety of sources. RT motion offers a whole set of different power cables, including ARRI RS, D-Tap or RED Aux. Personally, I’m using a 2-pin LEMO to run the kit from my Viewfactor Powered Cage.
By pushing the top button, you can start / stop the camera, works great on the RED ONE or ARRI right now, support for the 5D Mark II / 7D is near. You will of course need to have the appropriate cable that you then attach to the AUX port.
A neat little feature is that you can set up to 32 focus marks by pressing the function key on the controller. The status LED of the controller will brighten as soon as you hit that mark.
To access the menu for adjusting different settings, you simply hit both the power and function button at the same time. The status LED will display different colors for different settings. You turn the top knob to change the menu, press the power button to confirm, the LED will flash, you set the desired setting and confirm again by pressing the power button. The LED will flash, confirming your selection. One example of this is motor responsiveness, another great feature of the Pro-MK2. You can choose between three different settings: normal, fast and smooth. Depending on your selection, the motor responds differently. It’s extremely responsive when set to “fast” and has a nice amount of dampening when set to “smooth”. Other settings you can choose from are controller knob direction, motor class (focus, iris, zoom) or dimming the status LED when working at night. Setting manual lens stopss will be done here, too. Also, you will be able to temporarily restricting the motor rotation to a sub-set of the full calibrated range. Here, you will define an “A and a B” point, two arbitrary points on the motor …. and the full controller range will then “map” to that range. You can clear the limit and go back to the full range easily.
Probably the one thing that made me take the plunge was one feature coming up really soon. You will soon be able to use the Pro-MK2 to pull focus when doing time-lapse. This is huge, just imagine doing a time-lapse and shifting the viewers attention to whatever you want to. You will be able to set multiple focus marks and tween between those points in a predefined amount of time, all of this using the controller you already own. This is a feature still in development, but a beta-version of the software will be out any day now and I’ll be testing it and report back. Seriously, this feature alone makes the Pro-MK2 an investment well worth the money. I’m excited. Really excited. Also, you will be able to attach the controller via USB to a 5D Mark II and control shutter speed or ISO externally. Another feature that has been on my wish-list for a long time.
So RT Motion has really done a great job with this wireless follow focus system. Build quality is amazing, you can upgrade software and hardware when it becomes available, it has a ton of really cool features and it’s priced very (!) competitive. If you’re looking for a wireless follow focus solution, I think there’s no other product that offers this amount of flexibility at this price. The Pro-MK2 is a professional piece of gear that indie filmmakers as well as industry pros will appreciate. To me, it fits nicely in the world of RED, who offers a great product at an amazing price and never stops improving, too. Even the slogan of RED seems appropriate: obsolescence obsolete. So – RT motion to me is the new RED of remote follow focus systems.
Here’s a quick video showing the Pro-MK2 in action:
