We are soon to be 2

All grips are made from Black Walnut.

ergocine turns 2 on the 31st - help us celebrate - buy our triggered grip package at a 15% discount.

was $895.00 now $760.00
offer good until the 31th of October

A special job.

On April 27 Damon wrote:

David,

Was just on your site and love your work! I am a Chicago based cameraman but grew up outside of Rochester in Wayne County. My folks are still there and have plenty of trees on their property... which got me to thinking. Could you make a grip/trigger for me if I were to supply the wood from my folks property? I know little about woodworking but I know they have cherry, maple, oak and pine trees in abundance. It's a strange request but my folks are getting up there and someday that property will likely be sold, having a piece of it in my hands while I work would be pretty cool.

Thanks,
Damon Hennessy

It took months, but it is finally coming together.  Damon sent me this picture and though the Cherry log is small, we think we can make it work.  This wood is green so I will need to kiln dried it before it is milled.  I got the logs this weekend and over the last couple of days I have been prepping.

              

Creating a Handgrip blank on the band saw.

Preparing the ends for drying, the ends dry quicker then the rest of the block causing them to crack.  This waxy liquid slows the drying down.  Next, on to the kiln where they will dry for the next 2-3 weeks.

 

Handheld Follow Focus in 3D / "HF1" for short

Denis - "This is probably going to be more rigid then you are going to need."

David - "When it comes to a Follow Focus there is no such thing as too rigid."

We will be working in BLACK ANODIZED 6061 aluminum
Denis left the aluminum clean so you could see the 
design more clearly.

Designed from the ground up for handheld camera work, Denis Egli has taken my prototype and made magic.  This design allows you to flip the drive shaft from back to front or one side of the lens to the other by rotating or moving the Arri style rosette plate from one side to the other and them locking it in with four 3mm cap screws.  With this adjustability you could use two, one for focus and one for zoom.  The open side is then capped it off with a black walnut plate to protect the brass beveled gears this will be attached with four brass button cap machine screws.  

The drive shafts are made from 1/4' D-rod which come in every imaginable length (at very reasonable prices) so you can extend the pitched gear for the focus ring to exactly where it needs to go.   This is one of the major unique features which allows the operator to place the HF1 just where you want it. The shafts themselves are are threaded through 3 flanged ball bearings at the gear box and 2 on the drive arm, for smooth and ridged operation. Attached directly to the 15/15 bracket you will have just the perfect angle allowing your hand and wrist to position themselves for perfect load bearing ergonomic operation.  We will also make a single rod mount with a Arri style rosette so you can place the ergocine HF1 independently form the bracket.

Rosette, bolts and lock down not shown.

There is a 4" arm with attaches to the 15mm rod coming off the gear box which can rotate 360 degrees and which should accommodate most any lens.  Also if in the future you should need a longer or shorter arm it can be swapped out with little effort.  The steel or Kevlar reinforced GT2 belt is driven by two GT2 Pinion Pulleys which come in many diameters allowing you to customize the drive ratio.  We are striving for perfect customization which grows out of ergocine's design philosophy which is to build from the human up and not the machine down.


Once we have knocked out some beta's we will send it around for evaluation, one of the main things we need to see is if the Sphere needs more resistance. We are kicking around ideas for a way to create some adjustable resistance.  In addition we will have a option for a dry erase disk to attach to the sphere and reference point mounted on the gear box.

The next step will be a Kickstarter campaign to presell 50 to 100 units at a discount, Denis is bring the design over to Chuck (the shop manager) to get some pricing but we are doing everything in our power to keep this affordable.

It is now more important then ever for us to get our Facebook likes up so please help us with this exciting new project by liking us at ERGOCINE.

Thank you.

David