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The Gini’s iFocus has now been out for quite a few months.  When it first came out I saw a review on another website and I bought it 10 minutes later, the review has totally sold it to me. Now, 2 months or so later I managed to get around to my own review of this unit. If watched the video above, you’ll know my initial thoughts. I filmed that video about a month ago and by now I’ve used the iFocus quite a few times. So let me go through all the point in the video with my updated view on them.

First of all, the unit is so nicely built. It’s very solid, quite heavy and feels really nice. This is my 4th FF by now and it is certainly the most professional, high-end looking out of 4, although Trusmt FF also looks and feels really cool.

Looks and feel are important, but to me and probably most of you the performance is the most important thing in a Follow Focus. Considering the price of this FF is certainly doesn’t disappoint. It is slightly cheaper (only slightly due to Gini’s high postage costs) than my Trusmt and Camtree, but the performance- wise is it the same if not better than the other 2. The focusing knob is large and feels very good in the hand. The gearbox is one of the best at this price range, but it still has some play, which is a shame. The other reviewer claimed his didn’t have any play at all and this is the reason why I got mine. I wonder if it just my copy that has play or is it just how this gearbox performs.

One of very unusually things about this follow focus is that it is mounted to just one rod.  Initially I was concerned that due to its weight the unit would move out of position, but after using it for a few times I didn’t experience any problems at all, so no problems there; this cool design actually works.

As mentioned in the video, the gear box can be reversed and I did have to reverse it for my needs. It took a few minutes and was not very difficult, so this is a very nice feature on this unit.  Again great design that makes sense and works.

It is a shame though that the actual gear can’t be swapped from one side of the gearbox to another as I was unable to use the ifocus on the left side of the rig with smaller lenses like 28mm/50mm.  The unit digs into the camera while the focus gear is stays to far away. The only thing to do is to fit the FF to the right side of the rig, which some of you probably do anyway, but I usually have mine on the left and for me it is a bit of a problem.

Few other points: The pointer is not movable, but for me it is not a big deal. I couldn’t take off the marking disc, which is again is not a big deal. The marking disc itself is very large; great for setting a lot of precise marks.

Overall the unit is great, definitely worth the money.  If you are about to buy your first FF, you should take a very good look at this unit. However, if you already have one of the decent budget FFs it might not be worth the upgrade.  

Nevertheless,  apart for a few slight downsides it is still one of the best budget FFs and one of my favorite too. 

Gini keeps listing great BIN deals. In my last to posts, I talked about great prices on the new iFucus and very cheap shoulder rig. Today I found 2 really good BIN listings which include both FF and Rig at a great price, making the deal even better if you are looking to buy both FF and Rig. At such prices, Gini really puts competition out of business. I use my Gini rig all the time and I love it, so I definitely recommend taking a proper look at these rigs if you still haven't got one. If the listing have ended, just see what GINI currently has on offer from their 2 eBay pages (1st rig is ongini778, second is on gini-2011). Most likely that they have listed more of the same of similar deals.

1: DSLR RIG SJ-5 Set is quite simple rig, but has everything to get you started including Gini's new i-Focus Follow Focus, which I ordered last week too.

2: DSLR RIG EXTREME-1700 is full blown rig, with loads of extra bits, including a top handle, magic arm, cage like brackets. Of course it also comes with the ifocus. At $299/£185 it is a great value for money. Just about 3 months ago I paid £300 for a similar Gini rig on it's own.

 DSLR RIG EXTREME-1700 on eBay

 2 days ago I ordered GINI’s new iFocus Follow Focus. I paid $299, but today gini-2011 listed some at just BIN price of $199, $100 cheaper than what I paid :(

There are 6 left at the time of writing. They get snapped up really quickly, around 1 every half an hour, so there is a chance there will be none left by tomorrow, unless they put some more up for the same price, which I think they might, because earlier there were just 2 left out of 7 and now it back up to 6 out of 7.

If you are looking for a decent follow focus at a bargain price,  this might be one of the best deal on eBay at the moment, so go grab it while it’s cheap, or you will end up buying it later for $299 like it did :)

Just noticed some incredibly good value GINI Rigs on eBay. Just $159/£99 for such a nice rig, I have very similar myself, which I originally paid around £300 for, so grab them while you can!

Gini is one of my favorite brands in Budget Filmmaking  bracket. I bough my first 15mm rail based shoulder rig from them and since bought an updated rig, that I haven’t even used yet, but the price was so good, that I just couldn’t resist it. I love the built quality of Gini rigs. I’ve used one of them for more than a year and it still works like new, no problems whatsoever (long term review coming soon).

Gini has started producing follow focuses, selling them as they were updating them. To me units didn’t really look complete until now. Gini recently came out with the new FF, i Focus, which looks very nice and seems to be completely finished version and from a review by cheesycam it seems to be a very nice unit worth having, so I went on eBay to see what is available. At the time when I first checked, all new FFs were already gone. I checked a few hours ago and Gini has listed some new FFs, not going very cheap (some at ridiculously high BIN prices), but one was at a decent BIN price and came with a free rig (already have 2, so didn’t really need that) so I decided to go for it.  The BIN price was $299 +$85 which, after Paypal conversion worked out total of £247 for anyone in UK looking to buy it.  Not that cheap, about the same as my Camtree FF and Trusmt T2 (now upgraded to NF2), but is it better than my other FFs? Well I think the GINI i Focus should arrive within a few weeks (not very fast delivery), so I will give you my first impressions then.

One thing I could say now, if you are also looking for a shoulder rig/rod set for your FFs you’re about to buy then this $299 deal is actually really good, you won’t find anything cheaper at such built quality. I suspect this offer will not run foever.

While some of the deals are ridiculously expensive, Gini constantly list some really look deals too, including BIN prices and Auctions. Mind you, the costumer service is virtually non-existent, so don’t except any refunds if for some reason you’re not happy with your purchase.  I saw some negative feedback on Gini’s page, but the overwhelming majority is positive, so I wouldn’t worry to much, I personally didn’t encounter any problems with this seller.