Many years ago when I started focus pulling, focus monitors weren’t really a thing. Wireless video was not common (unreliable if HD or very basic analogue), and most of my jobs were either 16mm or very early digital.
Somehow, one was expected to get things in perfect focus even shooting ‘RANDheld’ on film with questionable gear, usually wide open lenses.
Hence my homemade cinetape was made out of necessity and fear.
A crude design, obviously not as effective as the real thing, but in some circumstances saved the shot.
Effectively a cheap-ish ultrasonic sensor attached to an arduino controller with some clever coding to interpret and display the closest measured thing in feet/inches.
Although looking more like a low budget movie bomb prop, and never got round to making a proper enclosure for it, it certainly raised some eyebrows on set 🤣
Wish
@focusbug_technologies existed back then…
