Its been 4 weeks now since I got this thing but ill start from the beginning to make it more interesting:

I was looking for used follow focuses on ebay for dslr use- to my surprise I saw an Arri Mff-1 look-a-like followfocus for sale brand new $399 by "trusmt". $399 sounded way too cheap but after looking at pictures from their website, it felt low enough risk give it a try, keeping a realistic view that if it was only 1/4 as good as the arri I would be happy with it for dslr use (going on $399 vs $1600 for the arri).

It showed up 2 days later in a pretty little box with precision cut foam for holding the goods (wish I still had this to take a photo of the box but I threw it out when we moved a few weeks ago, I was impressed though)

Contents were:

1x Trusmt t2 follow focus http://trusmt.com/proview.asp?id=44

4x Gear rings (4 different sizes)

1x bag of tools and extra screws

1x trusmt catalogue

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First reactions:

Visual build test:
I picked it up and looked around the unit for signs of poor manufacturing, I was amazed how well it was made, very solid and couldnt see with my eye anything showing poor work. Colors and anodizing looked nice too.

Gear rings looked good- reminded me of red rock micro (i dont really care much for these but they work and were included "free")

Follow focus feel test:
To make it fair, I have used every mechanical Arri follow focus from ff1 to ff4, including the mff1, the lwff, ect- most chrosziels, as well as most "affordable" ones like redrock/cavision/cinevate- I got spoiled on the arri's and chrosziels for sure.

I spun the trusmt followfocus wheel to see how the gear box felt, It was very well dampened and actually felt good (possibly too well of dampening, but ill get to this later)

"Wow, I cant believe this was $399" I thought

Two handed "play" test:
(no not what your thinking pervert)

I grabbed the handwheel with one hand and with my other hand, i held the drive gear to see how much play there was. it seemed like too much play- then I realzied I needed to tighten the drive gear screw and after that it was only maybe 2mm of play? Didnt take an accurate reading but what ever it was it was very close to the more budget friend followfocuses like redrock for example and much better than the origional redrock follow focus if you ever tried that one. Not to bad for such a cheap follow focus!

Mounting it on the camera:

I placed a gear on my lens and put the followfocus on the rails. It was pretty tight putting it on- maybe the rod spacing distance on the trusmt was slightly too narrow- I tried it on another rail system and it did the same- tiny bit of work to clamp it on to the rails (I was using chrosziel matte aluminum rods, maybe it works better with steel)

It felt pretty good, but I noticed it took a lot of effort to drive the lens with the follow focus- this was probably because the gear box had too much dampaning grease in it as I was using it on a very smooth focusing lens. But it wasnt terrible- Would actually feel perfect on an AF lens as they seem to have near zero dampening or feel to them in the focus ring.

Hard Stops:

This just got in the way for me so I removed the blue disk along with them using the included tools, they just kinda flopped around or if I locked them, wouldnt allow full lens rotation- you may like them on

Alternate opinion:
My friend who mostly produces but shoots some too came and checked out the rig- and after feeling the follow focus said he thought it felt amazing "So much better than my (XXXXXXX more expensive) follow focus I have" (im not going to name names)

4 Weeks later, pros and cons:

Pros:

Looks nice

Really great build for the price, I dont think you can get anything better here at this level

Versatile mounting from the articulating arm

Good "feel" to value ratio (no arri or chrosziel, but for follow focuses under $900- this thing competes well at its price point)

Comes with extra tools/parts

beveled magnetic marking disk

Drive gear can be moved front to back with one screw

Did I mention this is a nice working follow focus for $399!?!


Cons:

Gear Box is too well dampened (not good for cine lenses, but again I dont think its aimed here- its aimed at people using AF lenses)

Hardstops are OK but better to take them off unless you have an extremely short throw AF lens (just remove 2 screws on the handwheel, then 4 screws to remove the blue disk- put the hand wheel back on)

Some play (About 2 mm isnt bad, but I would prefer zero play- but then again who wouldnt!)

A bit heavy

Some torque in the Arm part if you have it up too high, could be beefed up here a bit

Conclusion:

Let me get real- This thing is no Arri MFF-1, its 1/4 of the price- what did you expect? With that said, I do think its more than 1/2 as good the the Arri, which is saying something. Is it going to be my follow focus on my f3? On a red? maybe not, I probably will have to go to Arri for that.

Will trusmt provide good customer support? I dont know

Is every unit made well? I cant tell you

But for $399, I feel I have a great value of a follow focus unit- perfect for any dslr and ideal for any dslr with AF lenses: I.e. The gh2.

If you have a dslr and your looking for something nice looking, well built, that will actually work as a follow focus and you only have $399 and you appreciate taking a bit of risk- I can honestly say this is the best cheapest follow focus ive tried and would recommend it. Hopefully Trusmt will continue to improve on the design and make it even better in the future.

(Disclaimer: I dont know trusmt people so I cant vouch for them, nor have I received any compensation- Im just basing this review and recomendation off of this one follow focus model I bought from them on ebay, do your own dilagence and get other opinions too!)

Some camera porn attached (again, not ideal for an f3, just showing you!):