Peak Film · pfGlass · G4
pf G4 lens data display
A lens data display: focus, iris, zoom and an auxiliary such as ND, read from the Tilta hand wheel and shown as accurate scales mapped to each lens.
A lot of good glass has no usable marks, or marks in the wrong units, and a focus puller working from a blank barrel is working from memory. pf G4 puts readable scales for every channel on one AMOLED screen beside the lens. The G is for glass; the 4 is the four channels.
What it does
It reads the position of each Tilta Nucleus motor and shows it as a scale: distance in metres or feet, iris in T-stops by thirds or in f-stops, with the standard marks placed exactly where that lens reaches them.
- Four channels
- Focus, iris, zoom and an auxiliary channel such as ND, each on its own scale.
- Mapped to each lens
- Each lens is mapped once, at its own engravings: start at the infinity mark and capture each one toward close focus, then the iris from wide open to closed. Focus is held to a tenth of a motor step.
- Metres or feet, T or f
- Chosen per lens, so a set of mixed glass can each read the way its own barrel is engraved.
- SD card
- Lens maps export to an SD card, together with printable ring labels for the lens, and can be imported again.
- Wireless or wired
- In the single and twin pfPods it receives wirelessly. Built into the Tilta hand wheel, it is hardwired.
- Updates from our own server
- New firmware arrives over Wi-Fi, with the server's certificate checked, and only when you open its update page — never in the background.
Why a production company built its own
Peak Film is a working documentary and drama outfit in the Derbyshire Peak District, not a manufacturer. pf G4 exists because a piece of kit was needed on our own shoots and the available options were either compromised or priced as though film crews were oil companies.
It sits in the same pfPod system as pf C2, our camera control unit: on its own, beside C2 in the twin pod, or with it in the pfGlass SidePod on the Tilta Nucleus-M hand controller.
Where it stands
pf G4 is in active development and use. If you are a focus puller, DoP or owner-operator and it sounds like something you would want on a set, we would genuinely like to hear from you — both from anyone interested in owning one, and from anyone who has strong opinions about what a lens display should show.
Get in touch through Peak Film.
pf G4 was commissioned by Peak Film and built by Paul Walster, who writes about the engineering behind it, and about cinema camera repair and electronics generally, on his own site.
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