Bogen/Manfrotto 522p zoom control

F

fritz

Well-known member
Anyone have any impressions of this zoom control for use on the HPX170?

I had a look at it in a shop but couldn't quite figure out how to set custom zoom speeds or get it to go really slow. Neither could the guy in the shop....on the slowest setting it would zoom in but not out so I'm assuming we were doing something wrong because surely it's not meant to work this way! The instructions were not helpful at all.

I've searched around and it seems like it should be pretty customisable, but I've not seen any description of how to do it. Is it possible some functions are not working properly on the HPX because it was designed for the HVX200 or something?

I like the idea of being able to zoom without touching the camera, but I'm reluctant to plonk down the cash if I don't know it will do what I want...
 
im not sure its compatible with panasonic cams...

i use the bebob products with my hvx/hpx. specifically the zoe dvxl
 
There are various models, some are compatible with Sonys and Canons, some are compatible with Panasonics. The 522p is the one that's supposed to work with Panasonic cams.

I've emailed the company to see what they have to say, because I just can't imagine they'd create a zoom control with 3 different speeds that only zooms in one direction on the slowest speed, which is of course the most useful one for me and probably a lot of other videographers.

I'll let you know what they say if they ever get back to me. Meanwhile if anyone wants to chip in with an explanation that would be great too!!
 
Ok, so apparently it's very difficult to actually contact anyone at Bogen/Manfrotto. I've emailed them for info but I haven't heard back. I also contacted the Australian importer, but they aren't able to contact Manfrotto either. (Presumably they can contact the company to order stock, but I guess just not to ask questions about it!)

The best the importer could tell me was that perhaps the 522p doesn't work properly with the HPX170 as the camera is so new. So I'll be leaving it for now. If anyone out there is using one successfully with an HPX170, I'd love to hear about it!
 
Any news on this?

I have a 522p that useta work fine with my DVX100 in digital mode. I've been using it in analog mode for years with my HVX100 (now HVX100A) and HMC150, without problems. However, today I tried the digital mode and indeed see on the HVX100A that the slowest speed only works to zoom in, not out, and that on the middle speed, the zoom in is one step faster than the zoom out. However, the highest speed setting and the custom mode seem to work fine.

Thinking back, I've also had a bit of a feeling of imbalance (between zoom in/zoom out speed) with a few other controllers used with the HMC150, and even some "unintended zooming in". While I attributed this in the past to spring mechanisms or other physical factors, I'm beginning to suspect that the newer cameras expect some slightly different resistance levels, which leads to all these problems with devices designed for the DVX...

-B
 
I have been told by Panasonic (Jan C.) that any remote controller used on the HPX170 will not be any slower than the camera's slowest preset. Thus no crawl.
 
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