Can you turn a prime lens into a zoom lens?

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Nope... you can change the FOV with adapters but a 35 is a 35. You cannot change the focal length of a prime lens.
 
The first zoom was a modified prime: a Cooke triplet where the central element could be repositioned. But modern lenses are way more complex.

If you're bored and you want to learn the technical side of this, head over here:
http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2010/10/from-petzvals-sum-to-abbes-number
http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2010/11/the-schott-heard-around-the-world
http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2011/01/cooking-with-glass (this is the one that explains the Cooke triplet thing)
http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2011/03/the-development-of-wide-angle-lenses
http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2011/02/who-invented-the-telephoto-lens
http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2011/08/lens-geneology-part-1
http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2011/09/lens-genealogy-part-2

And just about every other post here:
http://blog.lensrentals.com/blog/category/photography/history

(I think I've read absolutely every post in the lensrentals blog; these history of equipment series is really interesting)
 
Good point, if you were shooting in a high res format and delivering in 1080P it would be very easy to punch in. I shoot 5K on a regular basis and reframe and and zoom motions in post when needed.


edit....ahhh...gotch. I do not believe so.
 
Paul F said:
I don't want to distract this important thread, but can a 2k camera be turned into a 4k camera?
Click to expand...

Yes, with a little money and some ebay skills. Honestly though...not common, but things are possible with firmware. RED has expanded my resolution a bit...but not that drastically.
 
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