Flicker

G

gbadgley

Active member
Howdy, I have the camera HDMI out to an HDTV. The lens is the Lumix 14-140. I have it on MF and MIris. When I Zoom in, or out, even very slowly, I see a extremely quick pulse, or flicker, maybe three times throughout the range. On the display it shows a constant aperature setting when I do this test. When I record I obtain the same results. Thoughts?

Thks.
 
The Lumix 14-140mm lens has some nice features, and I'm glad I have mine. It has a broad zoom range, is compact, relatively cheap, and well integrated with the AF100 in that the auto focus and iris, and zoom, focus and iris displays in the viewfinder, all work correctly with the camera. It's probably the single most versatile lens available for the camera, even though the maximum aperture is pretty limiting sometimes. But one thing it is not designed to do is to zoom while shooting. Both the "fly by wire" focus and iris mechanisms readjust themselves -- the iris in discrete steps -- while the lens covers its zoom range. This happens even if you have everything set to manual mode. It is best -- in fact pretty much necessary -- to treat the lens as a "variable prime" and assume you're going to hold the same focal length throughout the shot when using it. I'm sure these inconveniences are a consequence of cost control measures in design to serve the primary audience of still photographers, who would hardly ever notice or be affected by the limitations.

If Panasonic could build a truly parfocal version with a constant aperture and continuously variable iris and sell it for about twice the price of the current lens, it would be a winner for AF100 users. Alas, it is what it is, for now.

- Greg
 
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