handle zoom?

T

tikigod19

Well-known member
hi all,
i was wondering whether there'll be a handle zoom on the AF100 actually on the body of the camera or if all zooming will be done manually by twisting the zoom ring on the lens?

I like to zoom with one hand and focus with the other on my current cameras but can't work out whether this will be possible on this camera? I'd assume it depends on what lens you use or will all lenses need to be zoomed by touching the lens itself?

Many thanks
 
Get used to twisting because, unless there's something in secret development, there's no servoed lens that will fit this camera (they're all made for 1/3 and 2/3" sensors). Even if there were, there's no place to plug a servoed lens in to the camera from which to draw power for the lens. Plus the camera uses a fairly small battery and the power draw from the lens would drain the battery fairly quickly. However, if you've got an extra $4,000, at DV Expo in L.A. Varizoom showed a remote focus, zoom and iris controller for Cine lensed cameras that will be mounted on jibs.
 
Having never used DSLR for video I'm not sure how I'm going to handle no servoed zoom. I'll have to look through my finished edited footage and see how much zooming actually stays in.

Thanks very much for your reply.
 
Yeah, it's all manual zooms, unless someone builds a stills lens that has its own self-powered servo motor. On broadcast ENG lenses, the servo motor system is part of the lens, and it would have to be the same way on any AF100 lens. The only real difference is that the lens would need to have its own power supply.

The other option would be to get an external zoom motor -- sort of like a follow focus, but built for zoom instead of focus. Those exist for cinema lenses and could probably be easily adapted to work with the AF100. However, keep in mind that most SLR lenses aren't built for executing slick smooth zooms (because, think about it -- you can't zoom during a still shot!) so it doesn't matter to them about how imprecise, or twitchy, or clunky the zoom action is -- I'm thinking about the awful push-pull-focus zoom lenses where one ring is used to control zoom and focus... ugh.
 
Easy. PL mount adapter and slap on any cine zoom lens and the motor. Power from your Anton Bauer D-tap. Can't wait to see how my big Cooke 18-100 looks with the tiny AF100 hanging on for dear life! The adapter is cheap and 35MM cine lenses are easily rented.

With rare exceptions, zooming sucks anyway; that's why man invented the wheel.

Good shooting and best regards,

Leo
 
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