I love my AF100, but like many of you all, I grew up with servo zoom. Until I can afford one of these awesome Frankenstein ENG style lens rigs, I needed a different way to get reasonably smooth zooms. Between a phone call with an old mentor, fighting with jerky zoom on a still lens, and a few days in Physics class, I came up with a super-cheap and simple trick for doing smoother hand-held zooms.
Since torque is largely determined by the length of the "lever-arm" you're turning, I realized that by simply making the zoom dial thicker, you'd be increasing that length and giving yourself a mechanical advantage which in turn helps you make smoother movements.
I tried it out by meticulously and gently applying this layer of tape to the lens (it comes off easily, too). It significantly improved the zooming action!
What do you experts out there think of this? Maybe someone has a more elegant solution?
Since torque is largely determined by the length of the "lever-arm" you're turning, I realized that by simply making the zoom dial thicker, you'd be increasing that length and giving yourself a mechanical advantage which in turn helps you make smoother movements.
I tried it out by meticulously and gently applying this layer of tape to the lens (it comes off easily, too). It significantly improved the zooming action!
What do you experts out there think of this? Maybe someone has a more elegant solution?
