Manual-Zoom Ring Damage?

G

Gordon JL

Well-known member
I was trying out the DVX100a, before I had read the manual completely, and figured I wouldn't do any harm. But I found out that I shouldn't have fooled with the manual zoom ring with the camera set to Servo mode, which was the factory setting, or there may be malfunctioning -- at the time, I didn't know you had to switch between the two; I only found out after I had begun reading the manual. Could this have caused any damage to the 100a? Everything seems to be fine, except that the zoom ring is very sensitive, and "silky" in its turning, meaning that it is easilly moved. I notice that I prefer the zoom rings feel when the camera is set to Servo mode, but of course, using it this way may cause even more damage. Zooming manually is a little hard to accomplish smoothly, without it looking jerky. Is it because I may have damaged the ring or zoom function, that causes it to be so sensitive, or is the ring always this way? If so, how can I maintain a good and steady zoom, especially slow zooms?
 
First off, assuming that the servo still functions, it is highly unlikely that you damaged anything.

Second, and more important, zooms should rarely (if ever) be something that you would want to use. They just wreak of amateur. If you do employee them, zooming out is preferable to zooming in and even then, only if absolutely necessary. Perhaps there are a few cases where they make some sense, but not very many that I can think of.

If you want to re-frame a shot midstream, push in or pull out, not zoom in or zoom out.
 
Also you can set the speed of the zoom control on the top handle and use it for smoothness. But I personally wouldnt use the zoom unless it was just home video (mid shot I mean)
 
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