Question on zoom speeds

[Dan_The_Man]

Hi there,

I want to do two shots - one is a zoom on a person's face at a certain speed and the other is a zoom on the person's face at half that speed.

I was wondering how to achieve such precise zoom speeds. Is there a way I can set the speed of the zoom on the camera (not the ring on the lense) to a certain, slow speed and then set it to half that speed?

I can see on the XHA1 that there is a scroll wheel that says something like zoom speed. If I use that to put it on it's lowest speed it's still too fast for what I need it for.

I just want to be able to push the zoom button down full and zoom at a slow speed. Then change the setting, push the button down full and zoom at 50% of that original speed.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Moseph]

there's a little switch next to that scroll wheel that allows you to switch the zoom speed from variable to constant. when its on constant, you can use the scroll wheel to select from 16 different speeds I think, i doubt that the slowest one could possibly be too fast.

 

[Finnegan]

Moseph has got it. But you really should dolly in instead of zooming. Zooming is so....cheesy.

 

[Dan_The_Man]

The two shots have to be very precise with this person's face at the centre throughout and the zoom speeds very constant. I think this would be harder with a dolly (and more expensive)?

Anyone have any tips on lining up this kind of shot?

I want to be able to smoothly cut between the full speed zoom on the face and the half speed zoom.