jonnyapple said:
Yeah, Pete, and I like that it does a zoom ramp during exposure. That feature would make for some extra creative possibilities.

Here's one I took zooming during exposure to show what I mean (manual zoom, of course):

This is a great picture. This is a great example of a good knowledge base and skills. Well done.

Purely from a stills photography point of view I find it a worthless facility. I had an Olympus iS3000 with two speed powered zoom and it was slow and non-intuitive.

Resurrecting this discussion because of the patent posted on the main blog. I still think it would be something fun to have, especially if you had a lot of control options like Pete mentioned in this thread.

If you want to change your aperture while filming you need to de-click your lense and you're getting into a whole other world. You can find a lot of Nikon lenses de-clicked for sale on the Red forums.

Pro video cameras are shake free because they always shoot from tripods.

I'm referring to a Vr system that can take much more shake than VrI. It doesn't work well with my D90 especially with zoom. I reckon Vr2 is a large adjustment and VrIII will be like a pro video camera.

Yeah, just as VR, if turned on, kicks in any time you activate liveview, let alone make a movie.

Do you mean VR in video in general or just with the controllable zoom, kyoshi? VR already works in video mode, or at least it does on the D90 and I'd be really surprised if it isn't the same on the higher end bodies.

On a similar but different note, will they put image stabilization (vr for video)in the system.

I also enjoy how you can change the aperture on manual lenses to adjust your dof while shooting...

I was planning on using NKRemote with the Dell laptop that I am mailing back tomorrow morning. http://www.breezesys.com/NKRemote/index.htm

Purports to do most remote operations, but I wouldn't know for sure since it didnt get used much since the Dell turned out to be a dud.

The feature could be neat if you could program it to zoom at a certain speed and/or change speed during the zoom action

Pete

BTW neat picture, better hide it before the forum mo##, ups

They could use 3-D predictive focus tracking to zoom the lens for stable image size as the subject moves. I would think that both very cool and easy to accomplish technically.

Adding a powered zoom would take VDSLR's out of the realm of cinematography and into the realm of video. Something that the majority of people actually using the HD functionality would probably be against.

Manual lenses still give me wood, so I wouldn't buy one.

Yeah, Pete, and I like that it does a zoom ramp during exposure. That feature would make for some extra creative possibilities.

Here's one I took zooming during exposure to show what I mean (manual zoom, of course):

So something like this pentax lens

http://www.mosphotos.com/PentaxLensPowerZoom.html

Pete

mb said:
You are talking about zoom by wire system right?

You must be a pilot, mb. ;-)
Yes, zoom by wire—that name works.

I agree that for stills it wouldn't be ideal, but maybe they could design it with a clutch like in AF-S M/A autofocus models so you could have on-demand manual zoom and still have zoom by wire for video.

You are talking about zoom by wire system right?
All point and shoot cameras has this "feature" so no problem here really, and Canon on S90 for example has a ring around the lens for this.
I am not sure I would like this on DSLR though, I like this direct hand control.

That is an interesting question, and a good idea. Implementation could be hard, and I think it would be a big step backwards to require another body based focus motor.

I was taking a video with my D90 recently and was thinking about a big drawback to using DSLR for serious video. I haven't seen this problem discussed yet, so I thought I'd start a thread here about it (even knowing there are many video-DSLR haters around).

Manual zoom rings can be pretty fluid when you're careful, but no matter how careful you are you get some vibration when you adjust zoom during filming. Do you think we'll see the camera able to control zoom in the future? I'd like to see a remote that can control both focus and zoom during filming, so that the camera isn't shaken when you adjust them.

The extra noise from another motor wouldn't bother me since I don't usually use the in-camera sound. (I'll have to review my Zoom H4n field recorder here at some point. The short version is that I love it!)

Do you think in the future Nikon will release new versions of their lenses with a way for the camera to control zoom as well as focus?

If so, will it start out like their autofocus screw system did or do you think they would (or should) go straight to putting in a built-in motor dedicated to zoom?