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smooth(er) manual zoom on Panasonic 14-140 (finally!)
  • village_westvillage_west

    I've always been envious of the motor zoom of prosumer camcorders , slow zoom in particular , via lanc. Never been able to get close to that with a 14-140 (on GH2) , until yesterday when I placed (by mistake) a rubber band on top of the focal scale and bingo: the zoom gets the right resistance and now it can be smooth (even on slow action, even on very slow action). almost as good as a lanc zoom controller set slow. the band should be large enough to cover the entire scale (broccoli bands are a little big and don't give a good resistance, but they can be shorten with a clip or something. The band that I used came from a softbox for flash). Works very well with a lensstrap zoom lever. Well, this works for me, just wanted to share.

    gh2smoothzoomband.jpg
    900 x 851 - 543K
  • 9 Replies sorted by
  • village_westvillage_west

    update: since now the lens can do some serious slow zooming , the play of the lens on the mount becomes more critical. This lens has been known for a little play when mounted on a GH1/GH2: to fix the play follow this excellent tip from robbedoes1968 posted on dpreview http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/post/42514796

    the rubber o-ring suggested by robbedoes1968 works like a charm: the lens stays nice and tight. Also if the camera is mounted on a tripod make sure that you use metal plates (no plastic): because now a slow zoom gets all the movements of the camera if not mounted right.

  • labalbilabalbi

    thanks for the tip. I have this lens too. But , I never zoom when recording my movies. For those who use it , maybe will be a great help ...

  • fomalhaut3fomalhaut3

    really cool!!! what are you using for the zoom beside the elastic?

  • fomalhaut3fomalhaut3

    i mean which brend is it?some ebay link?

  • village_westvillage_west

    @fomalhaut3 : the zoom lever in the picture is a lensstrap. link http://www.lensstraps.com/default.html it works well , but the base where the lever attaches needs to be reinforced (just put a piece of plastic under the ring when you mount it): it will stress less and will be more stable. The lever itself is high quality. Also follow the tip from robbedoes1968 for securing the 14-140 to the mount with the ring-o ring link http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/post/42514796. That's crucial now that the zoom is tight(er).

  • village_westvillage_west

    update : about the excellent tip from robbedoes1968 posted on dpreview ( link http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/post/42514796 ) about the ring-o to make the mount of the 14-140 stop playing I can confirm that a 54mm ring (inner) works better than the 53mm . the 53 and 54mm rings both work but the 54mm seems to be the perfect size fora better fit right out of the box (while the 53mm needs some work to make it a little more relaxed) .

  • StevenTrillbergStevenTrillberg

    I just tried this out with an elastic from a bunch of asparagus, and it's so much better now. I might actually attempt to zoom while shooting now.

  • village_westvillage_west

    @ StevenTrillberg : great idea! asparagus bands are smaller and larger than the broccoli's, I'll give it a try right now. Thanks! One more thing: the focus ring now gets smoother too! one band does it all . :)

  • village_westvillage_west

    update : found a better zoom lever (link) http://www.alzovideo.com/alzo-dslr-rig-accessory-smoothy-zoom-focus-assist.htm , it's metal (rubber on the lens), tighter and much stronger than the lensstrap (which is basically a plastic zip tie: not really good holding the extra force with the rubber band on the scale). The alzo smoothy is much better for the use that I suggested. For a completely different approach there is the D|zoom , kinda overpriced at 175 since it can be had for $55 plus 20 on ebay (it's a proaim zoom control, free with many proaim FF). Don't know if I can link an ebay auction here, but it's from thecinecity , and can be found searching "pro zoom set".

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