Power Zoom 'lenses'... the Future?

[mike_halliwell]

Interesting Canon hardware.

https://www.canon.co.uk/lenses/power-zoom-adapter-pz-e2-power-zoom-adapter/

Would have been really handy for the old F Mount 200-500mm f5.6!

Maybe someone will reinvert the old push-pull mechanism.....🤔

[ilkka_nissila]

16 minutes ago, mike_halliwell said:

Interesting Canon hardware.

https://www.canon.co.uk/lenses/power-zoom-adapter-pz-e2-power-zoom-adapter/

Would have been really handy for the old F Mount 200-500mm f5.6!

Maybe someone will reinvert the old push-pull mechanism.....🤔

I am not sure that that motor would have been able to move that particular lens's zoom mechanism. 😉

 

I do think controlled (very slow, if needed) power zooming is useful for video applications sometimes and can add a more lively feeling to the image. However, most video cameras are set up to zoom very quickly (and at variable speed) which renders shots completely unusable if zoomed within takes. I tested this just a while ago with a Canon XA75. However, by going into the menus it's possible to set up the camera so that the zooming is so slow that it doesn't disturb the viewing experience and can enhance it. It's surprising to me that there are so few ILC power zooms for mirrorless cameras. Nikon had a 10-100mm power zoom for the 1 series and there is a DX 12-28mm PZ for Z mount. Z8 and Z9 users can also turn on digital zooming during 4K recording, taking advantage of the higher-resolution sensor. Canon has a Cinema 18-80mm t/4.4 for Super 35mm in EF mount but that's a 1.2 kg lens with a smaller aperture than the new full-frame 24-105/2.8 RF.

 

Note that the Canon power zoom adapter is specific to one lens (the new RF 24-105/2.8). The 24-105/2.8 is almost 20 cm long! 🙂 Not small by any means.

Edited November 2, 2023 by ilkka_nissila

[mike_halliwell]

1 minute ago, ilkka_nissila said:

Note that the Canon power zoom adapter is specific to one lens (the new RF 24-105/2.8). The 24-105/2.8 is almost 20 cm long! 🙂 Not small by any means.

Not quite as long as the crazy 200-800mm 6.3/9 they've just announced....🤣

Canon continue to make inexpensive (!) slow zooms...🤔

[ilkka_nissila]

10 minutes ago, mike_halliwell said:

Not quite as long as the crazy 200-800mm 6.3/9 they've just announced....🤣

Canon continue to make inexpensive (!) slow zooms...🤔

The MTF at 800mm is between the MTFs of the 800/11 and 800/5.6, and seems pretty good for a lens of this price class. However, unlike Nikon's 180-600mm, the 200-800mm Canon lens extends while zooming. This would also likely mean it won't stay balanced on a gimbal or fluid head without rebalancing after zooming.

 

For use in Finnish wintertime, I think an f/9 maximum aperture would be pretty limiting. For small birds, maybe it is OK as one can need such a small aperture to get most of the bird (in a close-up) within the depth of field. Also at f/9 diffraction isn't going to kill the image sharpness, it may just a little dampen the peak sharpness compared to faster lenses shot at wider apertures. But the required ISO settings will mean there will be some noise. I guess one can use fancy noise-reduction to reduce the damage to the image details.

 

Nikon seems to be owning the intermediate-aperture supertelephoto prime field for now. f/4.5, f/6.3 instead of f/7.1, f/9 and f/11.

Edited November 2, 2023 by ilkka_nissila

[Gary Naka]

Nope

For the way I shoot, a power zoom does NOT work.  I have NOT used a PZ on a stills camera that I liked and could use.  The only PZ that I ever could use decently, was on my father's Super-8 movie camera.

PZs either zoom too fast or too slow. 

My fingers know how fast I want to zoom.

[ilkka_nissila]

1 hour ago, Gary Naka said:

Nope

For the way I shoot, a power zoom does NOT work.  I have NOT used a PZ on a stills camera that I liked and could use.  The only PZ that I ever could use decently, was on my father's Super-8 movie camera.

PZs either zoom too fast or too slow. 

My fingers know how fast I want to zoom.

Well, the power zoom feature is really for video and not stills. If you zoom manually with a lens designed primarily for still photography, the zoom is typically very precise but it is hard to zoom so that it looks even and smooth during a video clip. Power zooms allow zooming during takes very smoothly. Some say that zooming during clips is categorically a bad idea but if done skillfully and very slowly, it can make the footage look more lively. In televised concerts, for example, it is fairly typical that the composition moves very slowly and zooming can be used as one of the dimensions of movement, so to speak. In TV concert recordings the zooming is typically very slow, so that it is just perceptible but not distracting. I would think that Canon has implemented different speeds for power zooming in the adapter for the 24-105/2.8. Their video cameras (with large zoom ranges) tend to default to very fast power zooming with the rocker. These look terrible. But in the menu there are options to make it very slow, and this can be quite a nice effect in video. For still photography, the zoom ring of the 24-105/2.8 can be turned manually similar to lenses that are designed for still photography.