Nikon Files Patent for Manual and Electronic Zoom Lens

[shuttertalk]

Spotted this on Engadget - Nikon has filed a patent for a zoom lens with a dual zoom mechanism - where you can either zoom via the traditional barrel rotating action, or electronically using buttons (a-la most compact digital cameras). The rationale is to cater towards better movie making with DSLRs, as trying to hold a camera steady during a movie shot while zooming is very difficult.

I still hope they find a way to get around the noise of the zoom / focus motor becoming part of the audio capture though, otherwise that would completely nullify any advantages in movie mode.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/25/nikon...ic-zoom-v/

[Zig]

Ah..this would pertain to the "pull-focus" that is sought de rigeur by videoists, but not a technique that snappers who experiment with video often are aware of. This is a forehead-slapper for Nikon and they are quick to monopolise this then. Very interesting: certainly it would seem then that DSLRs too may even start to exhibit more features that ape video. This, by extension, would negate the need then for a race in which pixellage were the main bar to be jumped.