Power zoom lenses for DSLR cameras

Panasonic launches Lumix G X Vario PZ 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 OIS pancake: Digital Photography Review.

The new Lumix “X” series lenses is an important development for shooting video on DSLRs.

DSLRs have had 3 limitations on their use for many types of video photography:

  1. lack of power zooms
  2. lack of audio controls
  3. limits on video recording time

The new lenses feature built-in zoom motors and controls. Panasonic has also announced a firmware update to several of its micro-four thirds cameras that will presumably add more zoom feature support to the cameras.

At this time, the demo video I saw showed a fixed zoom speed. I presume the firmware update will add a speed control to the cameras.  The zoom motor was audible in the camera’s built-in mic. This is yet another reason why we need to remember that audio is half the video experience – and should be using an external mic when sound is important.

Regarding audio, the lack of sound controls on DSLRs still demands use of BeachTek or other external audio mixers to get the sound right.

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Video shooting is popular – but video camera market slowly dying

This comes from a survey of Photobucket users:

According to the survey, consumers are using traditional video cameras with much less frequency, but they are using mobile devices to capture video much more often. In fact, of those surveyed:

  • 45 percent use a mobile device for capturing video at least once a week
  • 17 percent use a mobile device for capturing video at least once a day
  • 9 percent use a mobile device for capturing video multiple times per day

This trend is further validated by company data, which shows a significant upward trend of video uploads:

  • Total video uploads web and mobile are 3.5x higher year-over-year July 2010 to July 2011
  • Total video uploads from mobile devices are 14x higher than in December 2010

via Photobucket: Mobile video uploads on the rise |.