I'd love a lanc controller for the fx1 but i keep reading bits and pieces of conversations saying:

1. you cannot smoothly start/stop zooms with the fx1 via lanc. It always has a slight stutter/jump as it begins/ends.

2. you cannot get slow zoom speeds from a lanc controller. 22 seconds at the best (vs. 105 via the rocker arm).

Can somebody verify these to be correct? That there is no zoom controller for the fx1 that works around these limitations?

thanks!

-a

Hey Andrew, i bought a second cheap tripod with lanc control for my FX1, i can tell you that it dosen't jerk when i start zooming, i have a speed control for the zoom but the weird part is after i hold the zoom button for a while the zoom goes to maximum speed automatically (like some cheap camcorders)

Thats interesting. i wonder if thats part of the controller or the fx1.

So to clarify, when you start a zoom, the zoom smoothly ramps in to motion? i think the "jump" people are talking about is that it goes from still to a fixed speed without a smooth ramping up in speed. Does yours smoothly feather into the zoom?

I am not disappointed with the start and stop of a zoom via LANC personally. But there is a big problem. You can't do a SLOW zoom. So you might interpret this a a lack of smooth start/stop because you can't access the slow speeds via LANC. Please see the following for more discussion:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=55047

Caveat: I have a Z1, not an FX1

ah. yes. the z1 has a start/stop smoothing feature thats disabled on the fx1. i think this leaves the fx1 incapable of smooth ramp ups. I find the rocker arm on the fx1 to be disappointing in starts/stops so i'm sure lanc is the same problem. bummer.