Stanton Zoom Focus

[Colin Donahue]

Still having trouble with my Stanton controller. Focus works fine, but zoom continually creeps. I have to carry a small philips in my pocket and sometimes try to adjust the potentiometer on the fly. My last two shoots with it were useless. It not only creeped but zoomed in or out a such a rate that I had to hold the zoom button in the oppisite direction until I wanted to change frame. I sent unit back a few months ago with all cables and was told there is nothing wrong with it. I noticed that Rob and John have mulitple units. Is this because they break or they are fickle or what? It seems to be the worst with Canon lenses, and more so with the HD lenses. Does anybody else have this problem? What can I do? Any help would be appreciated.

 

Colin

[John atkinson]

The problem is you are controlling a digital lens with an analog controller, and they don't always play nice. The best thing is to turn the lens zoom speed to it slowest usable rate then tweek the centering pot to each particular lens. It's usually the lens that is just too sensitive to the analog device. All in all I love this system and it works great most of the time.

 

JA

[John Perry SOC]

I have multiple units only because I have multiple rigs. I do have a couple of backup handles for when I drop one in the ocean, etc, or sometimes the zoom rocker spring breaks but I can easily fix that in the field. Your problem may be as simple as a dirty centering pot on the handle. Try turning the pot from end to end a couple of times before centering to see if that helps. If that's not it, John is correct in saying the digital lenses are overly sensitive, mostly the Canon's. The older Canons are not as bad. I always request Fuji lenses so there's no problem with zoom drift. Most tv trucks and facilities I use are all fuji anyway. Idol uses all Canon, except for the steadicam position for this very reason.

 

Email me if you decide to sell your Stanton handle.

[Rob Vuona SOC]

Hey Colin,

Dude your DP and director now, why are you worrying about drifting lenses . . . . LOL . . . . .

 

Here's the deal with the creeping, I had long conversations with Canon regarding this and smarter minds than mine came up with something to do with, they used the word, "Tolerance", apparently Canon has a smaller tolerance or not enough tolerance to accommodate the zoom control. Fuji does and therefore we always request a fuji lens. Canon swore they corrected this with their newer lenses but I still have to find one that doesn't creep.

 

Sometimes, when it get really bad, like you described, I will power everything down, unplug it all and start over. The reboot seems to help.

 

Hope that helps

 

Thanks for the call a few weeks back as well

See ya soon

[JobScholtze]

Betz makes a really great zoom control. If you put it in, it takes 2 seconds for the remote to "mate" with the lens, so never ever any drifting. It " reads" the lens. The only thing i didnt like was the microforce kind of zoomknob. Wich really sucks, as i loved the remote. But i need the spring force for zooming while running. I hope he wants to modify it to the spring knob like the bebobs, and i would buy it in a heartbeat

[Colin Donahue]

Guys,

Thanks for all the helpful posts. At least i know am not crazy. Will start requesting Fuji lenses from now on.

 

Colin

[Phil Thomas]

Hi,

 

Does the G-Zoom have this same problem with Canon Lenses? I was considering buying a G-zoom with canon lead initially but if it has this problem I'll get the Fuji lead and request Fuji lenses.

 

Cheers

[JobScholtze]

same