Nikon DSLR Lens Patent Makes Zooming for Movie Capture Easier

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Sure, it’s cool to rotate the lens ring to zoom and focus when you’re using a digital SLR. But with today’s modern DSLRs that can take high definition movies, zooming while keeping focused can be cumbersome. Nikon may have just found a solution.

In a recent patent filing, Nikon is designing a lens that can be zoomed both manually and electronically through the camera controls. This means you can manually adjust focal length as with any other SLR lens, but you can also use your camera’s Tele and Wide buttons to adjust, like any other point and shoot camera or camcorder.

SLR lenses already adjust automatically via motor (whether mechanical, USM or other methods), so it’s only a bit of time until camera manufacturers decide to bring the same mechanism to the focal length adjustment. Perhaps this is not such a necessity for taking still photos, but for videos, electronically controlling the focal length adjustment makes recording easier and smoother than with manual adjustment.

Nikon is likely to introduce this lens in their upcoming mirrorless digital SLR design.