Considering the price difference between a Canon, and no name brand, the choice is quite simple...
Does the saying "You get what you pay for", apply to LANC controllers?

I'd like to get a consensus...
Thnx.

I bought a $50 item off ebay 6 months ago and 2 days ago my Canon ZR-2000 arrived. The no name was crap really, the zoom rocker 'clicked' (you could hear it on the audio) and half the buttons didn't work apart from start/stop.

The canon gives me much better control -zoom, focus, aperture, push AF...

I couldn't see the value then, I can now


Guess what? half the buttons dont work!

zoom speed - yes
standby - no
on screen - no
push AF - yes
focus - yes
AE shift - no
peak - yes
magnify - yes
start/stop - no (only kidding)

I'm going to have to do some research -

Does the saying "You get what you pay for", apply to LANC controllers?

Generally yes, but I've read of people with cheap unit being satisfied with its functionality, but I don't know if their expectations were very high.

On the other hand, I've had the Varizoom VZ Rock for a year and a half and have been very pleased with how it works. I'm less than impressed with its functionality. On/off and zoom functions are brilliant, but it doesn't avail itself of the Canon's continually variable zoom speed. The focus functions so fast as to be useless and the other buttons do nothing on the A1. (I will say the VZ is a resilient unit as I literally drowned the unit last summer, and after drying it out completely it continues to function without suffering any ill effects.)

Apparently, there are different flavors of LANC that vary by manufacturer. When you decide on a unit, you might want to verify what functions actually work with the A1.