'Plus much more fiddling with the English language;' by the sound of it. Surely it should be 'zoom rocker fix' if they're going to bother at all. Improving a no-good control might just take it up to so-so territory.

tom.

Yes Tom, I had a look at that news item on the Pro AV site about the firmware upgrade. Had to laugh a little when the heading stated it 'will be out soon' (March 2012!!!). You will note I posted on this site July 2011. Its fairly clear to me that SONY don't have any sense of urgency on this issue, and I suspect what we will end up with is a slow / fast zoom function not a fully variable function as all other pro cameras seem to have. To me only a hardware upgrade would bring the desired result. I had ideas about offering video coverage of weddings as a little retirement earner, and it could pay for future larger camera purchases if it took off. However since I experienced the indifference of SONY to the customer, even when the issue is squarely in their court, I won't be buying SONY again & no I not doing weddings either. Not having that smooth variable slow zoom ability to me makes no sense. A slow / Fast zoom function is for domestic cameras, not for what SONY claims is a new design Pro Video camera. Yes I'm unhappy and I guess I'm not the only one.

I had the SONY HVR A 1E which bizzarely had a sideways zoom control lever( not even a rocker) and that was ok for slow starts but seemed to run away with itself so most zooms were awful. No change there then! I could never remember which way to press it to zoom in!This is a major problem if you don't use it on a tripod and can't fit a Lanc controller. Does Sony ever hand over prototypes to cameramen for testing before puttint things on sale???

One does wonder, Barry. I can't imagine any normal user, amateur or professional, who would lift an NX70, try the zoom, and be happy with it.

what about this supposed firmware in march. will it give it a slow zoom? i noticed it at nab last year. cant believe sony doesnt see this? as long as theyre selling, sony wont do s..t.
i was going to buy one as a second to my ex1r. not now, am using my sony cx550 and it matches very well.

The firmware update is supposed to give us a "controllable" speed. I presume it will be a speed limit set in the menu. Something like "Set maximum zoom speed: slow, medium or fast".

I'm not getting too excited about that. What if you set your speed too slow and you need to zoom slightly faster mid-shot? Hmmm. It does suggest that the problem is most definitely hardware, that can't be fixed with a firmware update. So this is just a compromise solution.

I've become so un-enamoured with the NX70, I'm on the verge of buying a Panasonic AC130 or AC160 soon, to hell with poverty. The NX70 will live on a B-cam, or I will try to sell it.

I can't imagine any normal user, amateur or professional, who would lift an NX70, try the zoom, and be happy with it.

Hi Mike. There once was a time when I would have agreed. But after using the NX70 for about 6 months filming over 30+ wedding and events... I can honestly say this camera absolutely rocks.

The terrible zoom has solved a major flaw in my filming technique... always filming with a slow zoom-out or zoom-in, mainly to compensate for the lack of steadyshot function in previous models.

Now I'm forced to not use an unreliable zoom - my footage is 20 times better as I've learned to frame and compose in a more professional manner.

Zoom shots scream amateur. I love the NX70. It produces amazing images that I'm constantly amazed at.