One step ahead of you. I pulled out the XL1s to see for myself after I replied.
The XL1s switches a tad-bit harder then the XL-H1, but not by much.

and get this...

it's smoother then the Z1U going to "closed".

- ShannonRawls.com

Shannon, thanx for checking this! Are the increments (in f-stops) the same as in the XL-1s?

It seems to me you would definitely still notice small luminance jumps if you tried to adjust the iris during a shot.

The stops go 1.6 (when wide), 1.8, 2.0, 2.2, 2.4, 2.6, 2.8, 3.2, 3.4, 3.7, 4.0, 4.4, 4.8, 5.2, 5.6, 6.2, 6.7, 7.3, 8.0, 8.7, 9.5, CLOSE

Hello Guys :-)

JMHO This is useless... do it in post and use the iris for what it is designed to do... adjust for DOF and lighting conditions.

Now if you shoot in automatic mode, which I never do, I can see that you would want smooth iris changes when moving from a light scene to a dark one, or vise versa, but I can't see the value in manual mode.

Now I must admit that I don't do events and all of my shots are planned, so my light is right from the get go and I don't require any Fstop changes during a take, so I am no authority when it comes to live events.

If I ever find myself shooting a natural scene, I would rehearse my moves and take a reading from my darkest to my lightest extreme and choose the most appropriate setting so that I wouldn't have to change it in the shot. I can see how you would use auto mode for ENG.

Merry Xmass and all that!!

i just went out with my H1 and did a bunch of iris tests on christmas tree bulbs, it is incremental but quite smooth, if you roll the dial smoothly and consistently you can get very clean fades

Thanx for posting this info! So it's the same as the XL-1s, but the latter adds 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and then goes to CLOSE. Did they omit f/13 to steer clear of bad luck? ;)

Cheers,

Ron