Bebob Engineering Zoom Control for Panasonic AG-DVX100A, AG-DVX100B, HVX-200 and Sony, Canon, and other LANC Camcorders

by BEBOB Engineering

Product Details

• Item Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: B000IBUWVS
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 17, 2003

Product Description

Zoe-DVXL from Bebob Engineering is the first universal remote zoom control for DV, designed to work equally well with camcorders featuring a LANC input, such as Sony or Canon, or a Cam Remote input, like the Panasonic HVX-200 or AG-DVX100. The new DVXL features the benefits of the Zoe family of HDV/DV products. The lightweight, compact housing is constructed of durable, shock resistant polycarbonate. Its pressure-sensitive rocket switch enables truly stepless zoom control, ultra-smooth ramp-up & precise manipulation. Added to Sony or Canon DV camcorders, Zoe-DVXL provides all the functions of the popular Zoe-DVL: Zoom, Start/Stop, Camera On/Off and Focus. When used with the HVX-200 or DVX100B, the DVXL controls ramp up and manipulation similar to the camera's zoom, plus RecordStart/Stop function.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Works Great, March 22, 2008

By 

M. Schreuder (Genoa, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bebob Engineering Zoom Control for Panasonic AG-DVX100A, AG-DVX100B, HVX-200 and Sony, Canon, and other LANC Camcorders (Electronics)

It's a little pricey, but the construction is very heavy duty and I expect it should hold up to a lot of abuse. Currently using this with a Sony FX-7 and it works like a champ. Worth the money.

4.0 out of 5 stars Bebob LANC Zoom control, November 14, 2011

By 

Thomas K - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bebob Engineering Zoom Control for Panasonic AG-DVX100A, AG-DVX100B, HVX-200 and Sony, Canon, and other LANC Camcorders (Electronics)

Build quality is great and I like the Pro feeling it delivers. Being able to adjust the speed with a separate wheel in combination with the pressure sensitiveness is a plus as well. I use it together with a Canon XF105 on a Miller tripod and the way it sits and how you can operate it when mounted on the arm is great.

4.0 out of 5 stars Perfecto (sort of)!, December 23, 2010

By 

Steve Hampton - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bebob Engineering Zoom Control for Panasonic AG-DVX100A, AG-DVX100B, HVX-200 and Sony, Canon, and other LANC Camcorders (Electronics)

The ZOE DVXL met and exceeded my every expectation. It's a little more expensive than the other controllers I looked at so, I took a chance trying to keep in mind that you usually get what you pay for. This product certainly was worth every penny I paid and I will be purchasing a second unit when I build our next rig for my wife.

Power: No batteries are required as it uses your camera's power via the interface cable. This thing really is ready out-of-the-box.

My first test drive: I just received mine a couple of days ago. I went out and taped a local hockey game for a test drive and boy, what a difference this controller makes!!! To state the obvious, if you have a tripod with dual pan handles AND if you've been a one-armed-pan-handle-bandit while doing the reach-around-to-operate-your-zoom-and-focus; the ergonomic comfort this device adds to your shooting experience makes it an absolute MUST for your rig. This device indeed adds the luxury of firmly controlling your camera with both hands on the pan handles. It is a very new and comfortable experience for those who've been, in essence, working with one-hand tied behind their back. Besides your right arm getting tired from having to reach around your camera for basic operations, working in this fashion can actually cause undue mechanical stress on your camera and tripod. This may not seem like much of an issue but I have actually ruined a series of cheaper tripods over time operating this way. No more worries on that front because this device is designed to be mounted exactly where these controls should be -- the tripod handle!

The Buttons: The middle button (record/pause) and the right button (zoom/focus) are most important to me. The one thing that I would ask for if I were in a design meeting with Bebob is: All three buttons (especially the two mentioned above) could be improved with a stronger tactile feel and perhaps making them a smidge larger/taller. The LEDs are nice and very bright but when you are shooting live action a camera op's attention must in the viewfinder, not the control device. Even if the camera has a status icon in its viewfinder, the operator needs to focus through those icons and on the action. You need the ability to FEEL these buttons. Your eye balls are already in sensory overload with most modern video cameras. I'm sure I'll eventually get used to the lack of feel with these buttons (I hope). This is my experience as a sports videographer and should not impact your decision in purchasing this device. It is a very fine and a very well-engineered component that does exactly what it supposed to do very well.

The zoom/focus rate can be controlled by a wheel built-in to the right side of the device. The action on the wheel is very fluid and it is continuously variable as it sends commands to your camera throughout its range.

<opinion>
Complaints about the zoom being too fast on the slow end of the scale: If your camera's built-in rocker control cannot achieve this, why would you expect an external controller to do any better? I don't believe there's any "bit" stealing going on between the controller and the camera. Reviews of all the other controllers I looked at all feature this-zoom-is-still-too-fast, coupled with the, slight-delay-in-executing-commands, compaint. I've not "noticed" this behavior with my rig. I completely understand both problem spaces. There are times when I do shoot the occasional interview where I wish my camera's zoom would allow me to push and pull hypnotically slow for effect -- but I can't reasonably expect an external controller to make the internal servo motor in my camera perform any better than it was designed to perform. This is prosumer and you get what you pay for at this and any other level of the market.
</opinion>

The rocker switch for controlling zoom and focus is large. It is mechanically spring-loaded returning to center while maintaining your last zoom/focus command.

The attaching mechanism: Didn't see any photos from that angle anywhere so, that was a mystery.
KISS (keep it simple stupid) rules the day here. It is very simple to attach this device to your tripod handle.
There are two long threaded bolts each permanently attached to their respective sides of the device. I would estimate their length to be about 4-5 inches. There is a free sliding metal latch-like clamp which is V shaped in the middle. One side of the clamp is permanently anchored to the left bolt while the other side is an open latch. There are two nicely large wheel nuts that ride the two threaded bolts. These two large wheel nuts are really nice and hold the clamp in place on your tripod. Once you install this on your tripod the first time, you'll adjust both the left and right wheel nuts, thereafter; you'll just be messing with the right wheel nut, the nut on the opened side or latch side of the clamp. It's very simple and best of all, quick teardown in less than 1 second! I leave my controller with my camera and NOT the tripod... I don't treat my tripod as delicately as I do my video camera so, no need in placing the controller in any potential harms way.

Controller mode switch: The underside of the controller contains a mode switch. Two modes are available:
"L" - LANC (Sony and Canon)
"X" - Panasonic (DVX + HVX + HMC)
Note to Panasonic users: The owner's manual states, "There is no function of the LEDs in the DVX/HVX/HMC Mode!"

The cord: One of the things that I was not very attracted to when I was making my purchase of this controller was the fact that it has a spiral cord. Having been a child of the 70's and 80's, I was completely over old analog phone days with the knotted up cords we had with our telephones back then. I was also concerned that I would not like the fact that this cord is permanently attached to the device. I also questioned the length of the cord. In my case, there's absolutely nothing wrong with the length -- it's perfect and with room to spare thanks to it's spiral design. And also thanks to the spiral design, I don't have wires dangling all over my rig waiting for me or someone else to trip over them. I still don't like the fact that it's permanently attached but I'll get over it I'm sure. I'm well past teens now so, I don't think I'll have to worry about twirling this cord through my fingers in long conversations with the current girlfriend resulting in the eventual knotting over time.

I love this device and I highly recommend it to anyone with a two handled tripod who does long video shoots where going handheld is impossible.