Digital8 camcorder zooming in for no reason

[Vitality]

For some reason, I have a Digital8 camcorder that just zooms in for no reason at all. Even the zoom meter on the camera's LCD shows that it's zooming in. Nothing I do seems to get it to zoom out. The zoom control isn't stuck, I can move it just fine. I hope this can be fixed easily and it's not a problem with the actual camera lens.

[davexnet]

I had a a Canon Hi8 camera that did that. In my case it was due to wear in the zoom control switch

[Vitality]

I had a a Canon Hi8 camera that did that. In my case it was due to wear in the zoom control switch

It doesn't matter where I have the zoom control switch pointed at, it just zooms in. I can't even get it to zoom back out, the camera is basically unuseable. It's also doing the zooming very slowly, if that helps.

Any way to tear this thing down? I have a different TRV520 that has a broken Firewire port. I wonder if I transplant parts out of it.

[davexnet]

It could be a different mechanism. Mine was a small rocker type switch up near the eye piece. You push it one way with your thumb
and it zoomed in, other way zoomed out. It was also pressure sensitive - a light touch and it zoomed slower, etc.
It "rested" in the middle where the zoom was maintained whereever it was.
After a while it started to zoom by itself. Here's a discussion where some users are discussing the problem:
https://community.usa.canon.com/t5/Camcorder-Discussion/Canon-Vixia-Zoom-out-problem-p...lp/td-p/219895

Maybe you can research further using the camera model, etc,etc.. The way you described it above sounds different. Is it trying to autofocus?

[Vitality]

It could be a different mechanism. Mine was a small rocker type switch up near the eye piece. You push it one way with your thumb
and it zoomed in, other way zoomed out. It was also pressure sensitive - a light touch and it zoomed slower, etc.
It "rested" in the middle where the zoom was maintained whereever it was.
After a while it started to zoom by itself. Here's a discussion where some users are discussing the problem:
https://community.usa.canon.com/t5/Camcorder-Discussion/Canon-Vixia-Zoom-out-problem-p...lp/td-p/219895

Maybe you can research further using the camera model, etc,etc.. The way you described it above sounds different. Is it trying to autofocus?

I think I found the problem. If I sort of open the camcorder up (you need to do this to press the eject button, and the zoom control is attached to this piece, it's a weird thing on Sony camcorders) and then touch the zoom control, it lets me control it like normal. Bad ribbon cable maybe?