Unlike on the other current zoom lenses, the extension mechanism is motorized. As soon as the camera is switched on, the lens extends by itself and retracts when powered down or if the camera goes into standby. Since this procedure takes a while, 

Nikon fortunately included a lock switch on the lens that prohibits the retraction of the inner tube. This way, the startup time after camera power-on or wake-up from standby is not unnecessarily extended until just after that precious decisive moment. 

 

 The lens was obviously designed with not only photographers in mind, but also those shooting movies. To provide smooth focal length transitions during recording, the lens doesn't feature a classic manual zoom ring, but a motorized zoom that is operated by a small two-way switch. The more the switch is pushed in one of the directions, the faster the lens zooms in or out. In addition, the zoom speed depends on the mode the camera is in: when shooting movies, the lens zooms slower than in still-image mode. 

 

 Unfortunately, the power drive zoom doesn't allow to choose any desired focal length, but works with predefined steps (which is also the reason for the little "odd" focal lengths used in our analysis on the next page). While those steps are generally sufficient for most situations, you may occasionally find yourself in need of a focal length just between two of the available ones when trying to carefully frame a shot. 

 

 The two mentioned switches are the only control element on the lens. Typical for Nikon 1 lenses anything else, including VR, aperture, AF and manual focus, is controlled through the camera.