When getting video, there are two things you need to account for; speed and quality.
Stability: Keep your hand steady. When zooming in, the sensitivity of the camera is a lot higher and a small vibration can appear as extreme shaking in the final product. With that said; cameras now a day have sensors that are anti vibration but it only goes so far. .
I am able to keep it pretty steady by resting my elbow on something such as an arm rest or my body. When i am videoing for an extremely long time, I will hook up my flexible Tripod and attach it to the steering wheel. Be aware of your vehicle, the slight vibrations when hooked up to the tripod can show up after the fact if your vehicles is not off. Test it before doing it.
Zooming in: If you are working a file, in addition to getting the footage, you will need to zoom in to get specific types of shots:
Insurance: A face Shot and an injury shot. You zoom in on the face and then the different injuries.
Domestic: A face shot, intimate shots, and so on is needed.
Body Shot: It is important to video from head to toe as much as possible. With that said, if I see someone talking with my subject, I am going to zoom out to get both in the footage but I will first do head to toe. I hate it when investigators don’t do this because it leaves out the context of it.
Other Notes: Do not zoom in too fast because that may blur the image. You also need to be aware of your vehicle. It is considered unprofessional to get your vehicle video in the Video by a lot of companies. The client does not need or even want to feel like they are in the car with you. With that said, if it’s a choice of professionalism or no video, YOU VIDEO.
At the end of the day with all the tricks we have, the video is the evidence the client is looking for.