At the outset filmmakers tried to hide the use of a zoom lens mid-shot, disguising it with a dolly move or a pan. The zoom was considered an unnatural effect in an era when few filmmakers sought to call attention to the film's photography. Alfred Hitchock was a pioneer in the dramatic use of the zoom lens, first in "Spellbound" (1945) and most notably in "Vertigo" (1958). Hitchcock's favorite use of the lens was the so-called "reverse zoom" or "dolly zoom," in which the camera would physically move in one direction and the lens would zoom in the other, creating a substantially disorienting effect.
Foreign and art house directors of the 1960s began to show more comfort in varied photographic techniques, and the zoom lens became a favorite toy of these filmmakers. Japanese director Akira Kurosawa used the zoom to great effect in many of his action films, particularly "Yojimbo" (1961). Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky used the zoom for a more mystical effect, subtly changing perspectives on a scene for artistic impact. American director Robert Altman began to use the zoom lens to isolate individual conversations in large group scenes.
By the 1970s, the zoom lens was widely used in both foreign and American cinema. Producers loved it because a single zoom lens could replicate many different prime lenses, saving on rental costs. Directors favored it because of its flexibility -- they could change a shot in mere minutes. Cinematographers grumbled at the reduced image fidelity and loss of light but the trend continued, as directors like Stanley Kubrick, Francis Ford Coppola and Peter Bogdanovich would use the technique widely throughout their films. Additionally the technique spread to cheaper genre films, with extremely fast "crash zooms" becoming a staple of Hong Kong action movies.
So frequent was the use of the zoom in the 1970s that the technique has since become shorthand for the style of that era. Beginning in the 1980s, directors shifted towards prime lenses, particularly wide-angle lenses. Directors like Steven Spielberg and James Cameron used the zoom only sparingly, preferring a more classic Hollywood style. Occasionally, filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino or Wes Anderson will use a noticeable zoom effect in a self-conscious stylized way, often deliberately creating an association with the 1970s, as Tarantino did in his pastiche film "Kill Bill" (2003).