durability of lenses

hey all...

had a moment last night when my heart jumped up my throat....was

taking pictures of some fire dancers when i dropped my vc 35 lens

about four feet on to the street...whereupon it took three bounces

and rolled to the curb....the photog next to me gave me a sad look

and said "sorry man..."

 

fortunately..the rear and front cap were on and the elements i could

see didn't have any scratches or cracks....which leads me to the

question...how sturdy are M style lenses? are they sturdier

inherently by their smaller more compact design? i'd hate to see

what happens to a canon USM lens dropped four feet onto some

concrete....or are modern lenses in general built to take some of

life's spills?

 

any one else have similar experiences? or can attest to the

sturdiness or lacke thereof of the VC, leica, konica lenses?

 

russ

I suppose if the internal clearances for the moving bits are less than the elastic limit for the material they are made of, dropping it won't have much effect. And being of metal helps. It will be fine, the caps don't half help especialy on the mount end, you don't want to try an 'un bend' one of them.

Leica lenses are made to NATO military standards so they have shock protection and the ability to operate a temperature extremes.

 

I have dropped a couple over the years without damage, onto carpet, grass and a hardwood floor. The 90 sumi hit the hardwood on the filter, damaged the filter ring, but the threads were ok. I bought a new B&W UV.

 

I now change lenses over grass, soft furnature, or if I am in a paved area, over the camera bag or I sit down or am very very careful.

It's just a matter of luck. If it hits wrong, a 2 foot drop onto a soft rug can completely wreck a camera/lens, while if it hits right onto concrete from standing height you may not even get a dent. Remember the old Leica advertisements, where someone dropped a Leica out of an airplane, and it still worked fine (cracked glass in the viewfinder, as I recall).

After the Webster's dictionary the term durability has to do with aging as well as with sturdiness.---

What about the time durability (aging) of the glues which held together the lens elements ? (canada balsam and the more recent ones)---thank you

I think that Leica lenses are among the sturdiest but even though you might not BREAK it it does not mean you won't affect its performance. I dropped M6 with 35mm cron 2ft from the couch to hard wood floor. The lcamera and the lens survived just fine. One can not tell any damage. But the rangefinder is off 1mm or so and the focusing tab feels like it isn't perfectly round as it seems to be tighter incertain positions.

Leica lenses are as strong as any and a short fall onto grass or a carpet MAY do little harm, but dumping one onto pavement is pushing the envelope. Run a few test rolls and check the performance. If the test shots satisfy you and the focus and diaphragm don't bind, consider yourself fortunate! Best regards, Bill

Russ, you mentioned vc 35 lens. Is that a Voigtlander Classic 35 that you dropped? If not what lens are you talking about?

 

In any case check it out with at least one roll.

I've dropped a number of lenses but no Leica lenses, thank God. Most of them were manual focus Nikkors, a couple of large format lenses and one Canon EF zoom. None of them ever quit functioning due to being dropped but an 80-200 Nikkor had to be sent for repairs due to the dent causing the focus ring to be tight. A 180 Nikkor fell off the roof of my car onto concrete and smashed the UV filter. It still worked. The Canon zoom never even showed any signs of damage--dropped on concrete parking lot--other than scuffing the lenshood.

 

The only lens I ever wore out with use was a 24/2.8 Nikkor. I threw it away when all the distance scale and aperture markings were rubbed off and it stopped being sharp until somewhere around f/8.

My Konica 50/2 was ran over by a bus a few months ago and has no signs of damage ;)

the lens i dropped was the vc 35mm 2.5 classic....pretty tiny and compact lens...right after i dropped it i took a shot of some detail wide open to make sure it would still focus...looks fine, but did give me a bit of a scare and me wonder how tough the lenses are in general...

 

r

Like anything else: it depends where and how forceful the thing was impacted. Human body analogy: an impact on the temple or on the butt.

The laws of physics is just that -- it depends on all variables.

For example, a friend of mine had an accident, overturned his car on a high speed accident. The car was completely smashed and yet he climbed out of his car with just a bruised ankle. Whereas, a friend's 19 year kid died with his schoolmate in a similar accident. They all were wearing their seatbelts at the time.

>Stephen W. , jun 14, 2004; 08:17 p.m.

 

>Like anything else: it depends where and how forceful the thing was impacted. Human body analogy: an impact on the temple or on the butt.

 

That is the same place for some people on this forum!

 

:D

I dropped my 50mm Summicron (latest version) just a few weeks ago. Somehow it

"dismounted" itself from the M4-P I was carrying on my left shoulder. After dropping a few

feet, it landed with a "thump" on the concrete pavement on the corner of 18th & Mission

Streets here in San Francisco during the Carnaval celebration I was shooting.

Fortunately, no one stepped on it or kicked it away. One of the

mounting flanges got severely dented and the lens wouldn't mount on the camera after

that. The helicoil, too, was compressed from the dent and the

focus ring wouldn't turn because of it. The glass, however, looked fine.

 

I sent it into Leica and got a note saying it has to go back to Solms. I will get it back in 9

-10 weeks. Good thing is, I bought the lens new about three years ago and it's still

covered under the Passport Warranty. (I'm so glad I didn't go for a gray market at the

time!)

 

Like the other folks said, how tough the lens is depends on where you drop it and which

part it lands on.

 

Be careful and always check to make sure the lens is locked in and secure!

 

-Kevin

I've just had to send a 90mm APSH APO Summicron back to the factory. Its tried to escape a few times by making a dash for the nearest rocks - and that appears to have sent the lens out of alignment. The photos just aren't tack sharp.

 

No problem from my Leica shop - the Passport covers it. But now I'm down to only a 35mm lens for all my work whilst I wait for the repair...oh well its good to challenged!