How sturdy is the Elan7's lens mount?

just got my 70-200 2.8 L last week, and honestly I love the lens.

Despite it's monstrous size and weight it is definetly a lens to keep

mounted. I have noticed that it fits on my old 630 with no slop

except for the typical amount of back and forth give due to the size

of the pin in the hole in the lens. Crap, that was a mouthful.

However, when mounted on my Elan7 I get slop back and forth on the

pin (nominal) but I am concerned that the lens actually wiggles on

the mount. Not much, but applying a little force side to side you can

see a gap form between lens and the cameras mount. not much but I

know I could slip one of my feeler gauges into the gap.It looks to be

no more than .001 to .002 of a gap.I haven't used my feeler gauge to

get the exact gap as I am not going to slip a tool I keep greasy so

it wont rust anywhere near my elements. Try cleaning grease off a

lens...it sucks!My concern is whether or not this will in any way

harm my camera. I liek the autofocus speed, and metering in my ELan7,

but I can't help but wonder if this may end up breaking the camera. I

carry this combo by the lens, but If I don't have a tripod handy and

know I can squeeze of a shot I have been known to hunker down in

arest and grab my shot. This can result in the camera lens combo

being held firmly against something, maybe even having the applied

force in more than one direction in order to maintain solidity of the

shot. Not a lot of force, but really the Elan fells nowhere near as

solid wit hthis lens on. You can feel a faint clunk as the lens moves

if left to support the lens (momentarily) whereas the 630 does

not.The 630's lens mount is screwed to a block of steel whereas the

Elan7's is screwed to Polycarbonate. That said, other than this the

camera has not creaked Sorry for being so wordy, but I just wnated to

describe why I am concerned. Thanks, Daniel

1) Nothing to worry about. A bit of play is normal on midrange to low end Canons.

 

2) I know you're concerned about this, but really long unbroken blocks of text are very hard to read. Is there any way you could be a tiny bit more concise?

The slop isn't as much of a concern as the gap that tends to happen if the pressure is applied to one side of the lens, lets say holding the body flat on my chest, if I push on the lens to the left, it will develop a slight gap between the lens and body. Its not much, but if you hold by the lens and shake, you can definetly hear the body jiggle on the lens. It can be felt abit too. It would almost appear as though the mount on the 630 is machined to a tighter tolerance than the Elan7.

The more I carry the lens, the less I notice the weight, but sudden movements are generally met with that tell-tale clunk. It's prompting me to just becareful until I can get an EOS3. I would like to beleive that That it should be fine, but I am getting ready to shoot some anti-war protests in Eugene, and god only knows what can happen!

 

The camera appears to be, and feels as though it is built fairly tough, but I do wonder what might happen if I should have to make a sudden movement and have to hold the the setup by the camera instead the lens. Not normally, but when your moving fast and caught up in the action, you never know what the left hand is going to need to do until you are in the action. As in blocking someone from running into you, slipping in mud, etc. As I mentioned above even just normal use I can feel the slop. Its not alot, but enough to make me wonder

 

I have had the front cover off of the Elan7, I know it is not built like the old 630. I could be wrong, but the lens mount does not look quite as heavy duty as the 630. This is also causing me to build a little shoulder strap that mounts on the lens for carrying on my shoulder. This should also serve to save the lens from unecassary abuse while being carried.

Daniel, if thorough self expression is your goal, then you have certainly succeeded. But if you want people to read your posts, use fewer words & insert a paragraph break every few sentences.

 

Did you have a question, or are you just expressing your concern? :~)

Think you could win the prize for writing the most confusing question/comment ever.

 

If you think the lens mount is not strong enough, then maybe you need to be supporting the lens better. Wouldn't think that the lens mount ever needs to take much of the load - your hand or tripod mount should be doing that.

 

Think if there were problems then a lot of people would be walking around with broken cameras.

 

Has anyone heard of someone breaking the plastic mount on an EOS 300 (Rebel)? Or pulling the metal lens mount off a EOS 30?

 

Chris.

Chris I generally do support my camera by the lens. But at the same time I am not shooting flowers fro ma tripod. When action starts, you move how you have to. Also, how do you know if people have broken Rebels or Elan7s unless you ask. I could have made this real confusing had I decided to work up a formula describing the possible force exerted on the lens mount by the weight of the lens. And then the force exerted when the combo went into motion and came to stop. Now that might have been a bit much.

Ahh I see now. your question was infact in the subject.. and not in the bulk of your text!

 

"How sturdy is the Elan7's lens mount?"

 

Sorry I kinda missed that.

 

For me, the lens mount has been very good... (I cart around the 100mm 2.8 USM Macro most of the time attached.... thats not a light lens, and it copes perfectly well in my experience.)