Canon EF 70-200 IS lens noise

[joe_choi1]

Hi, I just got my brand new 20D with 16-35 & 70-200 IS lenses. I

have not had chance to play with them but very excited considering

this my first DSLR/DSLR system... But one thing is really bothering

me, on my 70-200 IS (with IS on) everytime I focus on an object it

makes a "click" sound and some type of motor turning sound and

another "click". Is this normal? It sounds pretty loud, anyone have

any experience with this? Should I be returning my lense?

 

One more thing I would like your feedback as to if I have made a good

choice on my equipment considering this is my very first "real"

DSLR/SLR... This is what I got Canon 20D, 16-35mm f/2.8 L, 70-200mm

f/2.8 IS L, Sandisk Extreme 1GB CF card, and Hoya 77mm HMC UV

filter. My main photography is portrait of my family,

travel/sightseeing photo, little lanscape and my friends baseball

games. Considering this did I get the right equipment? Don't have

much money left in my budget but anything else I would need or should

get? Should I have gotten the 2GB CF card? I still have little

reservation about getting a 20D instead of Nikon but I really like

Canon (I own F1). Anyway any feedback or recommendation would be

greatly appreciated like maybe I should have gotten different or

extra lense, different brand of filter or CF card, etc. Thank you

all for your input.

[andrew_carlson]

It sounds like your 70-200 is operating normally. If it is really quiet I can hear a click and whirring from mine, which is the Image stabilization engaging. Turn off IS and see if it makes the same sounds.

 

On a more personal note, I prefer smaller CF cards and more of them. I don't like the idea of just one CF card. I have the same body and I use a digital wallet or portable hard drive with built in CF card reader. They average about $200 but offer 20, 40, and 60GB capacities. This works very well for me in taking photos until I fill up one card and put it in the digital wallet and copy things over, then I put the other card in and continue shooting. It can take 4-6 minutes to copy an entire 512MB card over, I'd hate to be missing shots during that time so I run 2 512s and 2 256 as backup or "just in case" I may get a 1GB soon but no rush as I don't need it, I did just get my 1st ultra II CF card and it does appear to be faster than a normal CF card. At least in camera with 2 shots it took about 1/2 the time to copy them from buffer to CF card.

 

I shoot everything in raw so I only get about 25 shots per 256 and 50 shots per 512. Thats fine with me. Some are all about quality while others are all about quantity. This is all personal preference, you'll work out a system that works fine for you over time.

 

As for the rest of the gear it looks good, if you don't like it I'll take any freebies! :o)

 

It might not hurt to consider your PC as part of your kit as well, can it handle 24MB files? Does it have the memory capacity? Speed? SATA drives and increased memory can help. Do you have Photoshop? PS CS? Some tool to browse photos? I'm testing Breeze Browser and Imatch Photools now, I didn't like Photoshop elements - but thats semantics and I already have Photoshop 5.5 and 6.0 so.

[charlie_vigue]

For portraits the EF-85mm f1.8 is less intimidating and might be a worthy addition for a fairly low cost. The idea of a digital wallet is a very good one as well, particularly if you shoot far from home much, or ever really.

[sean_mclennan]

I have a 1GB SanDisk Extreme...it's the best CF card available if you ask me. Well, next to the new Extreme III cards...they have the fastest read/write speeds, good warranty and huge operational range (temperature, etc).

 

Lexar is another good name for CF cards, but SanDisk Ultra/Extreme are the best.

 

sean

[ciprian_streza]

I have the same problem with a 70-200 lens purchased in nov 2007. It is the IS motor. It makes no sound when the IS motor is not working. So, I wait to see what happens. I wait for the response of other ef 70-200 users.

Thank you.

[mimi_zhou]

I just purchased this lens in Dec.07. I had not noticed the IS noise until I used it in a very quite environment. It sounded exactly as described above, loud motor turning sound and then a click sound (like when VHS tape finished rewinding). When the IS is off, it is very quite. So it seems like a common issue. No need to think about it twice?

 

Does anyone know if Canon has made any statement about this IS noise?

Thank