Aperture 00 on Canon EF 70-200 f2.8 L IS USM

[sebastian toma]

Hello ladies and gentlemen,

 

Last Christmas I have received a 70-200 2.8 L IS USM lens. It is an

awesome lens wich gives me great results and to be honest, it stays

almost all the time on the camera. Now the problems began a while

ago when I started to receive apperture 00 in various situations,

but especially at the long end (200mm). I called Canon Canada and

they asked to bring the lens along with the camera for service. They

kept them for one month and today i picked both up. The service guys

said that they did not find anything wrong with either the lens or

the camera. Happy, I returned home and put the battery in the camera

and snapped a couple of shots. Well... SURPRISE! I got the same

apperture 00 AGAIN. I had to turn OFF and ON the camera and it

didn't happen again. The service papers state that both lens and

camera have been cleaned and lubricated. Just for the record, I have

a EOS 1Ds that I am using with this lens. Anybody knows how to

approach this rather unpleasant situation?

[andrew robertson]

Are you sure it's mounting properly on the camera?

 

Aperture 00 shows when the camera can't detect a mounted lens.

[sebastian toma]

It looks like it does. It only happens now and then without a pattern, so I cannot reproduce this issue. Do you think I could ask Canon for a replacement?

[bellavance]

I often have this problem with my 100-400L IS lens on my 20D.

 

I've been told that I should clean the contacts between the lens and the camera. It helps.

 

Pierre

[pmac]

Almost 100% sure, it's the contacts - for both lens and camera body, take a pencil ereaser and gently clean the contacts with it. Do this infrequently, maybe once a month, should clear the problem.

 

Luck, Paul

[chrisjb]

Just a thought, are you supporting the lens with a hand from under it or hold just the body of the camera?, it is a heavy lens and by having no support may cause some movement with the contacts, HTH

[ralph_jensen]

Well, if it's any consolation, you're not the only one. It's apparently a design flaw in what is

otherwise one of

Canon's best lenses, so no, cleaning the contacts won't solve it (in fact, I know of two

photographers who got the dreaded "Oh-Oh" the first time they mounted a newly

purchased 70-200IS on their cameras) and it's not a matter of not supporting the weight

of the lens.

 

There is no sure fix (speaking of lack of support, Canon hasn't admitted there's a problem)

but if you keep sending the

lens back to Canon service they'll eventually replace the IS unit, which seems to be the

source of the problem (I don't think the 00Lockup happens when IS is switched off).

 

Again, you can clean those contacts all you want but the problem won't go away. Maybe

you'll get some tips from reading other photographers' experiences:

 

http://forums.robgalbraith.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=248404

 

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic2/279113

 

http://forums.robgalbraith.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=287516

 

http://forums.robgalbraith.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=247058

[mark u]

Ralph has linked to the answer. Tell Canon Canada to talk to the Irvine, Ca. service centre and that it is almost certain that they will need to replace the IS unit, the electromagnetic diaphragm and the lens mount - this seems to be repair that is needed to fix the lens. If you look at the long robgalbraith thread, you will see that allegedly Canon now have a new design of IS unit for this lens - obviously it's preferable to have that installed rather than an old model.