Scary moment- lens came off

[sam_ellis]

I just had to share this. Yesterday, I was shooting a bridal party as they walked a couple blocks from the ceremony

to the reception. I held my D300/17-55/SB-800 over my head to get a high angle shot. I guess that as I was zooming

out I hit the lens release button because it came off in my hands! I lost my grip on it but managed to guide it down to

my chest and clutched it before anything dropped. WHEW!

 

I had noticed the lens loosening or coming off before, but I am guessing that with the zoom ring close to the body

versus most of their other lens designs, it is more common to hit the button at the same time. Has anyone else

experienced this?

 

Sam

[User_276104]

Just in the last couple of weeks Lil Judd had her 24-70 f/2.8G come off the camera and hit the ground.

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00Plxv

 

I wonder if the larger lens release button on the latest generation of bodies is starting to show a downside (if

it has anything to do with these two incidents).

[ShunCheung]

In 31 years of using Nikon cameras, that has never happened to me even once (although unfortunately I have done other careless stuffs with my cameras over the years). There is a rather wide gap between the zoom ring on the 17-55 DX and the lens release button, and I have been using the D2X and D300 extensively in the last 3 years. Both of them have the large release botton.

 

As I told Lil recently, make sure you hear the click sound when you mount a lens onto a body. After the click, I would gently twist the lens in the reverse direction to make sure that it is locked.

[garrison_k.]

"Has anyone else experienced this?"

 

This is odd. I too nearly had a disaster with the same body/lens yesterday. I gripped the unit by barrel and leaned in to my open trunk and when the body touched the inside of the trunk, I heard the "click" that the lens was safely home in place. I shuddered at the thought of what could of happened as I obviously used it for hours in jeopardy.

[liljuddakalilknyttphotogra]

Well Sam,

 

as both Eric & Shun writes I just had my 24-70 f/2.8 come flying off. Mine shot about 6 feet forward in it's flight hit the ground & bounced. I have no way of catching it. It's still with Nikon as they're waiting on parts. Needless to say they're telling me it's "dropped" - - I've answered that that's a matter of semantics...

 

I'm now of the opinion that we should have a double release. I definitely feel that my "release button" on the D300 is far more sensitive than the one on my D200.

 

I can say it a million times & write it just as many....... I know I always do the test Shun writes about. I will even re-mount a lens if I'm not happy with the "click". I am somewhat "fanatic" about my equipment.

 

I'm happy your lens didn't hit the ground - - when it does....... It's not a good feeling. :-(

 

Lil :-)

[paul heskes]

Almost had a similar accident a couple of months back with the D300, when the lens came clean away from the camera. Luckily the camera was lying down in my bag at the time and stayed there while I was left holding the lens and thinking of the possibilities.<br>I have the annoying habit of picking up the camera by the lens with my fingers close to the mounting ring. Although I still do, I'm always wary of catching the release with my index finger and always give the lens a quick twist these days!<p>Paul

[robert_hooper1]

This phenomena sounds extremely odd to me. One has to assume that the lenses were not fully mounted, (clicked into

place). However, if this were so, wouldn't "F- -" be blinking on the control panel and AF and other functions cease? And

even if one momentarily pushed the release button, wouldn't complete release of the lens (popping off) require a clockwise

turn of the lens at the exact same moment?

 

I too have never had a lens popping off any camera I have ever owned or used in over 50 years of photographic

experience, nor have I ever heard of this happening until now.

[tri-x1]

I've been shooting Nikons off and on for nearly 50 years and never had a lens come off. Recently I was putting a Tokina 80-200 MF f2.8 zoom on my D300 and didn't hear it click into place I rotated the lens back slightly and when I tuned it toward lock again it clicked into place.

[sam_ellis]

The lens was definitely locked into place, I took a photo a split second before it popped off. It wasn't a great shot, but it was focused and properly exposed, it wouldn't have been if the lens wasn't on properly. I know it was at that moment because there were two frames of solid white where the camera fired on the way down. The camera does fire without the lens properly mounted.

 

The distance between the zoom ring and the release button is only 3/4 inch and I don't have small hands. I was holding the camera above my head and aiming it down and holding it close to the body for stability. I gave the zoom ring a counter-clockwise twist to make sure I was zoomed out to 17mm when it popped off.

 

For what it's worth, I've owned a N2020, three N90s, D50, D70, D200, and two D300s since about 1992. Never had this issue except with the D300s. I hadn't noticed that the lens release was larger, it's not something that stood out to me.

 

Lil, I read your story and cringed! I've dropped cameras before, but yours sounds like it launched. Hope everything comes out okay.

 

Sam

[jay_poel]

I'm pretty sure if you tried to seat the lens WITHOUT the locking click - you'd find you probably still get metering and focus working. Someone shoud try and see.

 

I guess the lesson here is make sure you hear that click and give the lens a slight reverse twist to be sure it locked with the D300.

[sam_ellis]

Jay, metering and focus do not work without the lens being clicked into place. The camera will fire, but the aperture is stopped down all the way usually resulting in very dark images. Trust me, the lens was locked in place and came off as I was zooming out.

 

The lesson here is make sure you're not pushing in the lens release button while zooming out. It may be a factor of holding the camera above my head and pointing down. My hand was close to the body for stability- D300, flash, grip has a lot of weight.

 

Sam