EF 28-135MM f3.5-5.6 IS USM lens

[dds701]

I have the Canon EOS 40D that I'm using with the above lens.

 

The lens has worked well and I'm reasonably happy with it.

 

Recently I had it mounted on a tripod with the horizontal extension shooting straight down for still life /copy functions.

What bothered me was that the lens has "creep" or "lens crawl", as I would set it to 50mm setting and when I'd let

go of the knurled adjustment ring the lens would slide out to 100mm.

This happened whether on manual or auto focus.

 

Canon says they cannot tell me if this is "normal" or not by email and that I must send it in to their repair and

evaluation center? I need to send in to repair center or compare to new one.

 

I wrote back and sincerely advised them that I felt they of all folks should know what is "normal" for a genuine

manufactured Canon lens and I didn't feel it was fair that suggestion number two was to to take my lens to a dealer

and compare it to a new one, which would require me to drive 2-300 miles.

 

The rep and supposedly superviser replied he was sorry that he was just a referral point and they did not have any

repair data, or return history as I suggested that they should have for purpose of knowing what is "normal" for one of

their lenses.

 

Anyway, curious if anyone else has had this type of lens crawl with their lenses, manual or auto-focus/USM types.

 

Doug Settle

[JDMvW]

I'm surprised you didn't post this one on the Canon forum, but, so long as we're here....

 

Zoom Creep

 

Many big zooms that extend the length of the lens as they focus/zoom will have this problem unless they specifically are made with a "lock" that prevents it (see http://photonotes.org/cgi-bin/entry.pl?id=Zoomcreep ) It is a matter of gravity overcoming the friction of the focus/zoom mechanism.

 

It's not a "feature"; it's a "bug". It's a pain in the neck as you have found. If you had got someone knowledgeable he would have probably told you about it. In any case, whether yours is "more" or "less" is not really an issue.

 

Almost ALL zooms did this in the early days, and you learned to hold the lens to prevent it (thereby, of course, negating the benefit of the tripod - this is a "contradiction")

[franklin_polk]

The 'consumer' lenses seem to be really prone to this, the 28-135 that I had did this all the time. I've since upgraded to the 24-105, which still creeps, but only to about 40mm when I'm walking around, not just when it is sitting on the tripod. You can mostly negate zoom creep by taking a wide rubber band and overlapping half of it on the zoom ring and half of it on the lens body. The friction, for the most part, locks the zoom in place unless you purposely turn it.

[dds701]

JDM, I should have gone on Canon as a post but I just goofed it, I was actually looking for a Canon lens post, wasn't quite sure which forum to use,anyway thanks for your info.

 

Franklin, thanks for the info and the tip.

 

BTW I have the Canon 70-200mm IS USM "L" type lens and it doesn't seem to have this "creep" problem. Guess thats why the "L" costs as much as they do?

 

Regards,

Doug

[dds701]

Now I see why i didn't use the Canon forum, because when you place the curser on that one it says "For people who like white lenses" ...

Imagine that!

[JDMvW]

I wasn't chastising you, just curious.

 

Yes do try the rubber band solution. I don't know why I didn't remember that. It's best to use a really wide one.

 

Yes, that's one reason for the higher price, I suppose.

 

Finally, I love the typo above where you put curser instead of cursor-- It makes more sense that way! ;)

 

One of those felicitous things like one of our moderators typing carp instead of crap, or vice versa.