17-85mm paranoia

[rlconzatti]

<p>Reading the numerous posts about the lens jamming on a loose screw and the ribbon cable cracking I have had mine for 5 years along with a hood and circular polarizer. I love the reach and use it 90% of the time. I would hate for it to die on me when my wife and I are traveling. Should I send it in for "preventive maintance or use it till it dies and use the 10-20 and 70-300 as an interm. Any idea what price for the maintance. I would trade it in for the 15-85 but by the time I bought another polarizer and lens hood it doesn't seem cost effective plus I don't want to pawn off the lens with potential problems to someone else.</p>

<p>Thanks Rob</p>

<p> </p>

[JDMvW]

<p>I have the lens too, purchased new in 2005. It is still my favorite lens for my APS-C shooting, notwithstanding some warts.<br>

Unless you can find some reliable breakage records from one of the rental agencies or some such, I'd ignore the reports.<br>

Does it break? so does any lens, but there are a lot of these out there and the</p>

<blockquote>

<p>numerous posts</p>

</blockquote>

<p>is not a scientific nor representative sample. Where are you reading these posts? I've personally seen hardly any such posts and a Google search seems to turn up mostly the same few persons.</p>

[rlconzatti]

<p>Thanks for the reply. I was reading the user reviews on some camera web stores. Love your photos of egypt and south america. My wife and I have been to both and I am trying to talk her into angor wat. That is why I was concerned because when your there you depend on my equipment. I could also throw the 50mm in the bag as well. </p>

<p>Thanks again<br>

Rob</p>

 

[jim_larson1]

You have the lens for five years, and you don't know if you have a problem?

 

Definitely worrying too much. And do bring your 50 :)

[Marcus Ian]

<p>The 10-22 plus 50 plus 70-300 ought to give you adequate coverage, if not the convenience, if a disaster were to befall your 17-85.</p>

<p>Personally, I wouldn't expect it to suddenly die, even at that age, the chances are pretty low. That said, I'm sure Canon wouldn't mind giving it a once over and sending you the bill. Though considering that nearly new copies can be had for ~$250 and up, the cost effectiveness of such maintenance is fairly limited.</p>

<p>While I personally didn't like the lens, it certainly was convenient, and nearly ideal for travel. At least if it dies on your trip, it'll go out doing what it was made for... ;-)</p>

[PuppyDigs]

<p>If you're paranoid, bring a spare lens or two. I often travel with my EF 35 2.0 in the bag albeit I rarely use it. In 35 years of periodic travel, I have never had a camera or lens fail. I have suffered dead batteries and run out of film and CF cards...</p>

[bob_king2]

<p>I had my 17-85 fail and chose to have it repaired - problem with the AF motor ribbon. Luckily I wasn't traveling at the time... Perhaps you could take a 18-55 kit lens as a backup? They are small and light, and cheap.</p>

<p>Cheers, Bob</p>

[remco-jan.woldhuis]

<p>"Reading the numerous posts about the lens jamming on a loose screw and the ribbon cable cracking..."<br>

"Numerous" doesn't say anything about the quality. People don't post when the lens works as it should, but if 100 or 1000 people globally post a problem you get a huge list of problems in Google. In real life this is still nothing compared to the number of units sold. So experiences found on the Web are useless to draw any conclusions.</p>

 

[badri_rao]

<p>I had my 17-85 break down on me during a trip.<br>

The problem that the lens threw at me was that it was showing lens contact error whenever I tried to shoot between 17- 24 mm and with the aperture wide open. It was working fine at other settings. Luckily I was carrying a 50 1.8 which came to the rescue. Where ever the 50 was not serving my purpose, I used the 17-85 with manual settings and it worked fine. So, all is not lost even if the lens breakdowns with the ribbon cable problem.<br>

In my case both the ribbon cable and the USM motor had to be replaced by Canon India. I still have the lens with me as I'm very happy with the images that it produces.</p>

[rlconzatti]

<p>That's great that it will work in manual mode. I am just a little OCD and am use to doing preventive maintenance on work equipment on a strict regime. Totally forgot about the 18-55 kit lens on the xti. Thanks for everyone's ideas.</p>

<p>Rob</p>