Tuesday 8 January 2013

Canon 17-85mm Deceased

I've had two Canon 17-85mm lenses and they are both now well and truly deceased. Both of them had the same initial problem where the zoom jammed at 17mm.  The first one was a couple of weeks before we were going to France on holiday so I decided to buy the same lens again because I was used to using it and didn't have time to research obtain an alternative in a hurry.  After we returned from holiday I found that this was a common problem with this lens where a screw comes loose on a spigot in the zoom mechanism.  I found a website which gave step by step instructions on how to disassemble and fix the problem so I gave it a try and fixed the first lens.  I did think about selling it on Ebay but decided that was a bit dishonest so I kept it.

A couple of years later the second lens got the same problem so I started to use the fixed one and set about fixing the second one.  Again the same dilemma about putting the second fixed one on Ebay but again I resisted.  Then the first lens went wonky again, this time it just gave an error on the camera after a couple of shots but worked again after turning the camera off and on for a couple more shots.  So I started to use the second lens again which went awry this year whilst in France on holiday this year where it wouldn't get focus and just kept hunting.

Fortunately I had taken my Sigma 10-20mm, my trusty Canon 50mm f1.8 and my Canon 70-300mm so I managed Ok on the rest of the holiday.  But anyway it was the last straw with the 17-85mm lenses so I did some research and bought a Sigma 17-50mm f2.8 instead, which is an incredible lens so far.  As for the Canon lenses I disassembled them again, this time to destruction with no thoughts of any resurrection and used my new lens to take the photos.  Here's the first one in the final staged of disassembly.

Canon 17-85mm Deceased
Canon 17-85mm Deceased
Just noticed that Aperture is reporting the lens as a Sigma 17-70mm f2.8-4 in the Exif data, which is incorrect.  I wonder how I can change it?

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