Oh dear ...

[SidW]

Many of you have been inside classic lenses, and I know many more would like to. Have you been inside a contemporary autofocus lens yet?

I had to reverse the car a few feet the other day to line up with the garage doors, and reversed over a rucksack containing a camera bag containing the 20D and lens .....



The impact had snapped the lns at the mount, shattering the brittle plastic, leaving the upper half of the mount ring still inserted in the camera body bayonet. After brushing away the debris and easing out that remaining piece of the lens mount, the body looked to be undamaged and worked with another lens.

The loss then sems to be limited to the lens, fortunately the cheapest kit lens from Canon for digital sensors and now in its fourth year - EFS 17-55mm.

A moment's reflection suggests it was the deformation of the plastic body and mount of the lens that saved the camera, the break absorbing and dissipating just about all the energy of the impact. A more robust lens barrel and a metal bayonet mount would have transmitted most of the energy straight into the camera body.

I've read many criticisms in recent years of Canon switching from metal to plastic barrels and mounts (usually concerning fears of shorter mount life, more rapid wear and loss of precision and snug fit). But that swith does seem to have protected the camera body in this case.

[Deleted]

Sid:

I had never thought of that advantage of a non-mental lens mounts. A metal mount probably would have destroyed the body.

Wayne

[mickeyobe]

SidW,

It is very comforting to know that my Penax K100D is safe if I ever run over it.

My condolences nevertheless.

Mickey

[PeterW]

Sid: Oh dear ... just about says it all.

I'll bet you exclaimed, "Oops, I didn't really mean to reverse over my camera."

Glad the camera itself survived OK.

I've never been inside an electronic AF lens, and after looking at the circuit board and all the chips I don't think I want to! You can't actually see all the litttle electronic charges running around struttin' their stuff - or not as the case may be. I wouldn't know where to start looking for faults.

I had to call "HELP!" to John this evening when my computer kept crashing after I downloaded an update to one of the applications. It took him about 3 minutes to find the problem and half a minute to fix it. As far as I was able to gather I'd put something in the wrong part of the system registry. I didn't know I'd put anything anywhere, I thought the install wizard did it all for me, but it seems wizards, like Homer, are known to nod at times.

I can't really say that electronics make my head spin ... I just sit there, a living anachronism, and the world spins round me.

PeterW

[SidW]

Peter, even if you're the novice you claim to be, you'd notice that those 7 golden contacts lying nonchalantly askew were in some other life intended to match up with similar contacts just inside the camera mount. My first sigh of relief and inkling of hope was to see the camera bayonet ring and surrounding body surface apparantly not deformed. The second sigh of relief was to see the contacts in the camera were rock-steady and apparently not dislodged. The manual/auto switch was reduced to dust so I can't check the focusing movement, in any case the motor, if it's still there, is probably still engaged.

Wayne, I think I'm beginning to see the wisdom and priorities in the Canon metal/plastic mount policy. It probably works like this. A humble lens on an ambitious body will crumble and leave the body safe. A humble body on an ambitious lens will crumble and leave the lens safe. Those who have ambitious lenses on ambitious bodies are presumed to be mature adults with a good sense of self and camera preservation.

Mickey, the rules are that the camera has to be in a padded Lowe-Pro case in a rucksack along with two-piece rainwear.

I ordered a replacement today, same lens but in more recent guise, i.e. image stabilization (i.e. euphamism for camera-shake stabilization, i.e. euphamism for human tremor work-around that leaves you wobbling to your heart's content). And same price despite the new guise, emperor's new suit? I didn't take the opportunity to go for something more ambitious, I have other lenses for other situations, and this one is small and handy if it's all your packing. And in any case it's an unbudgeted purchase.