Lifetime of a lens

hamacting

hamacting

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Alan
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How long should I expect a lens to last?

I ask this because my 24-105mm has failed, and I have to decide whether to spend £150 to repair it or buy a new one at somewhere around £600-700.

Thing is, it's seven years old, so it's no spring chicken. Would this repair be done only to find that something else fails in six months? Of course, we can never know.

To my mind, the lens is in good condition for its age. It's been fairly well looked after - not wrapped on cotton wool; it's been used for the purpose it was built for, but it's not been abused.

Any thoughts?
 
a lens can last forever.. or not?


Its going to depend on usage I guess.. but even then.. should still last.. how has yours failed?
 
It is reporting "Error 01". Some searching on the web suggests that this is common with this lens type; apparently a flexi circuit board inside the lens is not quite up to the job and is known to fail after some amount of usage. There was apparently talk in the past about a class action lawsuit to try to force Canon to do a recall of the lens, but that came to naught.
 
i get error 01 now and then on diff lens.... you clean the connections and its sorted.. mucky connections is err 01 :)
 
its the electrics then gearing that go first

fyi the sigma 24 105 is better than the cannon if u go new
 
You may find the best bet is to sell it as is, and then buy a grey import replacement - you can get one for around £460-480.
 
The old 24-70L needed to have collar replaced every 2 years with or without use. Plastic vs heavy metal and glass in the assembly does the job over time... 6 years is decent for a used zoom but I could see why you expect more. If there were no (intentional?) flaws in the design they would last longer with careful use.
 
daugirdas said:
The old 24-70L needed to have collar replaced every 2 years with or without use.
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I beg to differ. I don't know off-hand exactly how many of these lenses I've owned - probably 15 to 20 - and this hasn't been an issue.
 
hamacting said:
Some searching on the web suggests that this is common with this lens type; apparently a flexi circuit board inside the lens is not quite up to the job and is known to fail after some amount of usage.
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I beg to differ. I have a lot of 24-105s and I don't find them particularly troublesome. I think the issue here is that there are an awful lot of these lenses in circulation and a small percentage of failures is a large number.
 
You undoubtedly have more experience of these lenses than I have - what I did read was that the flexi PCB that was accused of being at fault was replaced by a diffferent part some years ago, but that many older 24-105mms failed.
 
hamacting said:
You undoubtedly have more experience of these lenses than I have - what I did read was that the flexi PCB that was accused of being at fault was replaced by a diffferent part some years ago, but that many older 24-105mms failed.
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Maybe. I don't think Canon have ever acknowledged it officially, but that doesn't rule out the possibility that they tweaked the design. Can you point to a source which demonstrates the change? You'd think it wouldn't be too hard for someone to have dismantled an old copy and a new copy to look for differences, but without that kind of evidence it's all just talk and rumour.

None of my 24-105s are more than about 5 years old, so if the fault exists or existed then I guess it's possible that all mine are too new to have the faulty part, and/or too new for the fault to have manifested.
 
I've never had that fault with my 24-105 (yet !!!!) but I did have an issue with iris unit failure a while back, which I am told is also not unheard of for that particular lens. In that situation I opted to repair it. So far, so good.
 
I've seen a few 24-105s advertised as faulty with most likely a failed ribbon cable and had been tempted to buy one and get it repaired but recently the used prices seems to have dropped dramatically so it's not really a viable option unless one can be bought very cheaply or you can replace the part yourself.
(Not too difficult if you're technically-minded and good with small, fiddly parts.)
As StewartR says, think of how many of those have ever been sold and though it is a known issue it's probably a very small percentage that have suffered the failure.
The 17-85 has the same issue and again, though you see a fair few faulty ones for sale there are probably hundreds of thousands of them in daily use.

@PeterF80, the fault you had may well have just been the ribbon cable but as far as I'm aware Canon will only sell a complete "power diaphragm assembly" which is the aperture unit with the ribbon cable attached to it.
 
That may have been the case. I know the repair people at the repair shop said something about the whole thing being a "complete unit". From what I understand, the iris unit is integrated with various bits and pieces, including one of the lens elements, which made it more expensive to replace.
 
PeterF80 said:
That may have been the case. I know the repair people at the repair shop said something about the whole thing being a "complete unit". From what I understand, the iris unit is integrated with various bits and pieces, including one of the lens elements, which made it more expensive to replace.
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Looking at various disassembly guides on t'interweb you're correct, it nestles in amongst a group of elements and the lens needs to be properly set up afterwards so it's not a diy job like the 17-85 one is, they're a doddle to do.
That would explain the £150 price the OP has been quoted though I have seen prices around the £100 mark bandied about.
 
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