Do Older Lenses Die?

Flats

Flats

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Jonathan
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Quickie for the members, should I be wary of an older lens, or does the old adage "if it ain't broke...." apply?

I shoot with a 19 year old canon 200mm f2.8L, you know, the Mark I old one with the push-pull hood. It's great lens, in very decent condition all things considered, and I do like the convenience of the hood and the smaller resulting profile. However I am aware that it is fairly ancient, and that it isn't serviced anymore. It's very sharp, I am always pleased with the results, and I use it all the time. I must be one of the few people who likes the focal length, and I love the size of it, and the fact that it is black and does not look like could possibly be 200mm and fast.

I have an opportunity to buy a Mark II, dating from 2004 so a full twelve years younger. It is a very decent price, and bar one very obvious dust or fibre speck, in great condition and the seller testifies to its sharpness straight out of the box. This lens is serviceable, and barring the hood, which is a screw-on, the exact same lens - optically identical I am led to believe. I could probably make the change at cost neutral as the Mark I lens remains popular because of the hood.

So my question is should I do it? I'm interested to know what could go wrong with my 19 year old lens? I look after my kit, mostly, and don't bash these shorter lenses about. Will it just go on forever, or will the USM motor just conk out at some point? What else is there to go wrong inside there? How does wear and tear from normal use in a rear-focussing USM prime typically manifest itself? How long do they go on for? How long can they go on for? Or were lenses from the early nineties made much better than current lenses, in common with many things these days. In my hand, this older 200mm feels incredibly solid, possibly more so than my 135mm, which I understand is identical in construction to the Mark II 200mm.

Any thoughts from people with experience?

Thanks
Jonathan
 
I suppose if you look after the lens then it will go one for a considerable number of years. The obvious things that can knacker a lens is:

Oil on aperture blades but this is not common.
Pro Lens meaning it has had alot of use so may be prone to a failure.
Fungus on the lens (can be fixed).
Water intrusion into the lens body causing the electrics inside to fail.
Droping a lens on to a hard surface.

To be honest your lens should last for ages there are still lens knocking about from the 1890's that people use on large format cameras an while nowhere near the quality of modern day lens still have an appeal.

If you want to get your lens serviced and kept in tip top condition and you can get that done for the MkII lens and this is an important factor to you then yes you should up grade.

However if the lens you are using now works, gives you what you want and your happy with it, why upgrade?
 
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Well, later kit will be optically better. The improvements in glass continue and things like nano coating do enhance the performance no matter what some on here might say.

An old lens like you have will almost certainly not be serviceable now if anything goes wrong with it, but equally that means its next to worthless as a saleable item too. When will it fail? No idea! Most likely the fault will be electrical unless you drop it.

I'd just carry on using it til it breaks then replace it with a modern equivalent.
 
Flats said:
Quickie for the members, should I be wary of an older lens, or does the old adage "if it ain't broke...." apply?

I shoot with a 19 year old canon 200mm f2.8L, you know, the Mark I old one with the push-pull hood. It's great lens, in very decent condition all things considered, and I do like the convenience of the hood and the smaller resulting profile. However I am aware that it is fairly ancient, and that it isn't serviced anymore. It's very sharp, I am always pleased with the results, and I use it all the time. I must be one of the few people who likes the focal length, and I love the size of it, and the fact that it is black and does not look like could possibly be 200mm and fast.


Thanks
Jonathan
Click to expand...

For those very compelling reasons above you should keep it till it is no longer usable, then think of purchasing a replacement. :)
 
There's no guarantee the more modern one will be any more durable. If the old one still works then I'd keep it til it doesn't work and decide what to do at that point.
 
I'd agree that if it ain't broke don't fix it... I had a mkI 200 f2.8 and loved it - I know what you mean about the size and feel of it and agree that it is a nice inconspicuous lens. I only got rid of mine because I needed a 70-200 f2.8 for some work and couldn't get away with having both... I'll probably end up buying another one in the future though!
 
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