24-70mm problem (maybe?)

dom yo · Sep 29, 2011

Alright here goes the short story.

As of right now, I am mainly a nightlife photographer that shoots with a Canon 7D. I go out to different clubs and bars and take pictures of patrons having a good time. I pretty much live in low light situations. So any responses telling me to manually focus the lens are not going to help me at all as it is near impossible to do with such low light.

Back in July, I purchased the 24-70mm 2.8f L series lens. Beautiful, beautiful lens. About a month ago, I noticed it was having a really hard time focusing in. It would work half way okay in better light but it was still not up to par to an L series lens. I tried cleaning the contacts and that did nothing. I then noticed, when I moved the focus ring all the way to "macro", it wouldn't even budge or attempt to focus. If I moved it all the way to "infinity", it would do better, but still really slow. A lot of times it would get so close to focusing and then it would just give up. So, to make sure it was the lens and not the camera, I first put my old Tamron 17-50mm 2.8f on my 7D and tried to focus. Well, that wasn't a really good test because the Tamron is just a super slow focusing lens anyways, but it would focus a lot more frequently than the 24-70mm. I then put the 24-70mm on my old Rebel XTI, it produced the same problem thus telling me that it was the lens.

I called Canon and they gave me all the information I needed to go about a warranty repair (excellent customer service by the way). I sent it off last Friday, and I just got it back this morning. A lot faster then I was expecting. So I put the lens on the camera and start testing it. Everything is amazing. Super fast, focuses every time. I'm stoked. So the final test comes, move the focus ring all the way to macro and try to focus. It works.... Kind of. If I turn the ring too far, I can feel the lens try to focus, but it just sits there until I move the focus ring back a little bit, then it works great again.

Does anyone else have this problem? I mean I can definitely live with it, I just need not to mash the focus ring into macro.

Thanks for the help guys.

Big Mike · Sep 29, 2011

I've heard a few fishy things about the 24-70mm F2.8 L...but never that one. Maybe contact Canon again and let them know that it's still not 100% fixed, so that if it does crap out again, you are on record that the repair was not perfect.

I guess a further test you could do, would be to go into a camera store and try out another 24-70 (or rent one) and see if you can replicated the problem with another copy of the lens. If you can, then maybe it's a design flaw...if you can't, then it's probably your specific lens and you should have Canon repair/replace it.