Ribbon cable break on Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 lens

[pgriz]

So how many of you who have that lens model have had ERR01 messages that were traced to a faulty ribbon cable within the lens? What repairs were done, and how well did they last?

 

[Derrel]

Have you seen the Lensrentals.com teardowns of modern AF zoom lenses??? It's amazing that ribbon cables do not malfunction more often than they do. You're talking about 79 cent electronic components made on assembly lines.

Take a look: LensRentals.com - 24-70mm f/2.8 Lens Teardown Comparison

 

[pgriz]

After looking at that tear-down, I'm glad I resisted the urge of taking the lens apart to see what was going wrong. Anywhooo - lens is off to its maker (well, the service arm, in any case). In the meantime, my photography is either through the UWA or the telephoto. I've been promised "10 business days", so we'll see.

 

[lambertpix]

I had this happen once on a 17-85. I figured the lens probably wasn't worth sending in anywhere for repair, and it was worthless as-is, so I picked up the ribbon on ebay and gave it a shot, figuring worst case I'd wind up with an interesting paperweight. Long story short, my brother & I took the lens apart (about 3 screws left in place by the time we were done) and fixed the cable.... and it worked! Pretty interesting seeing the engineering in those lenses, though.

 

[pgriz]

Got the lens back today from Canon Canada. A bit longer than the "10 business days" (14 business days including shipping there and back), but it's back. The service people replaced the whole AF mechanism, and it works like new. Paid the standard out-of-warranty flat rate. Hopefully, it'll be good for another 4 years of daily use. Now to give it several days of testing to make sure it really IS fixed and doing what is expected of it.