Somethings wrong with the 400mm

[matt.garnett]

Okay so rented a 400mm 2.8 L non-is MK I (from like 1991) and I got it out of its tank-like case and put it on my T2i. First thing is say is F00 for my aperture and auto focus doesn't work. So I freak out a little and call the rental place (Dallas camera) and they don't know what to tell me and say they're sorry. So I go back and blow on connections front the lens to the camera and bingo it's starts working. I shoot the whole game just fine (except for the funny noise the auto focus is making) and after I leave them a voice mail saying it started working fine and all. So then I pack it up and go eat for a while and come back to the second game. I pull it out of the back and now all of the sudden it won't focus. So I leave them another voicemail and put it back the case.

Am I screwed?

 

[Rephargotohp]

Sounds like te connection contacts on the lens are dirty, Try cleaning them with a Pencil eraser if you are on location and have no contact cleaner

 

[Derrel]

Turn the camera OFF,and only then un-mount the lens. Check the screws on the camera body and make sure all are tight. Re-clean the lens contacts, and wipe the camera body contacts also. Connect the lens to the body with the camera power OFF. AFter the lens and camera have been re-connected, then turn the camera on, and see if the combination comes back to life. It very well might. "Sometimes" mounting a lens with the body left "On" can cause an issue. Dirty contacts can be a big problem. It does not take much to cause poor contact.

 

[Overread19 7]

+1 to what Derrel said

 

[KmH]

Don't use a pencil eraser! Use the other end of the pencil, becuase what it is made of conducts electricity, and leves a lot less debris that could wind up in the cameas mirror box.

 

[matt.garnett]

Okay I'll try that when I get home... But even the manual focus doesn't seem to work correctly. Is there a possibility the USM motor has just bit the dust and I'm just the unlucky one whose hands it was in?

 

[matt.garnett]

Also, focus is now making a sort of "screeching" noise when you turn it sometimes.

 

[Derrel]

Okay I'll try that when I get home... But even the manual focus doesn't seem to work correctly. Is there a possibility the USM motor has just bit the dust and I'm just the unlucky one whose hands it was in?

Yeah...you could very well be that lucky guy, on whose rental period the USM motor finally bit the dust fully...I know, I know, it's hard to imagine such good fortune, but I'd say yes, yes you could be that lucky renter!!!! Embrace the failure! Ask for a FREE rental period--a reversal of the CC charges, in full. Seriously. If it crapped out on you and it has been nothing but hassles, I think you deserve to have had a FULLY-FUNCTIONAL, pre-checked piece of gear...not some old, broken down nag of a rental lens with bad teeth and one bum leg...