I was up up at the cottage for the last couple of weeks with the family and brought along my 6D and a few lenses. When I went to take some snaps of the kids at the beach after a couple of images all of a sudden the viewfinder was abnormally dim. No error code and a subsequent exposure cleared it. Suspecting a connection problem I cleaned the contacts on the lens (which looked fine) and body and unseated and reseated the lens a few times and it appeared to be OK.
Later that day while taking more images I discovered that occasionally, usually with the lens racked out past 50mm or so, and in portrait orientation the diaphragm blades would fail to return to wide open after an exposure. Eventually I got an Error 01 - "Problem with Communications between Lens and Camera".
Further testing showed that the blades would never stick when setting the aperture to f/22 and pressing the DOF preview button repeatedly and only occasionally the blades would stick with the camera in landscape mode but much more frequently in portrait mode. Changing from RAW to JPEG and from One-Shot to AI-Servo and putting the camera into high-speed (well high speed for a 6D) drive mode did no appear to cause the issue but as a subsequent shutter actuation usually cleared the issue it was hard to tell except for the next image being completely blown as the TTL metering, anticipating f/4 metering was actually metering the exposure at f/22 or whatever I had the aperture set to.
I also noticed that just leaving the lens on the body on a table occasionally you could hear a buzzing from the lens sounding like focus hunting with the camera sitting idle and the IS disabled.
Other lenses worked fine with the same body and now that I'm back home I have tried the lens on other bodies and am still having the same issues.
I suspect an electrical malfunction or loose connection within the lens.
This really bites as this is the lens that lives on whatever body I have in my bag. The lens was bought 4 or 5 years ago and so is out of warranty and it has been taken good care of and never been dropped. I don't baby my gear and it has been out in the rain, worked on the beach, in the ocean, in 40+ and -30 C weather but always cleaned, always living with a filter on the business end. The gasket on the mount side is getting a little frayed and needs replacement.
As luck would have it this is the year I decided not to renew my CPN membership. The quality of the swag in Canada has been lacking the last couple of years, I have yet to find a place that I wanted to use it for a discount and I clean my own sensors as required.
Now that I need a repair the 30% discount will pretty much cover the cost of the membership and I also have a 1Ds Mk II I want to sell that I would like cleaned and inspected first.
Later that day while taking more images I discovered that occasionally, usually with the lens racked out past 50mm or so, and in portrait orientation the diaphragm blades would fail to return to wide open after an exposure. Eventually I got an Error 01 - "Problem with Communications between Lens and Camera".
Further testing showed that the blades would never stick when setting the aperture to f/22 and pressing the DOF preview button repeatedly and only occasionally the blades would stick with the camera in landscape mode but much more frequently in portrait mode. Changing from RAW to JPEG and from One-Shot to AI-Servo and putting the camera into high-speed (well high speed for a 6D) drive mode did no appear to cause the issue but as a subsequent shutter actuation usually cleared the issue it was hard to tell except for the next image being completely blown as the TTL metering, anticipating f/4 metering was actually metering the exposure at f/22 or whatever I had the aperture set to.
I also noticed that just leaving the lens on the body on a table occasionally you could hear a buzzing from the lens sounding like focus hunting with the camera sitting idle and the IS disabled.
Other lenses worked fine with the same body and now that I'm back home I have tried the lens on other bodies and am still having the same issues.
I suspect an electrical malfunction or loose connection within the lens.
This really bites as this is the lens that lives on whatever body I have in my bag. The lens was bought 4 or 5 years ago and so is out of warranty and it has been taken good care of and never been dropped. I don't baby my gear and it has been out in the rain, worked on the beach, in the ocean, in 40+ and -30 C weather but always cleaned, always living with a filter on the business end. The gasket on the mount side is getting a little frayed and needs replacement.
As luck would have it this is the year I decided not to renew my CPN membership. The quality of the swag in Canada has been lacking the last couple of years, I have yet to find a place that I wanted to use it for a discount and I clean my own sensors as required.
Now that I need a repair the 30% discount will pretty much cover the cost of the membership and I also have a 1Ds Mk II I want to sell that I would like cleaned and inspected first.
