Lens mount play

[miah]

My new 5D3 has a bit of play in its lens mount. Regardless of lens, once fully mounted you can move the lens slightly left and right while on the body. This doesn't appear to affect performance in any way, but the loose tolerance seems strange to me. I then checked my year-old T3i with a similar group of lenses and found that it too has a bit of play, although it seems to be a bit less.

Is this considered normal? Has anyone else noticed this with their bodies?

If my 5D3's mount needs tightening, I'd like to get it done while it's still under warranty. But it says a lot about QC if Canon is letting these things out the door with loose mounts. Can anyone else chime in on their mount(s), so I'll know if my situation is an anomaly? Thanks.

 

[RLPhoto]

There is alittle wiggle on my 5D3s. All my EF cameras are like that.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

The play has nothing to do with a 5D MK III. It does have to do with the design of the EF mount system. The play is a designed in tolerance, and is noticible on some lenses more than others merely due to tolerance stackup.
Google it, its been discussed for 20 years now.

 

[fpdv01]

@miah, Relax! There is nothing wrong with your Canon EF mount or Canon's QC.

As previously mentioned by Mt Spokane Photography and RLPhoto, that left to right play is designed in tolerance. Imagine if that play wasn't designed in to the EF mount how difficult it would be to mount and un-mount your lenses! Then you would be complaining how difficult it would be to mount and un-mount lenses!!

On the other hand, if there was in and out play (as opposed to left and right) after your lenses are mounted then you should worry, otherwise you are worrying for nothing. Move on and start making pictures!

 

[miah]

Thanks, guys. It's nice to know my bodies appear to be within within spec, with regards to lens fit. Like I said, this never seemed to affect performance, but snug is snug and loose is loose. Without other bodies to directly compare mine to, I didn't know how loose was considered too loose!

Mt Spokane, I'm sure you're right and I could have Googled this question, but I thought that's what our forum was for. I appreciate the direct feedback from actual Canon users.

 

[Northstar]

Miah....I have a 5d3 and 70-200 and 24-105. The "play" is quite noticeable on my 70-200, but barely noticeable on the 24-105. It bothered me so much that I went to two different camera stores and tried their 5d3 with their 70-200 demo and each time the play was there. I then tried the Nikon d800 and Nikon 70-200 demo at the store and it had more play than my combo.

I realized what the others here are saying, it's normal.

One thing I did do though was to get out my small jewelers screwdriver and make sure all the external screws on the lens and body mounts are secure and not loose. Pretty simple thing to check, and I did find two that needed a tiny bit of tightening....though it didn't changed the amount of "play" at all.

Let me be clear though...I was simply checking to make sure visible external screws weren't loose, not trying to fix or "open up" anything.

Enjoy your new 5d3