rmorrison1116 Loc: Near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

A question to those who own this lens.
I've had the EF 28-300L lens for quite a few years now, I'm the lenses second owner, and based on the serial number, the lens is 10 years old. This has been my general purpose lens for a long time now and it has been used on several of my Canon bodies. Back in March, at the Philadelphia flower show, while mounted to my 5D IV, the lenses began to occasionally fail with a bad connection error. I thoroughly cleaned the contacts on the lens but it still occasionally got the same error. At first I was only having the problem on the 5D IV but then it proceeded to periodically fail on my 5DSR and 80D. Again, I throughly cleaned the contacts and I'm not asking for advice on how to clean contacts.
Thursday morning I took a couple dozen test shots with the lens on my 5DSR and it worked fine. I was hoping to use the lens on the 5DSR to take photos at my daughters college graduation. At the graduation I could get maybe one shot before the lens failed and I had to reset. I eventually gave up and switched to full manual and believe me, it's not an easy lens to manually focus. I got maybe 5 shots before the lens failed again.

Has anyone had a similar experience with this lens? I'm figuring it's time to send it in for service.

mas24 Loc: Southern CA

I am not a Canon owner, but you said the lens was 10 years old based on the serial number. "L" lenses are Canon's best lenses. You use that lens on your full frame and crop sensor cameras. And since you are the second owner of that lens, it may have been intensely used by the first owner, and intensely used by you. And the lens is just simply worn out. My first two zoom lenses are 9 years old that I bought new. Still working. And I have bought two more since then. I am an amateur, and I personally don't shoot intensely. However, going to a graduation, if I had a faulty lens, I surely would not have taken it to a graduation event without having a backup lens. Your lens needs to be sent in to Canon for repair and reconditioning. You can shoot a graduation with either a 5DSR or an 80D, with a choice of many lenses. EF and EF-S.

leftj Loc: Texas

You didn't answer his question and I'm sure he didn't need the scolding. Experience has probably taken care of that.

mas24 Loc: Southern CA

I did answer his question. I told him to send the lens in for repair and reconditioning.

leftj Loc: Texas

This was his question. "Has anyone had a similar experience with this lens?" He said he already figured out he needed to send it in for service. People just don't have decent reading comprehension any more.

rmorrison1116 Loc: Near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

Yes, the question is, "has anyone had a similar experience with this lens?", and judging from the lack of response answering the question, I'd have to say, probably not.

mas24 Loc: Southern CA

Regardless, the lens needs repairing by a qualified technician. He obviously can't fix it himself.

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

I use the 28-300 extensively - and in dusty conditions. I've had it for about 8 years and it has never failed. BUT the reason I have it is because my previous lens - the 35-350 DID fail in exactly this same way. I took it in to the local fix-it shop, and they declined to repair it. I think I should have looked for someone else to repair it, but I found the 28-300 on a good deal, so I purchased it. When it was stolen, I purchased yet another one (used) and have had no difficulties. There's a guy on this forum who repairs stuff. You might try him.

I know you live quite a ways away, but my "go-to" fix-it shop these days is C.R.I.S. Camera in Tempe, AZ. You might give them a call. Or find a Canon-authorized fix-it shop in your area and give them a call. When I bought this lens, I was told it was "very fixable."

rmorrison1116 Loc: Near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

Thank you for your input. If it were a Sigma lens C. R. I. S. would be the place to send it. One of the best, non factory affiliated, camera and lens repair shops in this part of the country is less than an hour drive from my home so that is where it is going. It is my favorite general purpose lens for my Canon bodies. It's big and heavy and obnoxiously off white, but it's also super versatile and built like a tank. Hopefully whatever is wrong with it, isn't serious.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

I don't have that lens or any experience with it... but it's not uncommon for lenses that have seen many years of regular use to develop issues that require repairs.

Modern Canon lenses have both electronic and mechanical mechanisms that can and do wear with use or can fail over time simply due to age.

There are flex cable connectors that eventually grow brittle.... connections that can loosen... electro-mechanical devices controlling AF, image stabilization, the lens aperture, any one of which might eventually fail for some reason.

Should be pretty easily repairable... especially a lens that's still in production. Since it's not in warranty, I might have a local, independent repairer who's knowledgeable about Canon gear look at it. Certainly Canon Service Dept. could fix it... but factory repair techs always replace entire modules with new parts, which may be more than what's actually needed. For example, Canon 20D through 50D (maybe 60 & 70D and others, I dunno) have tendency over time and with a lot of use for their shutter release buttons to get gunked up with finger oils, dust, etc. When that happens, the shutter release gets sluggish and eventually fails completely. All that's really needed is a good thorough cleaning of that mechanism, which is best done with partial disassembly of the camera to get at the problem area. But if you send the camera in for factory service they will instead replace the entire shutter release module, adding quite a bit of cost. It's just the way factory repair techs are trained to do repairs... different from independent repairers.

Bill Emmett Loc: Bow, New Hampshire

First off, with the amount of Canon high quality equipment you have, you should look into joining Canon Professional Services. To replace that lens with a new copy would be over $2000.00. I would send it to Canon for a estimate at least. I know, since the lens is still in production the parts will be available. I did see on "Canon Rumors" that Canon is working on new version of this lens. You could wait, but the wait could be a long one. If it were me, and the lens is my main lens, it would have already been gone to repair. When I'm on a project Iand a lens shows one sign of a problem, I don't play with it, I send it in as soon as possible. I've found cameras, and lenses do not heal themselves, and failing equipment in your bag is a Rx for disaster on your next project.

B

ecar Loc: Oregon, USA

No. I'm guessing, but it may not be the contacts per say, (cleanliness) but the spring tension on them that's causing the problem. When you install a lens on a camera, it twists up to the camera and locks. The contacts are spring set so that they have a slight pressure dock on the camera body. It sounds like your lens has lost the spring tension to properly dock with the camera.

rmorrison1116 Loc: Near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

Sometimes we learn the hard way. The first time the lens malfunction was in March on my 5D IV at a flower show. The next time it failed was again on the 5D IV at an orchid show. Out of about 150 photographs, I had to reset twice. I'd used the lens on other bodies without a problem. I used it for my daughters RN pinning ceremony without a problem. I took at least a dozen photos before the graduation, again, with out a problem. I brought two cameras with me to the graduation, a 5D IV and 5DSR. We also got to bring two grandchildren, the graduates 2 and 4 year old daughters, with us. Daddy couldn't get off from work so tag, we were it. It was hot and a long walk from the car to the entrance and there were a lot of people so I left one camera in the car, the 5D IV. I brought the 5DSR in with me because with 50 megapixels, one can get better cropped images than with 30. I was going to grab a back up lens but with all the commotion with the grandkids and running late because of the grandkids, it was left in the car. When we got to our seats, the lens just kept failing every 3rd shot. I finally set the camera and lens to manual, managed to get about 5 decent photos of her in line and receiving the diploma holder before the lens wouldn't work at all. The grand children are getting antsy, it's time to go...

There's an excellent independent repair facility not too far from here. I will take the lens to them as soon as possible.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

Good lenses are made for "intense use"! They sure should last way longer than a tiny 10 years, I doubt it is worn out, but it sure needs to be checked to find the problem, fortunately Canon's Customer Service is one of the best ( I have zooms, 50 years and older, intensely used for that time and they perform as new)!

RichardSM Loc: Back in Texas

Hi depending on what its worth to you or it real value send to Canon for for the rear contact ring for replacement, the cost might not be that much a few hundred dollars, it might be cheaper than buying a new lens, it a least worth finding out!