Lens Creep

mata.morrison

mata.morrison

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Matthew
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Playing with my new (second hand) 24-105L and there seems to be creep on it, is this a big problem at all? Is it common? Basically if its set at 35 and pointed down will creep to 75ish...

Something I have to live with?
 
Dont know about that lens in particular, but had with a few others.
On my 55-250 I keep a broad elastic band (black) around the zoom ring joint and it stops it. Just live with it.
 
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Not heard of that problem with that lens before.

Couldn't remember it ever happening with mine so you made me dig it out to test. Should never be a problem even with a ring flash on. Nice and snug without being too tight. Not ball bearing smooth, but never noticed any problem before. Finger and thumb job.(But hey, its only a Canon L lens not some expensive luxury item right)? :shrug:

You say its second hand. Is your zoom action very smooth and loose? Any other signs of heavy use?

Still my favourite walk around lens and the one most often on a body.
 
It is common on a certain lenses, not sure about the 24-105 (although StevePix's lens does) but yes is common and nothing to worry about - there are some lenses that now have a zoom lock button on it - my 70-300 I'm selling has a zoom lock button on it, take the button off, point it down and it extends itself ...
 
Not heard of it with that lens, I had a Nikon 18-200 that was looser than the ladies of the night. Got very frustrating and was part of the reason I sold it after just a month.
 
My 24-105 is about 4 years old and doesn't creep at all. As andyred says it doesn't affect the function of the lens.
 
Just checked my (nearly new) 24-105 and there's no creep (huge sigh of relief).
 
Craft said:
As andyred says it doesn't affect the function of the lens.
Click to expand...

Well technically it does. If you are taking a long exposure with the lens pointing downwards and its creeping, what do you think will happen?


Yeah some lenses with heavy glass elements can creep slightly and some more so. Ive had a few copys of this lens and one was bad and the other 2 didnt creep.

The best solution (and cheapest) is to zoom the lens to 105 and put a piece of black insulating tape on 2 opposite sides so the tape will give a slight bit of friction to prevent creep. You may need 2 pieces on top of each other.

The second thing to check is to actually remove the rubber zoom rings and look for 2 small screws behind them and see if they need tightening up as this can prevent creep.

And finally, send it to canon and explain the problem, they have been known to fix this issue before.
 
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My 24-105 is a few years old and used regularly. Zero creep.
 
Ok all thanks for the tips/help. It is annoying me a bit, how much so I'm not sure yet as I have hardly managed to play with it yet. Thanks for the tips Derek, will check out them screws later when I get home, not sure if it will bother me enough to send it off yet though... will see how it goes.
 
My does exactly that: creeps between (around) 35-70, but only if I point it down vertically.
 
I had two copies of this lens in the past, both brought new, and none had any creep, but i brought a second hand one off here end of last year and it had it. After some searching around i found quite a few comments about lens creep with this lens.
It got to a point where i had to sell it (and i was honest about it when i did). Im not OCD or anything but it did bug me a lot. Same goes for my old 15-85IS.
 
my 24-105 creeps quite a lot, no big deal as I don't see any need to shoot directly upwards or downwards. I'd use my 17-40 for night sky photography anyway.

if you watch DigitalRev videos (eg their Nikkor 24-120 video), they often compare lenses to their 24-105 which is used to record their videos. you'll see massive amount of zoom creep on their 24-105.
 
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