Support being stopped for certain Lenses

MatBin

MatBin

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As a number of people have posted that Canon (UK at least) are ceasing to support certain lenses, usually damned expensive L series, but probably others too, is anyone aware if 3rd party manufacturers are doing the same or is it only Canon?
Tbh if my L series lenses cease to be supported then when they break and become un-repairable I'll be very tempted to go 3rd party if those manufacturers continue to support their product(s).

Matt
 
Simple fact is that it doesn't make any economic sense to continually produce parts for discontinued products... they will all be unable to repair old equipment at some point, and then it usually becomes uneconomical to have it repaired (specialist sourcing salvaged parts). Often the equipment will still sell for a good bit of money for parts/repair.
 
MatBin said:
As a number of people have posted that Canon (UK at least) are ceasing to support certain lenses, usually damned expensive L series, but probably others too, is anyone aware if 3rd party manufacturers are doing the same or is it only Canon?
Tbh if my L series lenses cease to be supported then when they break and become un-repairable I'll be very tempted to go 3rd party if those manufacturers continue to support their product(s).

Matt
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As @sk66 says, all manufacturers will eventually end support for discontinued older products, it’s not economical for any of them to continue holding spares for something that may have been discontinued 20 years ago.
 
Its the same with every product - it has a life span beyond which the manufacturer can't be expected to support.

Whilst Canon are supporting the lens, there is nothing to worry about, apart from the possible cost of the work.
After that, Canon or one of its subsidiaries may make parts in batches, if there was sufficient demand, so there is a chance that there may be a delay.

At the moment, all my Canon lenses are supported, but when the support runs out I will continue to use them, but I recognise that should misfortune happen and all the cards fall against me, I may have to hire a lens as a temporary measure, or buy a replacement if I get caught out by a delay. That's the chance we have to take.

I had a lens away at Sigma and took months because they were waiting for parts to become available.
 
Canon have supported the MkI 300/400/500/600 telephoto for between 18 and 20 years after their introduction including several years after the MkII versions were released. That's seems pretty reasonable to me.
 
I understand the need to stop supporting "old" lenses but we had a case on here of an expensive mk 1 lens having it's support stopped a few years after the into of the mk 2. This meant a "new" (i.e. 5 yr old) mk 1 was no longer supported.
I'm not Canon bashing, just wondering if anyone knows if 3rd parties do the same, that is, stop support when they bring out a new version or only support for say 10 years from new, which if the lens has an 8 yr production run it's not supported from the moment it's 2 yrs old.

Anyone?
 
I think 5 years from ceasing production is if not by law then the industry standard for support of the product in the electronic industry.
But think about the amount of parts for different versions they had to store to service obsolete lenses.
 
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soeren said:
I think 5 years from ceasing production is if not by law then the industry standard for support of the product in the electronic industry.
But think about the amount of parts for different versions they had to store to service obsolete lenses.
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The stock control really isn't my problem, if the manufacturers can't afford the cost to keep older lenses in good order for a number of years then it's their issue. I really don't think 5 years is good enough, some lenses cost multiple thousands, fair enough if the lens costs a few hundred then 5 years "might" be acceptable. Some old manual lenses are still going strong after many many years and to be fair so are some "electronic" ones but for a manufacturer to categorically state a lens is no longer supported after say 5 years after production has ceased is poor, would a car manufacturer do this?
Anyway, just wondered if anyone knew where 3rd party lenses stood.
 
I'd be a little surprised if Canon only supported out of production products for 5 years, as far as I remember the products I was involved in (not cameras or lenses) were supported for 10 but things might be different for photography equipment.

I'd agree 5 years is a bit rough for a product costing thousands especially for people who were late buyers.
 
woof woof said:
I'd be a little surprised if Canon only supported out of production products for 5 years, as far as I remember the products I was involved in (not cameras or lenses) were supported for 10 but things might be different for photography equipment.

I'd agree 5 years is a bit rough for a product costing thousands especially for people who were late buyers.
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Have a word with Tony (Kipax)
 
If I can draw a parallel with power tools, then if you buy a Homebase own-brand drill (if there is such a thing), then at the price point there won't be any parts stockholding at all, and if it breaks in the warranty period they'll likely just give you a new one. On the other hand if you pay for a Makita, a Bosch or a Dewalt, you'll be able to get bits to keep it going for something like 10 yrs or so (some parts will run out before others). Which would seem to accord with what's being talked about here.
 
I think 10 years after cessation of production would seem reasonable, not always the case with lenses though.
 
This illustrates that some older lenses, from all makers, are not always the bargains they seem! It's a case of doing your research before committing to buy!
cheers
 
MatBin said:
I thought we already did that for L series lenses?
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Well having to produce and store an amount of units of a certain product is gonna cost and the only ones to pay for it is the buyers. In the pharmaceutical industry working accordingly to GMP things are getting really crazy. Not only archiving dokumentation for the livespan + (for some products) 10 years now also equipment used to generate data is to be stored after decommisioning.
 
The complexity of items that may need replacing over time in "electronic" lenses is I would imagine confined mainly to circuit boards, ribbons, motors etc. The internal lens elements probably rarely if ever need replacing, front and maybe rear elements more so I guess as they can receive external blows/damage but tbh I cant see there needing to be vast amounts of the electronic stuff being required and the cost implication should be relatively small, after all car manufacturers are/were required to keep sufficient stock or the ability to manufacture a stock part for 10 years and cars have thousands of parts, some quite large.
The older manual lenses are still around, working years after production has ceased so we are talking about the electrical bits in most cases, or is this just a case of the manufacturers of modern lenses not really giving a monkey's and assuming if you have an L lens (or equivalent Nikon/Sigma etc) you are probably professional and will write it off after 5 years and/or offset it against tax so dont care too much, anyway it will give you a chance to buy the later mk2/3/4/....
As I said earlier this isnt aimed at any single manufacturer, I just wondered where the independants stood, seems we dont know, at least Canon send you a mail to say your expensive soon to be doorstop isnt going to be supported soon, so flog it and upgrade quick :)

Matt
 
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I do understand what Matt is getting at here the MK1 supeteles where made until relatively recently and were and are very expensive
I understand why they are expensive but think that Canon should be supporting these lenses until at least 10 years after they have stopped making them
When I was looking for a 300 2.8 about 3 years ago I very nearly bought a MK1 it was my wife that said I may as well get the MK2 and I'm glad I listened to her as if I hadn't and bought the MK1 I would not be able to take it to Canon for any servicing
As it happens I'm taking mine in to Canon at Elstree in the new year for a checkup and calibration together with my 1.4 and 2.0 tcs and 7D mk2 I would have been stuck if I'd bought the MK1
 
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