Testament to Canon L Glass

[bob williams]

After taking a few night shots of our Christmas tree, I decided to remove My 24-105 and replace it with the 10-22. During this process, I made the mistake of laying 24-105 on our bar. Just as I was attaching the other lens to the camera (both hands fully occupied), Iwatched the 24-105 slowly rolling to the edge of the bar---You got it, it rolled off of the bar, fell52 inches on to ceramic tile floor which was supported by a concrete foundation. At that moment, you could have seen a grown man weep like a baby. Well, I gathered my thoughts and prepared for the worst. Upon initial inspection, the only visble issue was that the lens hood popped off. On closer inspection---nonoticeable damage. I reattached the lens to the camera and went through every test I could think of---everything worked--No cracked glass-AF worked, diaphragm worked, all electronics seemed to work, all switches and rings seemed to work---the test shots I took afterword looked great. No noticable damage of any kind that I could find.


Beyond great image quality,this is another reason we pay so much for L glass.


If Ifind any problems I will followup to this post.


One more note---always sit your lenses on the end---not on the side.





Bob

[Sean Setters]

I've seen plenty of "L" lenses up for sale on ebay--broken by just such events. I think you're lucky. :-)

[Keith B]

I'm going to guess the hood hit first and absorbed a lot of the the blow because that is amazing.


I dropped my 24 1.4 L mkI from about 30" onto carpet and it blew out the USM and mounting ring. Canon fixed for no charge though.

[Freeday]

My shelf broke and dropped my 70-200 and cracked the uv filter and nothing else. Still shoots like a champ. I almost cried when it happened. Glad to hear it is still working.

[Sinh Nhut Nguyen]

Bob, I'm glad everything's ok with the lens. Even though things seem fine right now, If I were you'd send it to Canon for a thorough check up.

[elmo_2006]

Bob, you've got yourself a 'guardian angel' looking out for you or dare I say the lens itself has one.


I would have curled into the fetal position calling out 'mommy, mommy'!


Good news indeed.

[Sean Setters]

I wouldn't have gone straight to the fetal position...however, a very loud profanity would have commenced.

[alexniedra]

Second that! Glad to see nothing bad happend to you - The circumstances could have been much worse. I dropped my Tokina 12-24 f/4 two feet down onto the metal floor of a van over the summer - Luckily the lens sustained no damage.


Time to start taking care of the 24-70! []

[flaminfury]

I'm surprised they actually fixed it without charge...i once had my 70-200mm F4L IS attached to my rebel while in the rain and water got into the body and ruined my AF motor...i had to pay for the replacement motor. Strange.





But keeping in line with the topic, my 70-200 has dropped 3 times from a considerable height each time (onto either concrete or marble) and survives! Actually had the lens filter shatter once and that really did have me preparing for the worst. I dare say that thats not glass in there...its some special indestructible canon see-through material!

[freelanceshots]

My EFS 17-55mm IS lens a few years ago rolled off a waist high table where it fell onto the floor. When it hit the floor it made a loud crack where my jaw almost hit the floor as well. The floor was covered in berber carpet so there was a little padding but with that impact everything stopped working on it. Sent it in to Canon where the newspaper that I worked for covered the repair so I got lucky.


Every time I continue to perform a stupid balancing act with my lenses in my hands along with the camera body, lens caps, filters and so forth I invision something slipping out of my hands. Some day its bound to happen where I will be crushed when it does but hopefully I can just continue to be lucky.