Need Help With Canon 100mm-400mm f/4 IS Lens

[Photoman65]

Has anyone experienced any problem using Canon 100mm-400mm F/4.5-5.6 IS lens? This is my favorite lens and after using this lens today, I noticed often when the image stabilizer is activated; the camera shutter will freeze after pressing the shutter button. On the display screen, the camera will display an error message 'Err 001' then I am unable to shoot any pictures. I cleaned the lens and camera contact terminals and the problem was resolved temporarily, but after using the camera and lens today, the same error message occurred. Does anyone know what's causing this problem? How can I fix this problem?:cry:

Symptoms: 1Ds MKII
- Camera shutter will open and freeze staying open after pressing the shutter button. The only way to close the shutter is to turn the camera on and off again. The lens refuse to focus with the press of the shutter or AF button. The AF beam is still visible, but the lens will not react to any commands from camera. I've cleaned the lens and camera terminals and the problems still happens.

Symptoms: 20D
- Shutter does not freeze, but the lens will not AF with press of shutter or AF button. The AF beam is still visible, though.:cry:

[Belmondo]

Strange. If I didn't know you were having troubles with your 20D too, I'd guess you'd set the 1Ds Mk II for mirror lockup, but none of the rest of it makes sense. Since the symptoms are different, it would be good if you can get a third body from a friend and see what your lens does on it. If it has problems, it's clearly the lens.

[SYS]

I had the same "error 01" message but when I used TC on my 70-200 lens. In my case, the communication between the lens and the camera was strained, and I suspect that it's a similar case with yours, too. You might want to play around with the focus range on the side of the 100-400 lens, i.e., 1.8m and 6.5m, and see if the problem still persists.

[asabet]

This error can occur due to something as innocuous as a lens contact needing to be wiped or something as serious as a faulty image stabilization part. If your warranty is still active and you don't find a solution soon, send it in. I am always wary when I hear about ERR01, especially on IS lenses. It seems to be a dirty secret and there is much misinformation out there. For more info, search the Rob Galbraith forums.

[Photoman65]

Thanks for the responses everyone. I cleaned the lens and camera contacts many times to resolve this problem. The lens would work fine after not using it for a few minutes, hours and days. I recently noticed this problem when using the IS. Once the IS is activated for about 2 ot more seconds, then the lens and camera will lose communication. I tried this on both the 1Ds and the 20D and had lens communication problems with both cameras. The lens is at Canon for repair, so I hope it won't be too expensive to repair.:cry:

[asabet]

I'll bet 10:1 that they replace IS components. I hope they don't charge you much, because it is a design problem. I had this problem with a brand new 17-85mm IS lens and returned it.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Yes, it sounds like the IS is dead or dieing on that lens.

[poah]

IS gets my vote. seen this before