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View Full Version : Great...is my lens shot?


ShutteringFocus
17th of March 2005 (Thu), 21:32
I have a sigma 28-135mm F3.8-5.6 Macro IF Aspherical lens that I bought as my first lens to go with my D30. Its not the best lens in the world I know...call it a "kit lens" if you'd like.

But today it stopped working. I have had trouble with it before. Sometimes the Aperture would not open back up after taking a photo and I would get an error on the camera and have to take the lens off and put it back on. Then the App. would pop back open. But now the app is stuck. The camera doesn’t give me an error message. It just tries to use the lens like normal and as a result it will over or under expose pretty much all the photos because the app is always stuck at one point. You can look into the lens and see the app stuck. It looks to be stuck about half way...maybe around f6 or f8. The info attached to the photos when opened in Photoshop says that the photo was taken with the app. it should have been taken with...but clearly the photo was not (it is really over or under exposed)

If I put the camera in manual mode and shoot with one shutter speed but vary the app. the photos all look the same.

The lens also makes a weird scratchily noise when zooming in and out...I think its from the aperture being moved while being locked down...it doesn’t sound good.

Ok, so I've established my problem right?

Question is what the heck do I do about this? Its 5 months past the one year warrantee. I'm thinking a $100 lens is hardly worth sending in to get fixed.

What can I try on my own? Basically its either fix er on my own or throw it out...I don’t have much to lose.

If I disassemble the back of the lens and take off the metal lens mount would I be able to stick something in there and jiggle things around to see if I can un-stick the app?

Are there spring loaded things in there that will pop out at me and be impossible to fix? (I've done that before ;) )

tim
17th of March 2005 (Thu), 22:29
When computers play up I whack them on the side, but I don't think that's a great idea with a lens. Call it a last resort.

dhbailey
18th of March 2005 (Fri), 04:30
Yes, there are spring-loaded-thingies in there which may pop out and be impossible to put back.

If your lens has served you well, it would be worth a call to Sigma customer service to see if they have a one-price-fits-all lens repair service. If it'll only cost you $50 to get the lens made like new, it'd be worth it. If they have a minimum-price just to look at it and then they'll call you with a quote, it's probably best to hold a funeral service for the lens on your way to the camera store to buy its replacement.

ron chappel
18th of March 2005 (Fri), 07:12
The aperture on eos type lenses are allmost allways very difficult to get to and have no mechanical levers sticking out of them-so it's very likely it won't be an easy fix.

Definitely get a quote from sigma THEN decide if you want to do some mechanical exploring;)

I've never worked on that model so i can't say if it's easy to take apart or not.Some modern lenses are incredibly complex:evil: ,some are quite sensibly designed

Also-don't forget that parts/repair lenses bring reasonable prices on ebay so it could well be worth simply selling it that way and buying another