Realistically how often will a lens 'break'

Mark_Cohran wrote in post #3848539
but my wife says I was just as stupid before the accident as afterwards.

Mark

PS: She'd be wrong, btw. I've read many of your posts. One thing you ain't, it's stupid.

The cheap P&S camera always seem to work and DSLR/Expensive cameras/equipments always seem to fail one way or another!

When I was on holiday last year my Nikon D70 started to behave really strange and died after 2 months. This year in Barcelona the Tammy 28-75 decided to give me err99 if I set the aperture higher then f/3.2

While the good ol point and shoot never let me down. I have a Canon A40 2mp with nearly 10,000 clicks still works perfectly after 5 years.

Strange!

EORI wrote in post #3848969
The EOS3, which is what I have, does not have an auto focus motor built in to the body. So the answer is no. One can continue to manually focus, but most of the consumer auto focus lenses have a very narrow focus ring, which makes using it in manual mode a bit of a pain.

Then what is the built-in motor drive in the EOS-3?

RedHot wrote in post #3851351
Then what is the built-in motor drive in the EOS-3?

It's to advance the film (remember those? ).

RockOne wrote in post #3850620
How often will a lens break....usually just the once .

I've been looking at this thread title for a while, and the quote above is the answer I was about to post - most lenses that break usually break only once.

I have had a few lenses stop working, but mostly due to user error such as knocking over a tripod with camera and lens mounted or forgetting to switch from AF to MF when if touched up focus manually. I have had more problems with Sigma lenses than Canon lenses, but that could just be bad luck and the fact that some Sigmas do no have full time manual focus override.

I've never had a lens stop working in 45 years. I don't use them everyday, but I use them enough. Maybe I've just been lucky. I take of my gear. I've never dropped a lens, never tried to take one apart, etc.... My 28-135mm is a little loose when extended out, but I think they all are.

I'm not sure any data exists that is publicly available, but my guess is that lenses with AF and IS are more likely to break than older lenses with fewer "features".

I have been involved in photography since high school (30+ years) and in that time I have had exactly 1 lens that had to be repaired. My 28-70 2.8L had the one of the internal elements get loose. Unless you drop one they should be like the Energizer Bunny. That is why I have always felt that lenses are much better investments than camera bodies.

Michael

SunTsu wrote in post #3852808
I'm not sure any data exists that is publicly available, but my guess is that lenses with AF and IS are more likely to break than older lenses with fewer "features".

More technology, more chance of something going wrong!

why can't they just make everything simple!

EORI wrote in post #3851480
It's to advance the film (remember those? ).

Why does the EOS Elan not have a built in motor drive then? And I shoot a lot of film with my EOS-3 and Pentax K1000.

RedHot wrote in post #3855538
Why does the EOS Elan not have a built in motor drive then? And I shoot a lot of film with my EOS-3 and Pentax K1000.

I'm not quite sure what you mean. I have the predecessor model to the Elan, the EOS 10s, and like the Elan, it has motorized film advance, AKA motor drive. The motor drive in the camera body has nothing to do with controlling the auto focus motor that's built-in to every EF and EF-S lens.