Center Pinch Lens Caps

Mackeral wrote in post #15775538
The OEM Canon versions are superb and blow the cheap ones out of the water.

Agree. To save 4 bucks I'm not buying the cheap stuff. You have a $1500 lens and people complain about spending 9 dollars on a OEM part? lol

Scatterbrained wrote in post #15775709
No, their lenses and bodies are, but there are plenty of Canon branded accessories that aren't made by Canon themselves. It's pretty common actually. Do you really think Canon makes their filters, monopods, backpacks, etc.

That's because Canon doesn't make monopods or backpacks nor do they specialize in it. Try again.

Canon isn't like Nikon, Sony or Panasonic or other manufacturers where they rely on other companies for their parts. Like Nikon using Sony sensors. Canon produces their own. Canon also doesn't owe money and pays for everything in cash...like their new Melville HQ. Just a tidbit.

1KIND wrote in post #15775656
Actually, they do. All Canon products are manufactured in their own factories whether it be in Japan, Singapore or Thailand.

My Canon 58mm OEM Center Pinch caps say Made in Taiwan on them. The quality is mind-blowing, and rivals my 5D Mark III or Lexus LS460. I can't wait to get the 77mm for my other lenses. I need 6 of them, and at $15 each, I'll be shelling out $90, but guess what? I don't care! No third party cap even comes remotely close, and I've tried many. No contest. End of story. Debate is over. Period. Time to move on.

tgara wrote in post #15776219
My Canon 58mm OEM Center Pinch caps say Made in Taiwan on them. The quality is mind-blowing, and I can't wait to get the 77mm for my other lenses. I need 6 of them, and at $15 each, I'll be shelling out $90, but guess what? I don't care! No third party cap even comes remotely close, and I've tried many. No contest. End of story. Debate is over. Period. Time to move on.

90$, hell that's almost 1/15th the cost of most L lens.

I have Cowboy Studio center pinch caps for all my lenses. They work fine.

Mackeral wrote in post #15775725
Whatever helps you sleep at night, but it's indisputable fact that the OEM ones are better in build and quality. The hunt to find a better version would result in wasted money and time when looking at the price of the real thing. I call BS on anyone doing that therefore buying the real thing supersedes hunting for an alternative.

The very fact that it's being disputed in this thread shows that it isn't indisputable.

1KIND wrote in post #15775656
Actually, they do. All Canon products are manufactured in their own factories whether it be in Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand or any of Canon's manufacturing plant.

Mine is made in Taiwan. May be an OEM that supplies their other caps that are also marked from Taiwan or it may be from their Taichung plant that has 5,000+ workers.

The quality of the Canon center pinchers is far better than what I've seen from the 3$ jobs off of eBay. The only one I'm missing is the 77mm due to backorder.

i-G12 wrote in post #15775932
Agree. To save 4 bucks I'm not buying the cheap stuff. You have a $1500 lens and people complain about spending 9 dollars on a OEM part? lol

pretty much, but let them think they are getting a deal..

I'd like to know what is wrong with the ones i have off ebay (for years) that all work as expected, none scratch the lens, none fall off and none have broken.

Where is the extra cost going? Just because these are cheaper than the OEM versions why do people assume you have to pay that,because you have an expensive lens, otherwise you will damage it.
1000's of people use the eBay ones, its mad to say they are worse than the Canon ones as far as usability goes. Its just a bit of plastic after all.

dave_bass5 wrote in post #15778038
I'd like to know what is wrong with the ones i have off ebay (for years) that all work as expected, none scratch the lens, none fall off and none have broken.

Where is the extra cost going? Just because these are cheaper than the OEM versions why do people assume you have to pay that,because you have an expensive lens, otherwise you will damage it.
1000's of people use the eBay ones, its mad to say they are worse than the Canon ones as far as usability goes. Its just a bit of plastic after all.

Hi Dave,

When I compare the original Canon center pinch caps to various other ones, the main difference is the distance between the front element of the lens and plastic of the lens cap. It appears that Canon caps have a significant amount of clearance between the front element and the cap, especially in the middle of the cap, to accommodate all those lenses with convex protruding front elements (10-22, 17-40 etc.).

The build quality of the Canon is fantastic too. They are a few millimeters thicker than non-oem caps, but I am sure that was done so that they could tuck in the mechanism deeper in the body of the cap to create more clearance for the front element.

I can understand the better build quality, i would expect that, but after years of using eBay (and Tamron) lens caps ive not seen any issues and have not had any damaged front elements.
I realise that there are some poor versions out there but it amazes me that some people generalise on how these caps will damage your lens, when there are probably many 1000's of people using them already.
For what its worth i do plan on getting one for my 24-700, but only because i like the look of them.

It's interesting that I never knew I had a problem with the aftermarket center pinch caps that I get from Amazon at $5 a pop, until I read threads like these. I have had no problems so far, but decided to order two 77mm OEM center pinch caps from Adorama. Can't wait to see the improvement. They are not in stock, but when they arrive I will update this thread.

Maybe I am just lucky, as I have aftermarket batteries that give aprox 1000 pictures every charge and several aftermarket hoods that fit as well as my OEM hoods for my 100-400 & 200f2.8. I find that most OEM accessories are not worth the extra cost as there are other companies out there that produce the same/similar product for less, YMMV.

In my experience aftermarket items definitely vary in quality, but there are so many posts on here from people that have had good luck with hoods and caps that when people post about how rubbish they are compared to OEM, I wonder if they ever read anyone else's posts before making blanket statements.

jbrackjr wrote in post #15778311
It's interesting that I never knew I had a problem with the aftermarket center pinch caps that I get from Amazon at $5 a pop, until I read threads like these. I have had no problems so far, but decided to order two 77mm OEM center pinch caps from Adorama. Can't wait to see the improvement. They are not in stock, but when they arrive I will update this thread.

Maybe I am just lucky, as I have aftermarket batteries that give aprox 1000 pictures every charge and several aftermarket hoods that fit as well as my OEM hoods for my 100-400 & 200f2.8. I find that most OEM accessories are not worth the extra cost as there are other companies out there that produce the same/similar product for less, YMMV.

I have had great experience with non-oem batteries as well, mainly Pearstone for my t4i. I also bought a number of "general brand" step up rings from B&H that turned out to be Bower brand, and they are great as well. I guess it is all a bit of hit and miss and there can be QC issues with any brand. However, these new lens caps from Canon do have a bit of a premium feel about them compared to the non-oem ones in terms of build quality. Same way that a B+W MRC filter feels a bit more substantial than a basic Tiffen does.

A few years ago I bought a few of the cheap center pinch caps on ebay.

I like to store my lenses in my bag facing down in the bag with the rear cap facing up so I have easy access when changing lenses. It didn't take too long and I discovered one of the ebay center pinch cap had fallen off. I thought it may have been a fluke and thought nothing of it. A few days later it happened again.

I stopped using the cheap center pinch caps right after that. One sure way to scratch a front element is to have it grinding away on dirt and debris on the bottom of the bag. (I don't use "protection" filters, but that's another topic)