EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM Review WOW!

Choderboy wrote in post #17811208
For those not aware, I have a problem with my 100-400 II, the tripod foot keeps coming loose. After only extremely bad experience with Canon service I have decided to resolve myself. Well, pay a repairer to disassemble the rear of the lens to remove the collar ring. I thought sourcing a third party ring would be the best solution, once I have my lens sans ring I can measure and start looking. Todays development confirmed that will be the way forward. Canon came back with a price for the ring: $690. That's for the ring only, not the plate with the tripod thread or the 4 tiny screws or the foot. That's AU dollars so a neat $500 US.

Quote for them to replace it is $850, exactly 1/3rd the price I paid for the lens new.

Collarless 100-400 II:
The threads in the barrel are for bushes that guide the rotating ring. My plan to find a close fit alternative collar was flawed. The bushes also prevent the collar slipping toward the rear of the lens. While the 70-300L collar is almost a fit, that lens has a ridge behind the collar doing that job of the the bushes.
Any lens collar with a hinge allowing the collar to open up requires a ridge / raised section to the front and rear of the collar to provide that function.

CyberDyneSystems wrote in post #17812218
OK, above I thought you were getting a collar made to fit, now I saw the above and thought, "what are the chances anything will just happen to fit?"

But,. I happen to have both the 100-400mm and many "other" Collars.

I think you may be on to something with the fit of the SIGMA 120-300mm (I have the OS non "sport" )

The 150-600mm is too small, won't make it past the buttons, but the 120-300mm to the eye really looks like it may be your answer (of course on mine I can't get it past the "foot mount stub" or adjusting knob.)

But it LOOKS like it will fit IF the mod to your lens ends up with a body diameter that would match the Canon collar with the foot stub and knob removed.

EDIT: Grabbed my calipers, and it's close but not quite a fit!

SIGMA 120-300mm Opening:
3.400" Open all the way
3.350" Inch closed all the way (not much room for adjustment!)

I can't get a perfect reading on the Canon lens collar out side diameter, it is too deep for my Calipers to get to the fattest part. It looks to be at least 3.450"

So I think the SIGMA collar could be made to work with some fitting, but it depends on what in fact gets done to your lens.

// sorry about silly American inches

Choderboy wrote in post #17818178
Collarless 100-400 II:
The threads in the barrel are for bushes that guide the rotating ring. My plan to find a close fit alternative collar was flawed. The bushes also prevent the collar slipping toward the rear of the lens. While the 70-300L collar is almost a fit, that lens has a ridge behind the collar doing that job of the the bushes.
Any lens collar with a hinge allowing the collar to open up requires a ridge / raised section to the front and rear of the collar to provide that function.

So metal epoxy it is. Roughed up the collar and plate surfaces in preparation for metal epoxy. I believe just metal epoxy on these parts would be strong enough. With the 4 x 2mm screws also epoxied, which again I believe would be strong enough, I think I have a safe collar.

No photos of the epoxy process, concentrated on getting that right. You can just see some epoxy on the 2 screws with the threads that go all the way into the collar. I always leave epoxy leftover in same environment as the object repaired so I can check that it cures hard and that the mix was good, ie no hot mix (brittle) or cold mix (soft)

The problem now is that there is no access to the bushes. Solved by drilling a 6mm hole (bushes are 5mm diameter) through the collar.
A simple piece of tape will be used to cover that hole.

Lens was dropped off today to have the collar re installed (requires disassembly of the rear of the lens)

This stud arrangement prompted me to have a closer look at my 120-300OS. In case you didn't know CDS, this collar does come off the lens - I found out the hard way one day... Fully open it is 86mm and fully closed in the order 84.7mm. It is 18mm wide. The studs in the photo are 5mm in diameter and are centred 4.7mm from the shoulder.

I don't know if this might help at all

That seems very close. Too late for me though, hope to pick up the reassembled lens on Saturday.

My rental is here tomorrow, I'm not home until the day after, the suspense is killing me.

Choderboy wrote in post #17818178
So metal epoxy it is. Roughed up the collar and plate surfaces in preparation for metal epoxy. I believe just metal epoxy on these parts would be strong enough. With the 4 x 2mm screws also epoxied, which again I believe would be strong enough, I think I have a safe collar.

After reading all of your posts on this issue, this always seemed like the most sensible solution to me.

Any time screws back out of anything (that doesn't need to be able to be disassembled), the answer is always to glue or epoxy or loc-tite or weld it in place permanently. Not only is this the best fix, it is also the cheapest and easiest.

I'm curious to know; would you have been able to do this without having the collar removed, if you had decided to do this in the first place? If so, it would've been a really quick, easy solution.

The repair tech agreed using the original collar was best solution. The biggest hurdle to leaving collar on would have been drilling the hole through the collar (to allow re fitting the bushes). Drill bit would have hit the barrel as well as bits of metal getting stuck inside the collar. Also the 2 holes (for 2 of the 2mm screws) that went all the way though the base: stopping excess metal epoxy making it's way inside.

Done. Collar re installed in 1 day. Tape is dust cover for hole through the collar to provide access to bushes that would normally be accessed after removing plate in foot.
Whole job took a couple of weeks, last Canon service experience was "No fault found" after 12 weeks.
Canon quoted $690 for a replacement collar (without the plate or screws) and $850 with labour to replace.
This cost me $220 for collar removal and replacement.
If I had made a warranty claim and Canon actually agreed to fix it, I suspect they would have just taken 3 months to tighten screws and they would have come loose again. Possibility I could have had it failing with body and lens hitting the ground. I would also have been forced to ship it to them and not only take risk of damage during shipping, had to rely on them packaging it properly for return shipping. This solution allowed me to deliver and pickup. The other advantage is the tech owns the business and is the only tech. I knew I would be speaking to the person doing the work and the same person cares about his reputation.

Each to his own but I'm glad I took this route. Now, out to find some subjects

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/BgRY​or

Looks good. Glad it worked out for less than ⅓ of the cost.

Good for you, I hope it all goes well from here. But it's crazy you had to go to such lengths to achieve a solution

Ok All. I've decided to get this lens once I sell the 400 5.6 and 1D3 - tools I no longer use. My once deadly combo. Anybody want a 1D3?

Agreed, Choder glad your travail is over....I would have been fuming mad. My day will come sooner or later I'm sure.

As my copy of this lens is nearing the end of its warranty period I would like to ask a question I asked previously but never got the answer too.

When autofocusing, I sometimes hear a faint 'ping' noise from the lens. It's kinda like a very faint and much higher pitched version of if you flicked a crystal glass. It has done this from day one.

Anybody else noticed this? Normal? Something to worry about?

Triplexbee wrote in post #17822166
As my copy of this lens is nearing the end of its warranty period I would like to ask a question I asked previously but never got the answer too.

When autofocusing, I sometimes hear a faint 'ping' noise from the lens. It's kinda like a very faint and much higher pitched version of if you flicked a crystal glass. It has done this from day one.

Anybody else noticed this? Normal? Something to worry about?

I haven't noticed anything like that (but my high-frequency hearing isn't the best).

I have never heard that on mine.

Triplexbee wrote in post #17822166
As my copy of this lens is nearing the end of its warranty period I would like to ask a question I asked previously but never got the answer too.

When autofocusing, I sometimes hear a faint 'ping' noise from the lens. It's kinda like a very faint and much higher pitched version of if you flicked a crystal glass. It has done this from day one.

Anybody else noticed this? Normal? Something to worry about?

Make sure you are asking younger crowd. The older people lose the ability to hear high frequency sounds. That means that I can't hear what you describe even if my lens does it.