Dear Canon, back to the drawing board re Lens Caps.

Seriously.

I never had a problem with the old edge button lens caps on the older generation of lenses.
I totally understood the desire of forum members to have center pinch lens caps as found on Tamron lenses of yore, but with the old lens caps on the old lenses, they at least staid put and went on the first time.

So it made sense that when canon was evolving it's line up to next gen designs, they would implement a nice center pinch cap.

I haven't experimented enough to discern if those caps are good,.(on for example an older lens like the 100-400mm gen 1) but what i do know is the lenses they come with, they absolutely do not work with.
Nor do the old style caps.

The newer lenses seem to have a point where a "false hold" occurs 9 out of 10 times. You think you have it seated, from experience you check and double check, but in the end...

Again, 4 out of 5 times I remove a lens alone or a camera with lens mounted in my bag, the cap has come lose!

I never had this problem before. But every Canon lens I've got since the 100-400mmL IS II that came with a center pinch cap, the cap is near impossible to get on securely in the first place, hood reversed or in use, and then when you finally do (or think you do) you pick up the whole package or put it in your bag and snap! the cap is off. Same with 16-35mm, same with every modern Canon lens I own now. At first all I had was the 100-400mm II, and since I still have a stash of the old style lens caps in 77mm I tried that. I mean I assumed the problem was the new cap. Alas, no, it's not that simple. On the 100-400mm the old style cap DOES hold better, but still not as securely as it did on the older lens. Something has changed on the rim of the lens that makes installing any cap securely and positively a 1 out of 10 chance.

Now I just had the cap of my one and only RF lens sail halfway across the room from the "force" of merely picking up my camera. They NEVER seem truly secure.

Please fix this.

Also the silly door on the lens hoods never stay shut. fix that.

P.S. The push button latch on the 100-400mm II hood also sucks, BUT I see you have VASTLY improved, nay, FIXED this issue with my new RF lens! Bravo and kudos for that!

Turns out some of the best engineers in the world can't design a working lens cap, and we won't even discuss how bad their idea of a lens how is.

Your post is too long to quote but the first thing that comes to mind: compare the number of visible filter threads on a "good" lens compared to one of your problem lenses. I have some low profile filters that it is almost impossible to get either style of spring loaded cap to stay attached to. Could be even losing one thread could make the difference between the cap staying on or not.

Rod

I've used lenses from Panasonic, Olympus, Sigma, Tamron, Nikon, Sony, Fuji, Lieca, Schneider/Phase, Hasselbald, and I can't remember who else.

All of them have better lens cap and lens hood designs than Canon.

I have a 16-35 f4L IS with the new center pinch cap, and IIRC I have experienced what you are describing. I don't use the lens cap anyways because I put a B+W filter and a hood.

I can't say I have any complaints about the front lens pinch caps, but don't even get me started on the RF rear lens caps, and how HORRID the design is. HORRID. The cap only goes on one way, unlike EF where it screws on from any position, without even looking at it.

Not only that, how they've marked the rear of the lens so you can orientate it to mount to an R-series camera... equally stupid, as you have to find the marking on the outside of the lens barrel, meaning that most of the time you have to rotate the lens a few times to get it correct, vs. EF when you simply looked for the easy-to-see red dot on the rear of the lens.

Really, really dumb.

Somehow, the pinch caps I use have a tendency to fall off. I think it is because of the tabs that allow a user to remove the cap by pushing on the tabs on the edge, as well as center pinch. I think if the tab on the edge gets pushed, the cap come off too. If someone could come up with a "safety" that fills the gaps which allow the pinch mechanism to move, that would keep the caps on while the camera is stowed in a camera bag that is being moved

I like the newer center style as its easier to place and remove with the lens hood in place. Most of mine stay on when I concentrate on replacing them but on my 24-105LIS II lens its terrible. It wants to pop off and typically it takes a couple tries to get it to stay put.

CyberDyneSystems wrote in post #19172269
Seriously.

I never had a problem with the old edge button lens caps on the older generation of lenses.
I totally understood the desire of forum members to have center pinch lens caps as found on Tamron lenses of yore, but with the old lens caps on the old lenses, they at least staid put and went on the first time.

So it made sense that when canon was evolving it's line up to next gen designs, they would implement a nice center pinch cap.

I haven't experimented enough to discern if those caps are good,.(on for example an older lens like the 100-400mm gen 1) but what i do know is the lenses they come with, they absolutely do not work with.
Nor do the old style caps.

The newer lenses seem to have a point where a "false hold" occurs 9 out of 10 times. You think you have it seated, from experience you check and double check, but in the end...

Again, 4 out of 5 times I remove a lens alone or a camera with lens mounted in my bag, the cap has come lose!

I never had this problem before. But every Canon lens I've got since the 100-400mmL IS II that came with a center pinch cap, the cap is near impossible to get on securely in the first place, hood reversed or in use, and then when you finally do (or think you do) you pick up the whole package or put it in your bag and snap! the cap is off. Same with 16-35mm, same with every modern Canon lens I own now. At first all I had was the 100-400mm II, and since I still have a stash of the old style lens caps in 77mm I tried that. I mean I assumed the problem was the new cap. Alas, no, it's not that simple. On the 100-400mm the old style cap DOES hold better, but still not as securely as it did on the older lens. Something has changed on the rim of the lens that makes installing any cap securely and positively a 1 out of 10 chance.

Now I just had the cap of my one and only RF lens sail halfway across the room from the "force" of merely picking up my camera. They NEVER seem truly secure.

Please fix this.

Also the silly door on the lens hoods never stay shut. fix that.

P.S. The push button latch on the 100-400mm II hood also sucks, BUT I see you have VASTLY improved, nay, FIXED this issue with my new RF lens! Bravo and kudos for that!

You should try the pinch cap and the mount cap on my Sigma 135,OMG those are worse than Canon's IMHO.They never stay on,At lease Canon's lens mount caps stay on.......

I bet it has to do with the exposed threads as mentioned above, the newer filters have a shallower thread, ie. less exposed thread. I think the Canon lens' themselves do not, but I'd have to check. So if you put a protective filter on your lenses (all of mine have such a setup) and buy a less expensive type (I never do), the outer thread is probably not deep enough to hold the lens cap.


I agree such little things are annoying, they save a nanopenny on each lens by making the threads one row less......

Mike

(those nanopennies add up, just like 'fleet' gas milage)

It's so weird that some manufacturers can't make a decent center pinch lens cap. The one that came with my Fuji XE2S kit was also horrible and Googling "Fuji lens cap falls off" shows that, at least a few years ago, it was a chronic problem. Hopefully they've fixed it by now.

I never had an issue with any of my Nikon lens caps, so for my Fuji I found what looked to be a cheap Nikon knock-off at B&H which completely solved my problem.

From your post it sounds like that may not work though as you tried some old side button Canon caps (that I always found to be really good), and they are still not as secure as you'd like. Still might be worth trying though. The Nikon look alike caps like the one from Sensei have quite a bit more grip area that the Canon caps. Maybe that makes a difference.

.
I just use the Sensei lens caps that screw in like a filter. . They never just fall off, no matter what. . And it is not a hassle or an inconvenience to screw them on or unscrew them off ..... just takes two or three seconds.

https://www.bhphotovid​eo.com …helGyKewBGw8aAt​XKEALw_wcB

I need to look into this one, Tom!

I never use lens caps unless I am reversing the hood and need to store the lens in a bag. I just need to take extra time to make sure the cap is on properly and won't pop off when jostled. Using s screw-on lens cap will solve the problem for sure.

I only have exactly ONE center pinch lens cap and I absolutely hate it.

I can never get it aligned to fit properly on my 17-40 and feel like I'm goobering the lens up every time I attempt to put it on......It is so bad I put it on my 135/2 where the lens doesn't stick out and put the side pinch on the 17-40 for my sanity.

If anyone wants to trade me a canon side pinch for my lone center pinch let me know. If not, I'll probably just end up trashing it after buying a replacement.

Moppie wrote in post #19172280
I've used lenses from Panasonic, Olympus, Sigma, Tamron, Nikon, Sony, Fuji, Lieca, Schneider/Phase, Hasselbald, and I can't remember who else.

All of them have better lens cap and lens hood designs than Canon.

The Tokina-brand lens cap is quite superior to Canon's.