Well, kinda.
The story:
I was shooting a gig last friday, and wanted to change lenses.
The EF 28/1.8 didn't want to come off. It had rotated a bit too far apperently.
After a bit of 'wiggling' I finally managed to get it off. Fine.
Next lens I attached didn't want to AF, and the display gave '00' for aperture... Not so fine.
(Bad images, sorry: cell phone)
Re-attaching the lens didn't work. Turning the camera off, no luck. Removing the battery, nope.
Finished the shoot on MF, and shooting wide open. Royal pain in the butt, since this was in very, extremely, low light. Even for performing arts. Think ISO 1600, 1/15s, f/1.8 and then EC+1 in DPP....
Happy to say that at least one of my eyes isn't as bad as I thought, as I got some sharp images.
After the gig, back in brighter surroundings, I examined the camera closer.
Electronic contacts looked okay. I think: maybe it's a software error.
I look again. Hmm, that doesn't look right: A little pin, looking like it's broken.
This is were the pin is:
Yep, it's broken allright.
Turns out the 28mm is missing a tiny, but important screw. That screw acts as a 'stop', so the lens can't rotate too far.
The 28 without, and my 20-35 with the screw:
No idea how long this screw has been missing, but apperently the now broken pin acted as a stop for a while, and couldn't take it any more...
I remembered that I'ld once before lost that screw, and at that time the lens was able to rotate almost freely at a friends 20D. Not on my 1D2 however, probabely because of that pin. Canon replaced the screw, but apparently should have used a bit of locktite
Looking at a 20D later, it doesn't seem to have that pin. Same for a 350D AFAIK.
Seems that my camera doesn't 'know' there is a lens attached, if the pin isn't shifted.
Nevermind that there are 8 electronical contacts saying 'hi'....
Nevermind that the 20D does *not* have the pin, so apparently it isn't needed.
Seems like it's a leftover from the past (my Eos 10, Eos 5 and Eos 1n all have the pin)
I have no idea why it is there, since the camera operates okay without a lens attached, and when a non EF lens is used (lensbaby) things like focus conformation are turned off anyways...
Since I had another shoot the day after, I decided to see what happened if I fix the pin into 'lens on' place.
A bit of gaffer did the trick. Aperture and AF are working again. No problem whatsoever.
Needless to say the camera and lens go off to Canon for repairs...
I think I'll ask them to just glue the lever into place if it isn't needed
They can use glue on the screw as well.
Moral of the story: Check your lenses every once in a while for that stop screw, and allways have a bit of Gaffer at hand.
Turns out that if I'ld know this at the gig, a 5 second fix would have made the shoot a lot easier...
