(Potential) Damage to IS

I was listening to a pro photographer last night who does a lot of travelling, and he quite clearly stated that prolonged vibration of a camera, such as a long trip along a rough mountain road, in a backpack when riding/hiking .... well you can get the sort off scenario he was refering to, will cause the IS to fail (the gyros etc to lock up/fail) and that you should only take prime lenses on these sorts of trips.

I would have though that with the camera turned off there would be no power to the IS mechanism and as such it wouldn't be suspect to damage.

Curious as to others thoughts and experiences, as I am very careful with my gear, but I have my 5D Mk II + 24-105 with me every day in the car etc

I've carried three IS lenses all over for about 8 years now, transported them in cars on all types of roads, in airplanes, short trips and long... Reasonable care, but nothing special... the 70-200 especially gets a lot of use... No problem with any of them and have two more IS lenses that are more recent vintage, which also are working fine.

But three out of my five lenses with IS are prime lenses (300/4, 300/2.8, 500/4). So, I really don't know what this "pro" was trying to tell you.

I've only heard of a few IS failures... seems mostly to be specific lenses, like the EF-S 17-55 for example.

Depending on the pro, he could just be an old fashioned guy who simply sees IS as "another thing to go wrong" like so many pros

Heck I ran across one pro who shoots Nikon, who specifically keeps an old completely manual Ai-S 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor in his bag or pocket at all times "Just in case" every one of his other lenses fails because "It wont break, Ever, or fail to work"

I think he also usually carries an old completely manual FM2 as well "just in case" since it cant really stop working if he runs out of battery power or anything [FM2 is fully mechanical]

Some people are just not trusting when it comes to new stuff..

Me? I don't worry about it, The way I see it, IS has been around for 13 years or so now, And its been in pro lenses for a decade, Arguing about its reliability at this point is like saying AF is unreliable...

Simply put, I've seen what those 300mm f/2.8s go through in the hands of pros, and they put IS in those, even LensRentals who is incredibly hard on their stuff [Shipping it all over the place and everything] stated they have never had a single 300mm f/2.8 fail due to anything besides abuse or dropping, I think they said ALL of their big telephotos are like that...

Sure, some cheaper lenses [LIke the 17-55] arent quite as robust..But i still wouldn't worry

Thanks guys, really appreciate the feedback ... and what you've both said makes a lot more sense than what this guy was trying to get across

^ i ran down a hill with my 70-200 2.8 IS in 15 minutes which had taken 1 hour and 10 minutes to hike up. my IS works fine.

someone is just blowing smoke....

"Pros" sometimes will try to tell you things and make sure you get the ideas they know better than everyone else. That's just how "Pros" like it 'cos they are the "Pros".

The only thing I've ever seen in writing regarding potential damage to IS is to not dismount a lens while IS is running.

Other than that: Go Nuts!

I've had my IS lenses in backpacks on motorbikes and mountain bikes for quite some time and have had zero issues so far... definitely not something I'd worry about.

Pro's aren't exactly very knowledgable when it comes to gear

On the other hand, trust pixel peepers like me

The IS lens group is "locked" when IS is off, so it is at no more risk of it bouncing around than a normal lens group.

And I'm not sure why this 'pro' thinks that IS on a prime should be immune to vibration that would affect IS on a zoom.

However, there is somebody who posts on either PotN or Birdforum who sometimes relates his experience with a roller-case, a bumpy track and a 300 f2.8. The final outcome was the vibration killed the IS on the lens. Since reading that I've been a bit worried when travelling in Africa, where the roads aren't too good a lot of the time. On the really bumpy sections , at high speed, I cradle the camera and lens on my lap - hoping that will damp the vibrations.

As a pro I hope his images are better than his advice, I have wandered 10's of thousands of miles on the worst possible trails, cow paths and logging roads with a camera and 100-400mm IS in a tank bag on my motorcycles.

Also loaded on the bike were other lenses with IS like the 24-105mm f/4 or the 500mm f/4 and while I have had welds fail on luggage racks from vibrations, GPS mounts crumple from the same and the usual issues of this type of travel of fasteners backing off from the vibes of a big single I have never had an issue with the Canon cameras or lenses.

as long as the lens is not rolling down the rough terrain, there shouldn't be any issues

I suspect that if IS were to fail while the lens were not in use... i.e. it got damaged in shipping... the optics would be locked in position and the lens would work fine, just without IS.

If it fails while operating, it might be another matter, if the optics aren't centered and locked at that moment.

But, this is just a guess. I haven't have any personal experience with IS failures.

BradM wrote in post #8909843
As a pro I hope his images are better than his advice ...

You may have a point there

When I was younger I had a late 70's Yamaha motorcycle that had points-n-condensor ignition. The dang thing would walk on me and I had to retime it about every 500 miles.

A riding partner at the time had a newer bike with solid state ignition. He would go on and on "This solid state stuff is junk...one thing goes wrong and you can never find it....and then you have to replace the whole part blah blah blah".

So there I am constantly fiddling about with my old bike while he rides his dependable machine day in and day out while **** about something that might fail on him some day. Uh-huh.