CAUTION: 3rd party lenses

[David A. Fisher]

Let me first state for the record that my Dealer, his Canon Rep, and the Canon Rep regional boss have all been hands and feet above the rest in terms of helping me with this matter. They've gone above and beyond in terms of speedy service and speaking one-on-one. All that being said, I do think it's important that others hear what has happened to my brand new C300:

On Monday morning my C300/EF arrived all shiny and new. I popped open the box, hooked up Monitor, slapped my DS-10 wedge on the bottom, slid in a 32gb SanDisk, and put my Zeiss 35m 1.4 ZE on the front. I shot a little around the house, played with some of the Color Styles and decided to head out to get some real action on the card.

I headed down to the Arts district where they set up food trucks for lunch and began firing away. I used my Zeiss 35mm ZE first, then my Zeiss 85mm ZE, then my Canon 70-200. Everything was going smoothly then came the bomb-shell: I popped off the 35mm then popped on the 85mm, WITHOUT TURNING OFF THE CAMERA, and suddenly nothing......dead.......no power anywhere. I changed the battery, came home and switched to AC, hit the reset button.......nothing............I call the tech support line. Patrick at canon support was more than helpful, we tried working through different issues but nothing came to pass. He issued a service report and they sent me the UPS slip to ship it back. Not ten minutes later I hear from my dealer, he too was very supportive and helpful. Then I heard from his Canon Rep, again awesome customer service. And finally I get a call from his boss, again all great support.

My camera is in Canon Tech hands now, more than likely it's a blown fuse from the 3rd party Zeiss Lens. But let me be clear, THAT'S MY ASSUMPTION and for the recored Canon is still trying to do their due diligence on their end.

With that all being said, may I highly suggest that everyone POWER DOWN YOUR CAMERA WHILE YOU CHANGE LENSES. Better to be safe than sorry, right?

I'll keep you all updated as it progress.

-Dave

[Nigel Akam]

Good to know. Have done a few shoots from November to now, with a mixture of lenses, sometimes not powering off when we changed lenses, with no problems.

I'll be curious to see if it was your ZE lenses. I've used my ZF lenses with no issues, but there's no communication with the camera.

[Thierry Humeau]

Scary... changing lenses, third party of not, while the camera is powered on should not cause a problem and be fully supported. Please, keep us updated on your case. I am also using a mixture of Canon EF and Zeiss ZF lenses with Novoflex adaptors and have not had any problem so far. With the Novoflex adaptor, there is no electrical connection to the ZF lenses.

[Robert Sanders]

Great to know David. And sorry about having to return your baby so quickly after having just opened it.

I always got in the habit of powering down my XL-H1 when I changed lenses because someone, not sure who, put the fear of God into me that I could do serious damage to the camera if I didn't. Not sure if that was true or not. But at least it trained some muscle memory. I power down my 7D during every lens change too.

[Dylan Couper]

Robert, I had the fear of God put into me about changing lenses on a hot camera on my very first shoot (guess why), and am the same as you, always power off even though I know it doesn't matter anymore.

Now I'm DEFINITELY not changing that habit!

[Colin McAuliffe]

ive got all sorts of lenses and to be honest, i havent been powering off, and ive never had a problem

[Thierry Humeau]

Hot swapping lenses on DSLRs is a way of life for photogs, I'd be surprised if Canon had not thought of that on the C300, they know better.

[Derek Reich]

I am just returning from the middle east where I was shooting like crazy switching lenses constantly... I probably hot-swapped my lenses 200 times in the last 10 days, and never had a problem. All of my lenses are EOS EF though. This kind of scares me now, it would have been a disaster to have had that happen over there! I think I'll be powering down between swaps now. At least the 300 boots up rather fast, so not a big time lag to do that (as long as I remember to do it!)

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by Thierry Humeau

Hot swapping lenses on DSLRs is a way of life for photogs, I'd be surprised if Canon had not thought of that on the C300, they know better.

Sorry but no, Canon USA specifically recommends *against* hot-swapping lenses on any SLR, from the film days up through digital today, *especially* with regard to third-party lenses. I have been invited by Canon USA to help out behind the EOS counter at enough trade shows to witness this cautionary warning first-hand many, many times. Crossed contacts is a practice the company frowns upon and the fact that many photographers do it regularly and without issue does not change this. Canon has never endorsed hot-swapping lenses, and most likely they never will.

[Derek Reich]

Wow... good to know! That's why I love this forum. I would have continued to do things the way I have been, but as of this moment have changed my MO for good. Thanks for the info.

[Jon Fairhurst]

Regarding hot swapping lenses, this could also affect the "untwist" lens method used on DSLRs.

Back in the dark (poorly exposed?) ages, 5D2 users needed to set their apertures, hold the DOF button and untwist the lens to lock the aperture on Canon-compatible lenses. We would then point our cameras at bright and dark objects, hoping to hit Exposure Lock at just the right instant to get close to a 1/60 shutter. Not to mention that we were shooting 30.0 fps...

But the lens twist days are not over. DSLRs open their apertures between shots to allow bright views for framing and focus. Each time you snap a photo, the aperture closes down. This is unfortunate for time lapses in that the aperture never closes exactly the same, shot to shot. This leads to flicker and dancing bokeh shapes for tight aperture sequences. The solution? Set the aperture, hold the DOF button, and untwist the lens.

Fortunately, I've never had a problem with this method. That said, Canon should include an aperture-lock mode for timelapse shooting. They know we shoot time lapses. They know we don't want flicker and dancing bokeh. They don't want us to hot-swap lenses.

...We need a timelapse mode on Canon DSLRs.

Now, back to the C300 discussion. (Though C300 users should note that you still need a DSLR if you want to shoot 5.6K RAW time lapses...)

[David A. Fisher]

UPDATE (Kinda):
So, Canon was kind enough to send me a long-term loan until I get my baby back. It's impressive because they want to recreate the exact scenario that caused the problem in the first place, then fix it and make sure it doesn't happen again. It's another reason why I chose the Canon path over "the-one-we-shall-not-name." Rather than blame operator error and make me sit in the waiting cue again till my camera is fixed, they're being very accommodating and trying to solve the actual problem not just the symptoms, while at the same time letting me continue to generate income off the "loaner." Impressive.

-df

[Derek Reich]

Interesting (and impressive, on Canon's part)
But would this not indicate that Canon does not see a problem with hot-swapping then?

[Chris Hurd]

Nope, I wouldn't read it that way at all... see my post above. Canon will never condone hot-swapping lenses. In this case, they're taking care of a customer with a high-dollar item. It is, after all, the right thing to do. But I really don't think it should be taken as an okay to start hot-crossing the lens contacts.

[Robert Sanders]

Originally Posted by David A. Fisher

UPDATE (Kinda):
So, Canon was kind enough to send me a long-term loan until I get my baby back. It's impressive because they want to recreate the exact scenario that caused the problem in the first place, then fix it and make sure it doesn't happen again. It's another reason why I chose the Canon path over "the-one-we-shall-not-name." Rather than blame operator error and make me sit in the waiting cue again till my camera is fixed, they're being very accommodating and trying to solve the actual problem not just the symptoms, while at the same time letting me continue to generate income off the "loaner." Impressive.

-df

Yup. I've had this personal experience with Canon, too. And it's why I'm a huge fan and will continue to be.