Have you heard about the Canon EF-S 17-85mm IS USM lens aperture diaphragm dying? This is a very useful lens that can be used so many scenarios its hard to be without it! What do you do when it starts to fail?
A new Canon EF-S 17-85mm lens should last about four or five years, and you will be able to take countless thousands stills with it, and will find it to be a great general-purpose zoom lens. Some photographers get a Canon EF 24-70mm lens to replace it, but keep the 17-85mm for a backup.
Recently while on a photography road-trip we were using the 17-85mm lens on a Canon 350D camera. Targeting was fine, but any effort to take a photograph would end in the 350D showing “Err 99″ on the LCD, and the camera had to be turned off and back on to clear the blunder. “Err 99″ is a common catch-all boo boo code on the 350D, and can mean virtually anything.
Trying the 17-85mm lens on a Canon 50D ended in a explicit boo boo : “Err 01 – Communications between the camera and lens is flawed. Clean the lens contacts.” As you might think, cleaning the lens contacts with a pencil eraser did not do anything to solve the blunder.
Some further research on the web indicated a potential issue with the diaphragm assembly ; the moving parts that set the aperture. Trial and error indicated the diaphragm assembly was failing when the zoom was between 17mm and 24mm and the aperture was smaller compared to f / four. Outside of these parameters, the lens still worked usually.
The DOF button on Canon DSLR cameras stops the lens down to the currently selected aperture. It proved to be a handy way to check the lens, and it may be confirmed the lens diaphragm assembly was working correctly at the longer zoom range, but failing to operate at all between 17mm and 24mm.
When hitting the DOF Preview button, you ought to be able to hear the diaphragm assembly working if the aperture is stopped down from the lens ‘ maximum, as well as seeing the lens aperture blades closing when looking into the front of the lens.
Seemingly this is a reasonably common issue with the 17-85mm lens, usually caused by an open circuit in the ribbon flex wire to the diaphragm assembly in the lens, due to repeated zoom operation of the lens.
Replacement wires are available to fix the Canon EF-S 17-85mm diaphragm flex cable online so you can fix the lens yourself if you have the forbearing and time. The 17-85mm lens is out of guaranty, and based on a quick search on the web, is worth about $300 if it was completely functional. It’s a great lens, and was still gets a large amount of use, so it is worth it to get it working again.
You could be worried about shipping your baby to a repair center, that it’ll be a pricey exercise and would possibly not be worthwhile given the value of the lens. You may want to considering purchasing a Canon EF-S 17-85mm lens flex cable online, and attempting the replacement yourself as an alternative. If you’re quite good with tools and a soldering iron, correcting a lens could be your cup of tea. If the diagnosis of a faulty diaphragm ribbon wire is inaccurate, then swapping out the wire won’t get you anywhere, apart from learning about how the lens works.
Should it be despatched to a camera center, and hope it is not going to be too costly to fix, or should the purchaser try and find a Canon EF-S 17-85mm aperture repair part themselves? Its a tough question to clear up as it is not a simple fix but if you can do it you will save hundreds of dollars in the process.
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