Toronto Photography Meetup Group

So today i was stupid and dropped my camera off my tripod (4 feet but onto hardwood and bounced about a foot though...)

Camera is working perfectly but it is my lens that is not... it crammed the lens hood onto it with the fall which was a simple yank off and its all fine and dandy so i was hoping that took it the blow completely but it seems quite the contrary. My zoom ring is now extremely stiff. Now were this a cheap lens i wouldn't care but it is my Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 which is my main lens that i use like 65-75% of the time. I am therefore really worried.

Autiofocus still works perfectly and images look sharp it is just the really scary stiffness to the zoom that is worrying me.

Now what should i do... I bought it from vistek last May (ish).. do I take it to their repair dept. and play dumb... do i take it directly to Nikon and play dumb... do I come clean about what happened? any suggestions on what i might be able to do?

I feel for you.

Playing dumb probably will not help. The service tech will see right though it. Be honest and hope for the best.

Same thing happened to my 28-70 during the summer of 2009 .. and even after service it was never the same again. Hopefully you'll be able to get it fixed, and it will be all good again -- looks like you might need to run it to Nikon for repair

what kind of cost was associated with the repair?

best solution



problem solved

I had the same thing with my 70-200.

Tried the play dumb, that did not work. Was determined right away once taken apart that it was impact damage.

I think in the end I got it fixed for about 150ish. But like David ti was never 100% again.

$250

Scott - I feel for you, good luck!


Are you quoting a repair price or is that your offer to Scott for the lens? j/k

I'm sorry to hear that, I bought this lens in December and It's disheartening to hear it doesn't fair so well in this type of situation.

doesnt sound like the optics were affected so hopefully the zoom ring can be fixed without any lasting affect whatsoever...

these lenses aren't designed for you to go to war. accidents are unfortunate, but i don't think we should expect them to be built like tanks. the lens is designed for performance and quite frankly, for it to still operate after the fall is pretty darn good.

actually, i find that the 24-70 "Beast" is, in fact, built like a tank! They can take a beating and people do take them into war zones so it must have been quite a fall.

"the beast" is the old 35-70 and that thing was indeed made like a tank. i've played with both and the 24-70 definitely doesn't feel the same.

You have my heartfelt condolences. That's a great lens and a small tragedy indeed.

Go to Nikon.
I would NOT play dumb. That will end with you feeling dumb.

Forget Vistek. Their staff reek of bloody self-importance. I wouldn't even trust them to clean my sensor (they did a pisspoor job the time I did)

my Canon 24-70L fell off my camera last Summer and basically decoupled the focus ring. I took it to http://www.torontocameraservice.com/ and got it back in a couple weeks, think it cost me around $250.

That sucks! As everyone suggests, best to bring it in to get repaired and checked out thoroughly. Although it seems like the zoom ring is the only thing that got any damage, it might have other issues like the lens elements getting out of alignment etc that, if you be honest about what happened, they would have to check for. If you play dumb and they don't check for things related to a drop you might be in for some other surprises down the road... my 2c. Good luck!

I have yet to do anything about it solely because its my go to lens and I have needed it. I may bring it in to them next week as it is my reading week. I am just sad that it will be out for a few weeks as others have suggested. I really dont know what to do without it..... I cant afford rentals

Do you have a backup (even a kit lens, or borrow one?) with similar range? Or you could treat this as a mini-"project" where you only use say, a 50mm f1.8, for a couple weeks?

only thing I have is my old 18-70 DX but I'm shooting with a D700 so that wont work. I at least have my 50mm but nothing else from 24-80 (I have my 14-24 and 80-200)

Hey I'm a Canon shooter so I quickly looked up compatibility, some people were talking about a "crop" mode on the D700 that would make the 18-70mm lens work without darkened edges. That should give you 27-120mm. Or, someone else mentioned using it in full frame mode but with dark corners, so if you don't want to switch to "crop" mode, it would still give you full coverage from approx 27mm to 70mm would it not?

if using it in crop mode it effectively makes it a 6 MP camera (not wanted at all!) I have not tried to use it without changing it to crop mode though.... I could try that when i get home but i still dont think it will be all that good.

Ha, I didn't read that far about the crop mode! Anyways, full frame mode 27-70mm still sounds better than nothing Good luck!

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