Canon 18-55mm - dropped, repairable?

BennyC · 10 Dec 2013 at 19:03

Hi,

My DLSR took a knock this evening and fell over attached to the tripod.

The body and lens, as far as I can tell appears to be functioning however zooming down from approx 30mm to 18mm is not possible. The focus does work at longer lengths but, forgive my newbie-ness, didn't seem to want to 'bleep' and allow me to capture an image.

The following part fell out the rear of the lens where it attaches to the camera body.

I have part dis-assembled the lens following an online guide but lack a driver small enough to remove the screws on the front of the lens.

I presume this is a gear part of some sort. Is this repairable? if so what roughly should I expect to pay? or would it just be worth buying a replacement lens?

Thanks,

BennyC

Raymond Lin · 10 Dec 2013 at 19:19

If you call Canon Estree they will give you a fix costs for repair for most items.

However, the 18-55 is not that expensive, I had to pay £195 to recalibrate my 50/1.4, which is quite a lot in percentages wise of a new lens.

Janesy B · 10 Dec 2013 at 20:57

It will be fixable but you're better off ordering another one or using this as a chance to upgrade to something else. It won't be cost effective. Labour cost is the same regardless if it's a £2000 lens or a £200 one, and it's pretty time consuming to rip these apart, rebuild and test them so don't be too offended if you get quotes back for £150-£200.

Throttle · 11 Dec 2013 at 03:16

Wow that's an odd looking thingy :-)

its lucky that it did not fall into the camera body. As Raymond and Janesy B said I recon your best bet would be to replace the lens as they can be found sh from £49 at mbp photo and others.

Columbo · 11 Dec 2013 at 07:53

Just buy a 2nd hand lens from MPB Photographic and throw yours away. Make sure you get the IS version.

Keep the front and end caps though as they are easily lost!

a1ex2001 · 11 Dec 2013 at 08:48

Columbo said:
Just buy a 2nd hand lens from MPB Photographic and throw yours away. Make sure you get the IS version.

Keep the front and end caps though as they are easily lost!

Don't bin the old one eBay it! I'm constantly amazed how much people will pay for spares or repairs stuff.

CGrieves · 11 Dec 2013 at 09:22

That looks like the encoder that reads the focal length.

Almost certainly not worth the repair cost, but if it were me I'd disassemble the whole thing and try and refit. It's unlikely to work, but it'd be fun