Sony 300G: Lens hood has loosened the front ring

Its been quite a while since I visited here, and the look is very different, but I do recognise some of the "more experienced" posters.....

Can someone suggest a solution for me please? Sony has pulled their support for the Alpha range entirely from South Africa, and that now leaves me with a good set of equipment that can't be easily repaired (or replaced - so I'm looking after it very carefully!)

On one of my last trips, with the Sony 300G and hood attached to the front, climbing into and out of vehicles, I must have bumped the hood. It stayed attached to the bayonet fitting, but the front plastic portion where the hood attaches has now come partly loose. It shows a small gap between the ring where the hood attaches and the rest of the body of the lens.

In itself, it doesn't phase me as it still works - I'm worried about another bump taking it right off, and the whole lens coming to bits. Does anyone have an idea of how to "press" it back into place or fasten it somehow, without taking the lens to bits and needing specialist equipment to put it back together again?

Even an exploded view of the lens pieces would be very helpful!

Thanks in advance!

Photorer said:

On one of my last trips, with the Sony 300G and hood attached to the front, climbing into and out of vehicles, I must have bumped the hood. It stayed attached to the bayonet fitting, but the front plastic portion where the hood attaches has now come partly loose. It shows a small gap between the ring where the hood attaches and the rest of the body of the lens.

In itself, it doesn't phase me as it still works - I'm worried about another bump taking it right off, and the whole lens coming to bits. Does anyone have an idea of how to "press" it back into place or fasten it somehow, without taking the lens to bits and needing specialist equipment to put it back together again?

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I don't have any advice pertaining specifically to that lens, but I've been in a similar situation with my Tamron 150-600mm when I fell hard with the camera and lens breaking my fall, and in turn, breaking away the lens hood in a very similar manner - pulling away 1/2 of the plastic attachment ring of the lens. The Tamron's looked like it was held in place with plastic rivets of sorts, and three of these had actually torn open from the impact.

My solution was about as MacGuyver as it gets - I super-glued the plastic ring back down at the three points where the rivets broke, pressed it back in place and held it overnight, and by morning it was firmly attached again, and the hood could be placed on and off without any looseness. I've used the lens for more than a year since and all's been well.

If your ring still slots nicely back in place when you hold it down, not protruding or sitting unevenly, then I'd likely try the same fix again - superglueing it back down to the lens, making sure not to get any on the hood attachment points, any rings that need to operate on the lens, and of course the end-glass elements.

Thanks for the shared experience..... and I'm glad your's worked out well....

In my case, the ring is still firmly attached, but its skew at one point. The hood fits and works fine still, but its out of alignment from the bottom (ie: it lifts up at the front). Because its quite a long hood, it can be seen in the bottom of the frame when the aperture is wide open.

I have tried using my body weight as pressure and it hasn't popped back into place - it looks like it is sort of pressed-in on manufacture. I don't want to take the risk of a hammer - (I don't particularly know why..... ) but that's probably the answer to clicking it back into place.

Photorer said:

Thanks for the shared experience..... and I'm glad your's worked out well....

In my case, the ring is still firmly attached, but its skew at one point. The hood fits and works fine still, but its out of alignment from the bottom (ie: it lifts up at the front). Because its quite a long hood, it can be seen in the bottom of the frame when the aperture is wide open.

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OK - that's different. Mine looked skewed too - but easily pulled away from the body - and also pushed back into place perfectly if you manually held it there...so it was fairly simple for me to pull it away a bit to insert a little glue, then press it back into place. If yours is firmly stuck in the out-of-alignment position, I'd imagine you're right - something like a rubber mallet, or a fair amount of weight force, would probably be needed to get it to pop back into place. You may have something similar where there's a plastic pop rivet, attachment point, or tab, that has pulled away, and that's probably what's making it so hard to push back into place.

Hopefully you can find some detail of just how that piece attaches, so you know what you're dealing with when trying to press it back into place!

Thanks - I'm hoping to find a workshop manual or some type of manufacturer's drawing on the lens. That would make it really easy to work out what it is!!

Thanks - I'll let you know how I fare....

OK - my bad!

I have the 70-300G SSM Sony (the baby zoom, not the super-delicious 300mm f2.8 G Prime! - I wish!)

If anyone has the manual for that lens with its breakdown, I would be very happy!

Lucky it wasn't the hood problem with the 300 2.8, the hood is $1500.

Photorer said:

OK - my bad!

I have the 70-300G SSM Sony (the baby zoom, not the super-delicious 300mm f2.8 G Prime! - I wish!)

If anyone has the manual for that lens with its breakdown, I would be very happy!

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You can download the service manual for the SAL70300G here . It has some pretty detailed exploded diagrams.

Thanks..... I'll have a look at it!