My 70-200 F4 IS started giving some soft photos and i noticed a rattling noise coming from the front half of it. On further inspection i could see the focus element moving when i tilted the lens from horizontal to vertical.
I was going to send it for repair but decided to have a quick look at it myself and i am so glad i did!
First pull the rubber focus grip back and you will find a hole under it, now look in the hole and turn the focus ring. There are 3 screws, each a 3rd of the way round. You need to turn the focus ring past its minimum focus stop then turn the other way a bit for the screw to show in the hole.
The screws should have a plastic tube / spacer over them which keeps it centered in the slot it runs in but on mine 2 out of the 3 tubes were missing so the lens element was free to rattle about!
I took a video of it, you may need to turn the volume up
By turning the focus ring i managed to locate one of the spacers and get it out.
Sorry i didnt have a ruler handy but thats a british 5p coin!
If you get your spacer out then you can just put it back on the screw. I couldn't locate the other one though so went searching for how to take the lens apart - i didnt fancy taking it apart, i just wanted to see how difficult it was. Happily i found a guide that showed you could take the front off without removing the glass.
When you look in the front of the lens there is a black plastic ring that is screwed down the filter thread, it has a hole at either side and i unscrewed it using long nosed pliers - this was the most nerve wracking bit as i imagined slipping and putting a scratch across the front element!
Unscrew counter clockwise
Once the ring is removed you can see 6 screws underneath, 3 are holding the filter ring on and the other 3 are holding the front lens on. The 3 holding the lens are screwed into petal shaped bits coming off the lens - do not unscrew those unless you want to remove the lens to clean it.
With the screws removed the front lifts off, you can now look down the gap to locate the missing spacer.
Once you have the spacer you can put the front back together, now locate the rattly screw in the hole in the focus ring and put it back on. i did this by first slotting it onto a screwdriver then locating the screwdriver in the screw head then pushing the spacer down over the screw, you can move the screw about to get it centered so the spacer will drop down. Note the slot in the spacer goes to the outside - not sure if it makes any difference but that's the way round the one that was still on my lens was on.
Here's what it looks like with the spacer on the screw
The spacers do not clip into place or anything they just push on and are not a tight fit so no wonder they fall off. If mine come off again i will try a tiny dot of superglue.
My lens is working great again and no rattles!
I hope this may be of help to others
I was going to send it for repair but decided to have a quick look at it myself and i am so glad i did!
First pull the rubber focus grip back and you will find a hole under it, now look in the hole and turn the focus ring. There are 3 screws, each a 3rd of the way round. You need to turn the focus ring past its minimum focus stop then turn the other way a bit for the screw to show in the hole.
The screws should have a plastic tube / spacer over them which keeps it centered in the slot it runs in but on mine 2 out of the 3 tubes were missing so the lens element was free to rattle about!
I took a video of it, you may need to turn the volume up
By turning the focus ring i managed to locate one of the spacers and get it out.
Sorry i didnt have a ruler handy but thats a british 5p coin!
If you get your spacer out then you can just put it back on the screw. I couldn't locate the other one though so went searching for how to take the lens apart - i didnt fancy taking it apart, i just wanted to see how difficult it was. Happily i found a guide that showed you could take the front off without removing the glass.
When you look in the front of the lens there is a black plastic ring that is screwed down the filter thread, it has a hole at either side and i unscrewed it using long nosed pliers - this was the most nerve wracking bit as i imagined slipping and putting a scratch across the front element!
Unscrew counter clockwise
Once the ring is removed you can see 6 screws underneath, 3 are holding the filter ring on and the other 3 are holding the front lens on. The 3 holding the lens are screwed into petal shaped bits coming off the lens - do not unscrew those unless you want to remove the lens to clean it.
With the screws removed the front lifts off, you can now look down the gap to locate the missing spacer.
Once you have the spacer you can put the front back together, now locate the rattly screw in the hole in the focus ring and put it back on. i did this by first slotting it onto a screwdriver then locating the screwdriver in the screw head then pushing the spacer down over the screw, you can move the screw about to get it centered so the spacer will drop down. Note the slot in the spacer goes to the outside - not sure if it makes any difference but that's the way round the one that was still on my lens was on.
Here's what it looks like with the spacer on the screw
The spacers do not clip into place or anything they just push on and are not a tight fit so no wonder they fall off. If mine come off again i will try a tiny dot of superglue.
My lens is working great again and no rattles!
I hope this may be of help to others
