Snapped Lens Mount of XC 50-230 on 2nd outing... Advice?

Well, I guess you get what you pay for.

I was hiking yesterday with my brand new 50-230 when it leapt from the top of a mossy rock, dropped less than 3 feet, and completely separated from the camera.

No cracked glass, no sensor damage to my trusty X-T2, but all three 'threads' of the lens mount were completely sheared off. Bummer camp.

I have seen replacement rings like this one floating around... three questions:

1. Is this the kind of repair I can do myself? Only tools I have are tiny screwdrivers.
2. Would you bother? I got a new copy super cheap so I do hope to keep the lens.
3. Long shot... would there be any way to attach a proper metal mount instead?

Any advice appreciated, aside from "dOnT L3AvE yOuR cAm3r@ 0n @ r0ck!!!!".... Likewise, no condolences necessary, this was absolutely and completely my fault 

Thats terrible.  However the replacement looks straight forward.  The clips will need to be removed for the ribbon cables.  This could be done with a finger nail or tweezers and the new mount screwed in.  I would suggest using JIS or JCIS (Japan Industry Standard / Japan Camera Industry Standard) screwdrivers, but a normal phillips driver works but may cause some damage to the screws.  Hope you can get it fixed.

fujiian wrote:

Well, I guess you get what you pay for.

I was hiking yesterday with my brand new 50-230 when it leapt from the top of a mossy rock, dropped less than 3 feet, and completely separated from the camera.

No cracked glass, no sensor damage to my trusty X-T2, but all three 'threads' of the lens mount were completely sheared off. Bummer camp.

I have seen replacement rings like this one floating around... three questions:

1. Is this the kind of repair I can do myself? Only tools I have are tiny screwdrivers.
2. Would you bother? I got a new copy super cheap so I do hope to keep the lens.
3. Long shot... would there be any way to attach a proper metal mount instead?

Any advice appreciated, aside from "dOnT L3AvE yOuR cAm3r@ 0n @ r0ck!!!!".... Likewise, no condolences necessary, this was absolutely and completely my fault

Has nothing to do with you get what you pay for. Had the lens not separated from the body of the camera you may have had damage to both the lens and the camera.

In other words, the breakaway lens probably saved some camera damage.  I had a similar incident with an XC16-50 once.

These are very fine lenses but yes things break when dropped.

Aoi Usagi wrote:

Thats terrible. However the replacement looks straight forward. The clips will need to be removed for the ribbon cables. This could be done with a finger nail or tweezers and the new mount screwed in. I would suggest using JIS or JCIS (Japan Industry Standard / Japan Camera Industry Standard) screwdrivers, but a normal phillips driver works but may cause some damage to the screws. Hope you can get it fixed.

Awesome, thank you!

I had no idea JCIS screwdrivers were a thing, but those little ones really do have to be just the right size. I will look into it.

Thank goodness it wasn’t your 16-55 (your list shows it in your collection).

Go on Amazon or an equivalent, and search for precision tools/tool boxes/jewelers screwdrivers, etc. You will find that for something like US$20 you’ll get a highly function set of tools that can help in many ways. Go for it and fix it yourself. But get the correct tools. Good luck!

Hopefully the lens mount on the camera body was not damaged from the impact. The metal mount could be slightly deformed, with the possibility that one corner pushed in or pulled out and might not be visible to see. The factory would measure any high or low of points of the mount with a collimator or other instrument. Any deformation of the lens mount, can affect sharpness.

Joel

I recall some old reports, that the electronic part of the XC lens mount is soldered. There used to be replacement XC lens mounts with or without electronic connectors on ebay. Best is to spend some time to google for this topic, before you buy the wrong replacement mount. There was an old report on dpreview from Peetz, he had a broken XC16-50 lens mount.