I'm considering returning my EF-M 22mm f/2 lens....

Jayson A wrote:

thunder storm wrote:

Very nice results!

Don't worry about slight ticking sounds, stop paying attention to it. If everything works everything is fine.

I called Canon to ask if it's normal and they said there shouldn't be any sound when you tilt the camera forward and back. It sounds almost like something has come undone and it's just rolling back and forth. Even if I tilt it slowly, there's a certain point where it goes "click" then as I slowly tilt it back, there's a point where it moves again and goes "click" like it's hitting something.

So they issued me a repair form and I have to send it in 🙁

Bad luck.  I feel sorry for you.

thunder storm wrote:

Jayson A wrote:

thunder storm wrote:

Very nice results!

Don't worry about slight ticking sounds, stop paying attention to it. If everything works everything is fine.

I called Canon to ask if it's normal and they said there shouldn't be any sound when you tilt the camera forward and back. It sounds almost like something has come undone and it's just rolling back and forth. Even if I tilt it slowly, there's a certain point where it goes "click" then as I slowly tilt it back, there's a point where it moves again and goes "click" like it's hitting something.

So they issued me a repair form and I have to send it in 🙁

Bad luck. I feel sorry for you.

First a defective 22mm lens, and now this. Bad luck for sure. (To the OP): Is the camera covered under warranty?

Jayson A wrote:

thunder storm wrote:

Very nice results!

Don't worry about slight ticking sounds, stop paying attention to it. If everything works everything is fine.

I called Canon to ask if it's normal and they said there shouldn't be any sound when you tilt the camera forward and back. It sounds almost like something has come undone and it's just rolling back and forth. Even if I tilt it slowly, there's a certain point where it goes "click" then as I slowly tilt it back, there's a point where it moves again and goes "click" like it's hitting something.

So they issued me a repair form and I have to send it in 🙁

Sorry to hear that. I had to send in a refurb M6ii for repair under warranty when it stopped working seemingly from the battery door contact going bad. No charge for shipping either way and I had a replacement in about a week.

When you send it in be sure to just send the bare camera and body cap but remove battery straps etc. In my case they just sent a replacement with another new battery and charger.... so I did well and it worked out great. Canon batteries are expensive! Not sure this will happen to you though.

nnowak wrote:

R2D2 wrote:

nnowak wrote:

TrackDayLT4 wrote:

Jayson A wrote:

R2D2 wrote:

1. TrackDayLT4 wrote:

Jayson A wrote:

Holy cow. How the heck did it pick up the sticks? I put the focus directly on the rock. This lens is too hard to turn for manual focus (it feels too tight), so I have to use auto focus.

I think you are all correct. I had to use a low f stop because it was fairly dim out there. I know it's not the best picture, but that seems to be one of the ones where I just couldn't get a sharp image from it. Is there a way in Adobe Bridge or something to see where the focus was set? Surely that's saved somewhere in the metadata.

Something is wrong with this lens, it should not feel to tight to manually focus. I would return it and exchange for one that works correctly.

I missed that part. Something definitely wrong there!

Could indeed be why it’s mis-focusing.

R2

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the focus decided by the dual-pixel auto focus, not by the lens itself? Once the camera sees that the focus area is sharp, then it allows you to take the photo doesn't it?

Also, doesn't the focus ring just move the electronic focus motor, so even if the ring itself is tight, it doesn't really mean there's something wrong with the stepping motor inside right?

if the manual focus is tight, that means it is binding on something because of misalignment. Misalignment can extend to the optical elements which means that the lens will never be sharp. Autofocus just determines the sharpest focus the lens is capable of which as seen in your pictures is very poor. Send it back and get one that is not damaged.

The manual focus ring on the EF-M 22mm has no mechanical coupling to the optical elements. It is solely a rotary encoder that sends an electrical signal to the stepper motor.

It could certainly be an indicator that something else is messed up (ie misaligned) in there however.

Possibly. The point was that modern EF-M lenses are nothing like old manual focus lenses and the focus ring has no mechanical connection to the motion of the optical elements.

As we were saying, those optical elements (ie the transport) could be all messed up.

Or perhaps the “rotary encoder” is pegged all the way resulting in misfocus.

You have used enough EF-M gear to know that is physically impossible. When you switch to manual focus, it always starts from the last position of the optical elements, not the last position of the focus ring. In technical terms, EF-M lenses use an incremental encoder, not an absolute encoder. In laymen's terms, EF-M lenses don't know where the focus ring is, only how far it has moved and in which direction.

Even if it were possible to "peg" the encoder (it isn't), you would need to go into the menus and change the camera's default behavior to AF+MF to even enable manual focus.

You’re incorrect here.  It’s indeed possible to damage the focusing ring mechanism so that it’s constantly sending a focus-to-near or far signal to the lens controller.  I’ve seen it happen.

The OP is lucky he could return it.

I am not saying the lens is not defective, but it looks like the bigger issues is sloppy AF technique that was masked by slow kit lenses and suddenly highlighted by a bright prime with thinner depth of field.

Well it WAS defective.  And it’s now perfectly obvious from other photos (and responses) that he’s posted that he’s aware of those facts.  Give him some credit!

R2

nnowak wrote:

R2D2 wrote:

nnowak wrote:

R2D2 wrote:

nnowak wrote:

TrackDayLT4 wrote:

Jayson A wrote:

R2D2 wrote:

1. TrackDayLT4 wrote:

Jayson A wrote:

Holy cow. How the heck did it pick up the sticks? I put the focus directly on the rock. This lens is too hard to turn for manual focus (it feels too tight), so I have to use auto focus.

I think you are all correct. I had to use a low f stop because it was fairly dim out there. I know it's not the best picture, but that seems to be one of the ones where I just couldn't get a sharp image from it. Is there a way in Adobe Bridge or something to see where the focus was set? Surely that's saved somewhere in the metadata.

Something is wrong with this lens, it should not feel to tight to manually focus. I would return it and exchange for one that works correctly.

I missed that part. Something definitely wrong there!

Could indeed be why it’s mis-focusing.

R2

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the focus decided by the dual-pixel auto focus, not by the lens itself? Once the camera sees that the focus area is sharp, then it allows you to take the photo doesn't it?

Also, doesn't the focus ring just move the electronic focus motor, so even if the ring itself is tight, it doesn't really mean there's something wrong with the stepping motor inside right?

if the manual focus is tight, that means it is binding on something because of misalignment. Misalignment can extend to the optical elements which means that the lens will never be sharp. Autofocus just determines the sharpest focus the lens is capable of which as seen in your pictures is very poor. Send it back and get one that is not damaged.

The manual focus ring on the EF-M 22mm has no mechanical coupling to the optical elements. It is solely a rotary encoder that sends an electrical signal to the stepper motor.

It could certainly be an indicator that something else is messed up (ie misaligned) in there however.

Possibly. The point was that modern EF-M lenses are nothing like old manual focus lenses and the focus ring has no mechanical connection to the motion of the optical elements.

As we were saying, those optical elements (ie the transport) could be all messed up.

Sure, they could be, but as there is no physical connection between the focus ring and the optical elements, failure of one does not indicate a failure of the other.

Or perhaps the “rotary encoder” is pegged all the way resulting in misfocus.

You have used enough EF-M gear to know that is physically impossible. When you switch to manual focus, it always starts from the last position of the optical elements, not the last position of the focus ring. In technical terms, EF-M lenses use an incremental encoder, not an absolute encoder. In laymen's terms, EF-M lenses don't know where the focus ring is, only how far it has moved and in which direction.

Even if it were possible to "peg" the encoder (it isn't), you would need to go into the menus and change the camera's default behavior to AF+MF to even enable manual focus.

You’re incorrect here. It’s indeed possible to damage the focusing ring mechanism so that it’s constantly sending a focus-to-near or far signal to the lens controller. I’ve seen it happen.

I don't know what lens you witnessed that behavior, but it absolutely was not an EF-M 22mm f/2.0 lens. The focus ring in the EF-M lens is an optical incremental encoder. It is physically impossible to damage this mechanism in such a way as to produce a continuous signal. The only failure mode is to produce no signal.

Even it were possible to damage the focus ring in such a way as to produce a continuous signal, then the lens would be pegged at infinity focus or the minimum focus distance. All of the OP's samples were not captured at either of those extremes, but instead were at an intermediate distance.

Furthermore, the OP would need to specifically enable AF+MF mode for the lens to even look at inputs from the focus ring.

The OP is lucky he could return it.

I am not saying the lens is not defective, but it looks like the bigger issues is sloppy AF technique that was masked by slow kit lenses and suddenly highlighted by a bright prime with thinner depth of field.

Well it WAS defective. And it’s now perfectly obvious from other photos (and responses) that he’s posted that he’s aware of those facts. Give him some credit!

Really? The OP posted these samples without any focus issues.

Geez, with your troubleshooting prowess…

R2

Jayson A wrote:

I bought this lens based on all the rave reviews for it. It's sharp, works great in low light, bright f/2 aperture, compact etc...

The EF-M 22mm is a great little lens, don't get me wrong. I just don't think I can use it properly. Almost all of my photography is handheld and I just can't get a sharp image handheld with this thing. Almost every photo I take has some handshake blur in it. Also, I tend to take a lot of landscape photos so f/2 doesn't really work that well since a lot of the scene will be blurred.

I set my M50 MK II to use aperture priority with auto ISO and it wants to give me the lowest ISO possible (great), but it's choosing shutter speeds of 1/60, 1/80... but even shutter speeds of 1/125 are giving me shaky photos.

With my kit lens, sure I get more grain, but at least the IS keeps my photos nice and sharp.

What's the point in having a fast wide-ish angle lens if you have to use a tripod to get sharp pictures from it? I'd much rather have a slightly softer image overall than an image with motion blur.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong?

Return it. I have that lens. The lens I have now is a replacement for the defective lens an in-law purchased for me on amazon five or six years ago. The lens did not seat properly on the camera. It was such a bad fit the camera wouldn't fire. I was able to get it off the camera and sent it back. I later read this was a known problem, a manufacturing fault in a batch. Of course it would show up for sale on amazon at Christmas time.

I was expecting the lens to behave like an f2 on a full frame. It doesn't. So much to learn about smaller sensors. Still, I like it. I put a flat silver lens on a pearl colored camera and no-one takes it seriously. People relax around it and the candid shots are lovely as long as the light holds.

Jayson A wrote:

I actually miss having my 22mm f/2 lens 🙁

At the risk of my first one being defective or user error, I’ve ordered another on. I’ll let y’all know if it’s better or the same.

This little lens is a beast!

The EF-M 22mm f2 is not known for copy variation, so chances are very good you will get a good one.

Good luck, it's a fun lens and a great one as you already know.

Jayson A wrote:

UPDATE! Got my new EF-M 22mm and every picture I took is PIN SHARP. Check out the samples from tonight. I'm super impressed!

All images are full resolution if you wanna pixel peep. Please don't steal them 😛

Great images and congrats on giving or another try. It's a wonderful lens. Your other one is the first I've heard of someone getting a bad copy.

I’m glad this finally worked out for you.

Regards,

Alan

Jayson A wrote:

UPDATE! Got my new EF-M 22mm and every picture I took is PIN SHARP. Check out the samples from tonight. I'm super impressed!

All images are full resolution if you wanna pixel peep. Please don't steal them 😛

glad it worked out for you

thunder storm wrote:

All you can do is adapt the 24mm f/2.8 IS USM or try if the ef-m 28mm f/3.5 IS stm works for you. I've used the 35mm f/2.0 IS USM on my M50 to get my stabilization, but that's a pretty different focal length.

The ef-m 28mm f/3.5 IS stm is a great lens. And don't forget the macro capability (and lighting) thrown in for free.  A mere 130g too. One of my favourite EF-M lenses.

Jayson A wrote:

UPDATE! Got my new EF-M 22mm and every picture I took is PIN SHARP. Check out the samples from tonight. I'm super impressed!

All images are full resolution if you wanna pixel peep. Please don't steal them

Fantastic!  So glad you’re back in business.  I get the feeling you’re going to shoot the heck out of it!!  😀

Enjoy!

R2