Canon Zoom Lens EF 75-300 mm 1:4-5.6 III Zoom issues

[katwoman85]

Hi All.  I just got this zoom lens and having trouble with it on AF.  Every time I try to zoom to take photos of birds in trees or on wires or anything far away, the lens just keeps spinning and spinning and never really focuses.  I tried changing the settings to Portrait mode, Sports/Fast Moving, Landscape, etc.  No luck. Getting annoyed with this.  The camera I have is a Canon EOS Rebel T100.  

If I switch to MF, it just snaps a picture and I don't want that.  I would rather it AF.

Hope someone can shed some light on this.  

Thanks!

[rs-eos]

What happens if you take an image of an unobstructed object? e.g. even in your home, place some object on say a table and stand as far as possible from it.  I'm wondering if it's due to the camera's view of the birds? Are there branches in front or behind the bird that's it's getting confused by?

What focus mode are you using?

[katwoman85]

The same thing happens.  The lens just spins & spins trying to focus and it does not.  I cannot even push the button to force a picture.  Sometimes it might take a photo.  The picture I took yesterday of a sparrow on a wire eventually took with tree branches blurred in the background and the mourning doves on the street wires (they were sitting on the wires and one wire behind the doves).  The lens is set to AF.  Changed settings a few times such as Landscape, Up Close/Portrait, Sports/Fast Moving Objects.  Nothing really seemed to help.  Starting to wonder if I got a defective lens.  I have had Canon EOS Rebels before and don't recall having this problem before.  I even tried standing in one area of a room and taking a photo of something far away on the opposite side of the room and same thing.

[jrhoffman75]

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@katwoman85 wrote:

The same thing happens.  The lens just spins & spins trying to focus and it does not.  I cannot even push the button to force a picture.  Sometimes it might take a photo.  The picture I took yesterday of a sparrow on a wire eventually took with tree branches blurred in the background and the mourning doves on the street wires (they were sitting on the wires and one wire behind the doves).  The lens is set to AF.  Changed settings a few times such as Landscape, Up Close/Portrait, Sports/Fast Moving Objects.  Nothing really seemed to help.  Starting to wonder if I got a defective lens.  I have had Canon EOS Rebels before and don't recall having this problem before.  I even tried standing in one area of a room and taking a photo of something far away on the opposite side of the room and same thing.

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Yes, sounds like lens may be defective. Do other lenses work OK on your camera? Do you kniw someone else witha Rebel trhat you could try mounting your lens on?

[katwoman85]

Hi.  Yes the standard lens it came with works.  I see from what I am reading others have had the same issue.  I will take to a local camera store and have them look at it.  I don't know anyone closeby that has the same camera that could try the lens.  

[ebiggs1]

"I don't know anyone closeby that has the same camera that could try the lens"

It dpesn't have to be the exact same camera to see if the lens works or not. Any Canon camera will do.

[ebiggs1]

" Every time I try to zoom to take photos of birds in trees or on wires or anything far away, ..."

Birds in trees is a difficult task for any AF system and not a good choice for determining if the lens works or not.

" Changed settings a few times such as Landscape, Up Close/Portrait, Sports/Fast Moving Objects.  Nothing really seemed to help."

These are camera settings and not lens settings.  It is the camera telling the lens what to do. They will not help determining if the lens is faulty. Here is what you do however. Reset your camera. Menu, tools, clear all settings and all custom setting, too.

Now set the camera to "P" mode. Set ISO to 400. AWB or daylight WB. Set the AF system to One shot, not Ai-servo <---this is important never set to Ai-servo for testing. Now go outside on a nice day and shoot general stuff. Make sure you have some vertical lines in the shoots.  I.E., a fence or trees or buildings, etc. If the camera/lens combo works, it works. If it doesn't most likely you have a faulty lens. Simple!

Where did yo ubuy it?

[katwoman85]

I will try this.  Please keep in mind that I am a beginner.  I bought it online at Walmart.  Wondering if I should have bought it elsewhere like BH Photo in NY.  Thanks for the info.

[kvbarkley]

Did you buy it from Walmart directly or one of their "partners"?

[katwoman85]

Bought directly from Walmart (but online).  I am going to call B&H.  Best bet is to ask people that work in a camera shop.  I am going to ask them at B&H what kind of lens they would recommend for bird photography and see what they say.  Thanks for your info. Still having some issues.  I am going to look at a few pictures I took with the zoom lens with the settings you recommended and see how they look.