Hate the RF100-500 Lens Collar

[tangogal]

Does anyone else hate the lens collar on the RF100-500 lens? If it's somewhat loose, it frequently breaks open potentially spilling the lens to the ground. It is very hard to tighten enough so that it doesn't slip around when on a tripod. I have owned many of Canon's telephotos before I switched to the mirrorless system. I never had a problem with their lens collars. What genius in engineering came up with this awful lens collar design????

[CodeTHR33]

Excellent. Thanks.

[tangogal]

It tightens but never securely.

[MikeSowsun]

Here is a video that shows the problem. I think the solution is to always expect the lens to fall out if the the lock knob is not FULLY and FIRMLY  tightened.

[CodeTHR33]

Yikes! I haven’t had that happen. I always have it as tight as I can get it by hand (without forcing it and stripping it out). Regardless, because of the design it reaches a limit of how tight the actual collar is to the lens and the lens can still spin in the collar with enough pressure.

I thought it was designed to not fall out unless you pulled back on the knob after unscrewing it, but I guess, after seeing this video, it looks like that design element doesn’t work correctly either. Thanks for sharing and I’ll watch out for that.

[Waddizzle]

I must have missed something.  My only take away from that video is that if you wish to rotate the lens in its collar, then do not loosen it much.  Simply unlock it, and that’s it.

[tangogal]

Don’t unlock it. It will fall out. Loosen it a little but keep it locked.  The problem is two-fold. It unlocks easily and the collar will break open and the lens will fall. The second issue is it is hard to get it tight enough that the lens won’t rotate when on a tripod. Even a small amount of movement can ruin your shot. This is the worst lens collar design I have ever seen.

[Waddizzle]

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@tangogal wrote:

Don’t unlock it. It will fall out. Loosen it a little but keep it locked.  The problem is two-fold. It unlocks easily and the collar will break open and the lens will fall. The second issue is it is hard to get it tight enough that the lens won’t rotate when on a tripod. Even a small amount of movement can ruin your shot. This is the worst lens collar design I have ever seen.

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Perhaps I misspoke.  By “unlock” I was referring to the thumb screw.  Like the video, if you keep turning the screw everything will eventually fall apart.

Make sure the screw is fully pulled out so that you can fully insert the collar ring before you begin tightening it down.  That is my contribution.

[tangogal]

So true. If it's even slightly loose, it can open and you'll possibly drop the lens. The other problem is that it is very hard to tighten it enough so it does not allow the lens to rotate when on a tripod. So there you are out at night trying to capture moonrise behind a lighthouse, and your darn lens keeps moving and you get a blurry image after all that effort. This is the worst lens collar I have ever encountered. Canon should be made to replace it with one of its old type lens collars that worked just fine and give one free to every customer who purchased the (otherwise excellent) 100-500.

[Waddizzle]

Is there a part or model number on the tripod collar, to compare with what others have?

If you experiencing issues with the tripod collar, are certain the ring if getting fully inserted?  

If you can loosen the lock knob and the collar comes off, then that is a red flag for a problem.  It appears to be a “double-action” mechanism, which means it takes two separate and concurrent actions to attach it, as well as release it.

You are supposed to able to loosen the knob and be able to rotate the lens without the collar coming off of the lens.  

[CodeTHR33]

Mine just says Canon Tripod Mount Ring F (WIII). I’ve seen elsewhere that the actual part number is YG2-4757-000.