RF 100mm f2.8L Macro IS USM stabilizing element going wild

[ChrisH9]

My RF 100mm f2.8L Macro lens started exhibiting a strange and annoying behavior recently. While hand holding it, the optical stabilizing element will start jittering up and down. Sometimes its a slow click-clack and the image will shift dramatically up and down in the view finder. Sometimes its more like a fast vibration. It mostly happens with the stabilizer on, but it has happened a couple times with it off as well I think. Turning the camera off and back on will settle it down temporarily, but it almost always comes back after just a few minutes of use, and sometimes within seconds.

I got the lens in December and it was working perfectly until last week. Looking back at the capture dates in my catalog, I notice that I upgraded the firmware on my R6 from 1.5.0 to 1.5.2 between the last time the lens worked correctly and when the problem appeared.

On the other hand, my RF 24-105mm f4L IS USM lens that I bought with the camera a little over a year ago has been working flawlessly since I got it and continues to work perfectly on my R6. An older EF 70-200mm f4L IS USM (circa 2011) also seems to work fine when adapted to the R6, so the issue seems specific to the RF 100 macro.

Has anyone seen anything like this before? Could it be an issue with the new firmware, or do I need to send the lens in for repair?

Thanks,

Chris

[ebiggs1 · Accepted solution]

First cleaning the lens/camera contacts never helps. Second, FW is very not likely the problem. I think you have a faulty lens and need to contact Canon. 1 (800) 652-2666

"I got the lens in December ...", its still under warranty. 😁

[shadowsports]

Greetings,

Start by inspecting the contacts and mount on the lens.  Is it clean and free of debris.

You have several options:

Reset camera's settings and retest

Retest in manual mode

Revert to an earlier FW version, although 1.5.2 is reported to be stable by many. 

Test on another camera 

Send the lens to Canon for evaluation, test and calibration.  

[ChrisH9]

The lens and camera contacts are all clean and the problem still occurs after switching to other lenses and back to the RF 100mm (many times now).

I downgraded to firmware 1.5.0 to try that. At first it seemed to have fixed the problem. The lens behaved normal with great hand held IS for about 5 minutes. But then, after I held the camera with the lens pointing toward the ground for a bit while adjusting some menu options I felt it start to wiggle again. After that the problem kept happening like it had with 1.5.2 even after power cycling the camera a few times. So it seems the firmware version may not be the issue.

I don't have access to another R-mount body to test the lens on.

[ebiggs1 · Accepted solution]

First cleaning the lens/camera contacts never helps. Second, FW is very not likely the problem. I think you have a faulty lens and need to contact Canon. 1 (800) 652-2666

"I got the lens in December ...", its still under warranty. 😁

[jrhoffman75 · Accepted solution]

When everything else seems to working OK but the macro lens the most likely problem is the lens itself.

It's under warranty - send it in.

[ChrisH9]

Thanks for the suggestions. I've been trying the lens off and on over the last several days and although the it will sometimes be fine for a few minutes, the IS eventually begins to malfunction. I think I will be sending it in.

[johnrmoyer]

I suspect that IBIS sometimes forgets focal length resulting in the behavior you describe. If the problem is as I suspect, then turning the camera off and back on again seems to fix it until next time the camera goes to sleep and wakes up again. I hope there will be a firmware fix for this.