Accidental Lens Release

[michaelgirman]

  My 24-105L just fell off my 5D mkIII and rolled into the Seine.  The lens release button is way too sensitive and it is so easy to accidentally unlock without realizing it.  I went to twist the zoom ring and the lens rotated and dropped off.  Blogs are full of compaints of this occurance on mkii's.  

  This is definitely a design flaw.  It's not user error.  The button should be relocated or made to require more force to release  or have a detent position.  

  It's a shame that you have to gaffer tape a $2300 lens to a $2000 camera.  Be forewarned.  

[suemoto]

I've been reading the many replies to the problem that I and many other have had and those who have not.

For the later, I would say, thank your lucky stars! Yes, hand position and how you carry the camera is critical to prevent

accidental lens release. But why should that be, if not the case of the release button?

I'll look to see if Nikon users have same problem on their forum.

I also shoot with a Hasselblad H4-50 and I've attached a image of the Hasselblad design to show where the release button is located and how the lens release button is designed to be depressed from the side.

If the Canon lens release button were to be pushed in from the side and not down from the lens mount, that would alleviate the problem.

Fellow readers can decide/judge for themselves.

I'd like to thank all of  you for your valuable contribuions to this inquiry.

[ebiggs1]

I have never even touched a Hasselblad H4-50 but just looking at your photo, that seems to be the absolute worst place I can think of to put it.

I don't have my 5d3 anymore and I can't remember exactly how the button is placed but on my 1D Mk IV the lens release is below the surface of the surrounding body.  How it can be "accidentally" pushed and the lens rotated, simultaneously, is doubtful.

[michaelgirman]

I just find it curious that if the reason that Canon engineers designed the lens release button to be so large was because they set out to design a camera that you could operate with gloves on, then why did they make the buttons that everyone uses so much more for shooting - like the menu, playback, quick control, AF point selection, M-Fn, etc. so very small and flush?   

[SportsPro]

I'm not trolling or trying to be arguementative but I make my living shooting sporting events and games, from the NFL to the Olympics, and no one that I work with holds a lens with their hand on top of the lens.  
Download the 5D manual here: 
http://gdlp01.c-wss.com/gds/8/0300007348/06/eos5d-mk3-im8-en.pdf

and refer to page 43 - Holding the Camera.
Hold the camera as instructed.  Now pretend you're following a running back sprinting down field toward you.  Quickly switch the camera from landscape orientation to portrait orientation.  As the body rotates, the Lens Release Button rotates right past the meaty part of your thumb.  It's a big button.  It's got a very weak spring.  Now try it with gloves on.  The problem is exacerbated.  
With all due respect, you just can't hold a camera steady and work the zoom ring with your hand on top.  While you may have potentially solved the problem of your lenses falling off, your pictures won't be of the highest quality.

This a design problem related to the size, position and spring weakness of the Lens Release Button.  
Lots of posters here maintain the following:

1.) This has never happened to me.
2.) Therefore, this cannot happen.
As Spock would say, "This is highly illogical"

[Waddizzle]

"

This a design problem related to the size, position and spring weakness of the Lens Release Button.  
Lots of posters here maintain the following:

1.) This has never happened to me.
2.) Therefore, this cannot happen.
As Spock would say, "This is highly illogical"

" 

I don't think anyone on any side of the issue is saying that, not at all. 

There are some who've complained that the mount is flawed, and their lens can just spontaneously release.  I think they are being told that a flawed mount is highly unlikely, if not near impossible.  At least, that is what I have been saying.

I think the problem is operator error. As you have pointed out, it is very easy to press the button, IF you're not paying attention.  It is also just as easy to flip the card slot door open, too, if you're not paying attention.  There are any number things that you can accidentally do if you're not paying attention. 

The release button is probably more susceptible to accidents because it is typically out of the direct line of sight of the photographer.  People just have to pay better attention to what they're doing.  That's all. I've made the mistake once, but was fortunate to have been sitting down while playing with a new lens, which landed in my lap.

[ebiggs1]

"As you have pointed out, it is very easy to press the button, IF you're not paying attention."

I am finding it only not an easy thing but actually a very deliberate action.  If one is shooting pro sports I am assuming a telephoto lens.  Right?  So, put a big tele on your camera and see if you can cause it to release with out you knowing it.

I can't !  

[Waddizzle]

---

@ebiggs1 wrote:

"As you have pointed out, it is very easy to press the button, IF you're not paying attention."

I am finding it only not an easy thing but actually a very deliberate action.  If one is shooting pro sports I am assuming a telephoto lens.  Right?  So, put a big tele on your camera and see if you can cause it to release with out you knowing it.

I can't !  

---

I have found it easiest to do when the camera is tripod mounted, which many said they were using.  I think they may go to reposition camera, and you grab it with both hands, one on either side of that camera.  I've done that one before, too.

I'm not sure how significant the rotation direction of the zoom ring is.  You can turn it either way.  When the lens fell into my lap, I think I was turning the zoom ring, which had reached it's limit, and I began rotating the lens out of the mount.  I stopped myself, but it was already too late.  The lens was loose, and it dropped into my lap.

I don't use the DOF button.  I've experimented with changing it to do something else, but the button is a bit too inconvenient to use.

As for that Brand N camera, Yikes, look how close the release is to the lens controls!

[ebiggs1]

I suppose the size of one's fingers also plays in to it.  I still think it is operator error and not a design fault.  Perhaps lack of attention is the cause but I don't want it changed until I completely give this up.

Again I feel for those of you where this happened.  It can ruin your whole day.

[ebiggs1]

"...or trying to be arguementative but I make my living shooting sporting events and games..."

Been there, done that.

But I have been sitting here for the last 15 minutes trying my best to get the lens to release.....at all.  Let alone not knowingly letting it happen.  It still seems to me to be a conscious thing, not happenstance.  I can only say, it has never happened to me but I am not trying to say it can't happen.  I just don't see how. 

It just seems impossibile to hit that button and properly twist the lens at the very same moment.

As to causing it to happne while you zoom the lens, that is even more impossible.  If you look at this example the lens itself makes pusihing the button a more purpose action.  In this case rotating to vertical, there isn't enough room for your ungloved finger let alone with a glove.  If it is happening to you, I am truly sorry as I know that crunching sound of a lens hitting the ground is horrible.  Done that too but it was my fault.  Not the camera.

[ebiggs1]

Well you say that is just how it is with that lens/camera combo.  But it is still unlikely, to me, even with the a fore mentioned 24-70mm f2.8L.

To push the lens release button and zoom at the same time?  Especially when this lens zooms the opposite way you need to rotate it to remove it.  Do you see why some of us are skeptical? Not saying it can't happen at all.  We just don't understand how.

How about brand-N?

The lens release button is much larger.  The zoom ring is closer in this particular combo but again the lens zooms the wrong direction needed to remove it.  Again there is no room for a gloved finger.  Sorry for being so dense but I just don't understand how.