{"id":86393,"date":"2020-06-17T06:13:38","date_gmt":"2020-06-17T12:13:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=86393"},"modified":"2020-06-17T10:58:09","modified_gmt":"2020-06-17T16:58:09","slug":"two-potential-sources-of-grief-lots-of-it-for-photographers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/17\/two-potential-sources-of-grief-lots-of-it-for-photographers\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Potential Sources Of Grief (lots of it) For Photographers"},"content":{"rendered":"

One involves older camera gear and the other is a heads up about B&H Photo.<\/p>\n

Be forewarned, today’s post is heavy on photogeek and it’s far from short so it won’t be for everyone.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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A little over a year ago I began to have a serious problem with my camera gear. I didn’t know if it was caused by my camera, my lens or my teleconverter (extender) but occasionally my camera wouldn’t focus at all and other times it was focusing but my photos weren’t as sharp as they should be. The problem was intermittent and completely unpredictable, other than it always seemed to happen when I had an opportunity for an unusually good shot.<\/span><\/p>\n

At first it only happened rarely but its frequency slowly increased until recently when it’s been occurring about 3-5 times every morning I’m out shooting. Most of the time everything works fine but when it doesn’t I have to loosen my teleconverter from the lens and then twist it back on to reset my locking pin. You can imagine my frustration because by then I’ve missed the shot(s). At first I thought it was just dirty electrical contacts but cleaning them many times using a variety of different methods never helped one bit. Based on the evidence I just mentioned I was pretty sure the problem was caused by either my lens or my teleconverter and not my camera but until the last few days I couldn’t narrow it down.<\/p>\n

But I’m almost positive I now know the culprit. It’s my teleconverter. Five days ago I rented a teleconverter for test purposes and I haven’t had the problem a single time while the new tc has been attached.<\/p>\n

I’m also confident I know why<\/em> my tc stopped working properly.<\/p>\n

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This is my tc (not the rented one). I bought it ten years ago as soon as version III of Canon’s 1.4 teleconverter became available. I’d have to say it’s been the most reliable lens (yes, teleconverters are considered to be lenses) I’ve ever owned. And its quality is superb. I never notice any loss of image quality when I’m using it, something I can’t say about 1.4 teleconverters of other brands I’ve tried or even about Canon’s 2.0 teleconverter.<\/p>\n

The guy at one of my camera shops calls Canon’s 1.4 tc a “sweet piece of glass” which always brings a smile to my face for a couple of reasons.<\/p>\n

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Here it is mounted between my Canon 7D Mark II camera and my Canon 500 f\/4 lens.<\/p>\n

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And here’s my entire rig. I’m embarrassed to actually see how dirty my Lens Coat is where I hold on to it with my left hand while I’m shooting from my pickup. It’s way past time to replace it.<\/p>\n

The purpose of a teleconverter is to effectively increase the focal length of the lens its mounted to. When mounted to my 500mm lens and a full frame camera the combined focal length is increased from 500mm to 700mm (1.4 X 500) but I shoot with a cropped frame camera (1.6 crop factor) so when I’m using my tc I’m shooting at an effective 1120 mm which is just about perfect for most birds I photograph.<\/p>\n

OK, lets get to the cause of my problem and to the potential issue I’m trying to warn other photographers about.<\/p>\n

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See those eleven gold electrical contacts buried deep inside my tc? Each time I take a photo every one of those contacts has to be in solid and reliable contact with their matching contacts in my lens (they’re called ‘contacts’ for good reason).<\/p>\n

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And there are seven more gold contacts on the other side of the tc that have to make proper contact with matching contacts on my camera. That’s a total of 36 contacts that have to work properly for my lens to communicate effectively with my camera.<\/p>\n

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Three conditions are the most likely disruptors of that communication – dirty contacts, worn contacts and worn mounting rings that when functioning properly keep my gold contacts in physical contact with each other. Since my contacts aren’t dirty and my rig works fine with the rented tc (or without a tc) my problem is almost certainly caused by worn contacts or worn mounting rings or both.<\/p>\n

After all I’ve been using that tc for 10 years now and on a typical morning of shooting I twist it on and off of my camera and lens multiple times depending on how close I am to my subject. That’s a lot of physical wear and tear over 10 years. Everything works fine when I’m not using the tc and I’ve had it much longer than I’ve had either my current lens or my current camera(s).<\/p>\n

So here’s my plan: I’ll continue to use the rented tc for a few more days (I’ve rented it for a week) to continue my testing. If results remain the same I’ll purchase a new tc ($429) and have my old one repaired. When it’s repaired I’ll either sell it or keep it as a backup and for possible use with my 100-400 lens.<\/p>\n

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One thing’s for damn sure – I won’t be ordering the new tc from B&H Photo as I initially considered doing. My good friend Jim DeWitt (Wickersham’s Conscience) recently lived a consumer’s nightmare when he ordered a new camera from B&H Photo which he’s documented here<\/a><\/span><\/span> and I certainly don’t want a repeat performance. The last thing I need right now is more camera gear headaches.<\/p>\n

Besides, especially these days I prefer to support local businesses so I’ll be buying it from a nearby camera shop.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

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Notes:<\/em><\/p>\n