Stuck tripod collar on EF600/4

This is anoying. The tripod collar on my 600/4 is stuck in the nearly upside down position. Absolutely useless, I want to take it on an important trip for a week leaving next weekend, and the guy at Canon says there is slim chance of having anyone look at it within 10 days! Has anyone else had this happen and suggestions on any possible quick do-it-yourself fixes??

Try removing the foot from the collar, and see if any screws or washers fall out.

Checked that. nothing I can see there. Thanks.

Neil,
I have a similar problem with my 500mm. I even borrowed some screwdrivers from a campground maintenance worker and tried pulling off the ring that is on the camera side of the collar hoping to slide it off but I could not budge the collar. About a week later it worked fine. It has locked up about 4 times since in cold but not real cold temperature. If anyone has a cure I would like to hear it. I don’t think this makes sense but I can usually get it to loosen up by placing the lens on its side on the floor. It has never loosened up in any other position.
Scott

Thanks Scott. Similarly, I've managed to wiggle it free a couple of times it has done it in the past by standing it on the front. Nothings seems to work this time though.

I took things into my own hands. I figured it was out of warrantee, I was keeping well away from optics and electronics, and I was going to be without it anyway. I'm not suggesting anyone else do this.
Careful listening to the 'clunk' sounds suggested the problem lay beneath the name plate which sits on the top of the collar, so I very carefully removed the four screws securing it. They were tight, so much care with a jewelers screwdriver to not strip the heads. Underneath is a small window through which there is access to the bearings on which the collar rotates. These should be spaced evenly around the lens, each fixed with a philips screw in the centre, and are accessed by rotating the collar. However, in my lens there were two completely loose and wedged between the edge of the window and a bearing that was still in place. I put them back where they should have been, tightened the other loose ones, and now it works better than ever. Honestly, better than new. Boy am I happy, but NOT with Canon.
I don't see any reason why these screws should come out after 18 months of careful, normal use (actually they may have been out or lose much longer but giving it a shake had until now got things working again). Another example of poor quality control at Canon?!

Hey Neil, glad you got it sorted out.

There are two types of rotational systems with the 500/600s- the older "graphite" system and the newer bearing system. I think they switched over in something like 2001-2002.

I've had lots of problems with tripod collars on various lenses, which was a big reason for me upgrading to a new 800, with a redesigned system.

I've heard (don't know for sure) that the bearing systems are sensitive to vibration, so if the lens has been shaking around in a vehicle or similar, that may have caused them to dislodge. People also tend to accidentally dislodge them while tinkering inside the collar as well.

Sending it in for Canon to fix the tripod collars can be quite expensive!

Neil, I had the 400/2.8 IS and had problems with the sticking collar.This seems a pretty common problem with these lens. There was a post over at Sportsshooter where one of the photographers sourced the collar bearings from a company called Boca Bearings.These bearings are far superior to the Canon OEM bearings and pretty simple to install.He actually did a photo step by step to aid others who needed to do the repair.When I removed my name plate on my lens I discovered I didn't have the bearing design, rather the graphite design.I ended up removing the collar and reapplied graphite and the collar became pretty smooth again. Here is a link to the article which describes the procedure and where to get the bearings.

http://www.sportsshooter.com/message_di ... ?tid=26999

Scott

Thanks for the link Scott. I'm surprised to have not seen more people around here with the problem. It sounds like some periodic checks of those screws and bearings might be in order.

I'd suggest using loctite to secure the screws if they are vibrating loose. Just a small drop of the low strength grade should do it, only get it on the thread though, you don't want it on the collar of the screw.

Those bearings (Canon OEMon the sportshooter site) look like quite low quality bearings and like they would be real susceptible to dust ingress, I would look into relacing them with a sealed version, even though the sports shooter guys are using open bearings, I cant see any issue and you wouldn't have to worry about dust ingress.

FWIW, I have a 600 IS from 2002 and it has the non-bearing type tripod collar, so yeah, the redesign definitely happened thereafter. The stiffness of tripod collar was one of the big complaints about the new IS lenses back in 1999, resulting in the bearing redesign. Unfortunately I've had the collar on my 400 2.8 seize once already (if you look at the original topic that the above SportsShooter link refers to) and Canon would only replace the entire foot/collar - not cheap! Since then and the SS discussion, I make it a point to check the bearings once or twice a year and also travel around with a jeweler's screwdriver set.

neil,
I found the access under my foot on my 500. I feel a little embarased for not looking under there sooner. Every bearing had came loose. A ten minute job and it works great. I like the locktite idea but it would be a delicate job.

You could use a fine paintbrush or a toothpick to apply it to the hole before screwing the bearing on.

If you have the graphite / friction tripod collar system, make sure to not add oil!

My former roomate was a repair tech from Singapore, who said the only way to loosen up the friction collars is repeated use. It made sense that it was stuck, because I purchased from someone who hadn't used for 4 years.