A Broken Lens (and other things to come)

Well, the strangest thing happened to me: my Canon 50mm f/1.8 Mark II lens fell apart in my hands. No, I wasn't torturing the poor things, just manual focusing. The lens had started to develop a little catch in the focusing ring. After turning the focus ring about 90% of the way it would catch and not go any further. A little jiggle of the focus ring (just backing off slightly and then continuing forward) would solve the problem. I meant to have the lens looked at, but since it was still working and the warranty wasn't about to expire, I guess taking in a working lens to have it looked at seemed to be too much trouble. That is, until last week. I was doing some manual focus, and when it got to that catch, the center part of the lens just fell out into my hands. Imagine my shock. Here's what I was left with:



I tried taking it up to the local Canon authorized service center, but they were useless. They didn't even want to help me...just told me to send it to Canon because they didn't think Canon would pay them to fix it. Way to go to bat for your customer (you can be sure I won't be recommending them to my friends). So now I have to send it off to Canon for repair. That is, as soon as I get around to calling them.

I've also got a few other updates to post this week (when I get the time). I went on a lighthouse trip to Canada this weekend and stopped by Niagara Falls for the night, so I'll post a few photos from that trip. I've got a shot from the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter to share. Hopefully the aurora shows up tonight here in Michigan. I've also been meaning to post an update on the topic of LAB mode editing. Someone asked me for some pointers on how I made my moon collage, so if I get a chance, I'll post a quick little step-by-step tutorial. I'm sure there is something else.