Halo Problems on Canon Lens 70-200 L IS USM II - Canon Ignoring The Problem... and You?? Finally FIXED on Version III !!

Let me just start from the beginning...

I sold my 70-200 L IS USM II lens has it was used and needed a replacement, also was hopping on getting the "newer one" with the newer lens cap and a new serial number. In fact that was never an issue but my lens get so much use than from now and then it is better to sell them and buy new ones than to send them back to repair.

That was the case for this lens. It had a lot of mileage so it went in for Canon CPS Portugal to get a clean and was sold.

I ordered a new one and for my surprise it did not arrived with the new lens cap although the serial number was a newer one.

I took it for an assignment and start to noticed that between the zoom range 90mm-110mm it produced some kind of a strange flare, well not a flare but more of an Halo. First I thought it could be something related to the front filter but since that is also a Canon Protect I thought it was a little odd and decided to test it without the filter on a new assignment.

That's what I did and for my surprise it produced the same Halo thing all over again :(

Tested with a friend's 70-200 L IS USM older model and none of his happened.

I started to scratch my head and ask for a replacement on the shop I bought it, they replace it in no time. The new one arrived with a different and newer serial number and this time with the new pinch lens cap.

So I guess this one should be in great conditions and since it had the new lens cap then I thought it would be a newer model, unfortunately it came with dust already deep inside the front lens, contacted the seller that informed me that this is somehow normal has it would be impossible to keep a little speck of dust out of while on manufacturing the lens (for me this has to do with lower quality control on manufacturing) and I never thought of buying a lens that came already with free dust inside.

Anyway, after a couple of tests the lens came with the same problem and this one with even worst than my previous one. When you point it to a bright backlight light situation it creates this horrible flares either on the left/right/up/down side of the lens and always at the same mm, that's between 90mm and 110mm and when zooming slowly at those positions the effect of that reflection ruins completely the photo.

I decided to investigate the problem, has I never had such a problem on my previous six 70-200 lens I had in the past neither I've heard anyone complaining of something of this kind, either photo or video.

So this what I did to test the lens out with Lens Hood on it.

1) Grab a flash light
2) Put the flash light in front of the lens
3) Zoom in and out slowly between 90mm and 110mm

Then check if you got the results I show in the images below.

It's very subtle the effect on the right and left side. This is because the lens that I have at the moment is not too evident on the halo effect, but on previous one's I had this was a quick way to detect it and has you can see it's still there. It is normal that the lens creates the Flare effect but not this halo thing.

So I decided to investigate and tried to find out why this halo reflection occurs and I got to the conclusion that has to do with a inner black part that is reflecting back the light. This part should be completely black to avoid any kind of reflection but instead is a dark grey that when light hits it it creates that halo reflection with the lines.

Let me show you what I'm talking about...

Is this piece inside the lens, just look how bright it is under the lamp light.

As you can see I got a lamp above the lens and that inner piece is reflecting back the light as showed in the red arrows.

If you take a closer look it's reflecting all the light that enters the lens and that will reflect back and back in again while zooming the lens between 90mm and 110mm that's when the blades cross.

Let me show you some good example of the fantastic photo you can grab with this NORMAL Canon effect. I call this NORMAL has Canon replied me that this is a NORMAL thing this lens produces.

Enjoy the photos with this new effect...

The videos below (with no audio due to copyright issues) were recorded while on assignment for a client with full front stage access with 70-200 f.2.8 L IS USM II with it's lens hood on it (as I never use any of my lens without the lens hood) with a 5D MarkIII, that allow me to capture on movie the problem I'm having with this lens that Canon refuses to acknowledge the problem.

One example of the halo problem caught on video that occurs every time you have a back light situation. This would be either on the right side or left just depends on where the lens is pointing at and does nothing to do with normal and typical lens flare that could be produce in situations like this.

Here is another example of the halos produced by the lens when pointed at bright lighting situations where you cannot avoid and if you need to zoom in you will get horrible lens reflections.

And another example...

I have already replaced mine for 3 other with the same problem (all of them completely new).

Contacted Canon Germany and was informed this was not a malfunction it was a NORMAL procedure with this lens under this lighting condition as per information of Canon Inc. Tokyo.

Strange I have never had this before on many of my older 70-200 only with the new ones that were recently manufactured with the new pinch lens cap, so I guess this could be somehow related to bad control quality issues due to rush sales and market demand for this lens.

Check if yours have this problem and report back.

This usually happens between 90mm and 110mm range in back light situations. This also mess with photos as they all come with this halo problem either on right or left and if you slowly zoom in and out will get critical ruining your photo and maybe even make you loose a couple of clients.

Here goes the serials of the ones I had so far with this exact same problem:

- 9420006293
- 0330001231
- 0120004900
- 6150005393 (new v.2 lens from 2018 with same problem)

At the moment I'm using one with this problem has Canon refuses to acknowledge the problem and replacing it with a non defective one... Hey!!! but it looks like they no longer produce such a fine 70-200 L IS USM II lens... so we're screwed :(

Leave your comments and share this if you feel you've been cheated by Canon on such an expensive lens... also report the problem to Canon maybe they will address this in the future upgrade of this lens.

Hope this helps someone with the same problems!!

Test yours ASAP and if you also find that your lens produces such thing please report it here with serial number so we can deal with Canon, the more reports the better so they could gives us a solution on this problem in such an expensive lens. 

DIY Photography got some interest comments in it's page, have a look.

--//-- Update 12-09-2013 --//--

I've tried today this same setup with my older 70-200 L IS USM II, serial 119011,  that I had sold to a friend and was bought on the same supplier as the ones that are coming with this problem but it did not produce this kind of problem.

Sent also today a personal email to Mike Owen (Canon UK), Guido Krebs (Canon Germany) and Jose Antas (Canon Portugal) talking about this all mess and will report back when I got some more answers about this. 

Reported this to several lens rental houses in the UK, USA, Australia, Germany and France, some have replied saying that none of their costumers report this on the 70-200 L IS USM II that were rented.

Meanwhile test yours to see if you also got any of this problems and report them here.

We are much strong if we are all together!!

--//-- --//--


--//-- Update 25-09-2013 --//--

Got email from Canon Portugal with a great answer to this problem. And unfortunately so far nothing new... checkt it out.

Estimado Sr. Rui Leal,

Agradecemos o seu contacto e a questão colocada aos nossos serviços relativos à sua nova EF 70-200 2.8L IS U II.

Lamentamos que a sua nova objetiva não esteja a corresponder às suas expectativas.

Informamos que após análise técnica ao modelo em questão, não foi detetado nenhum defeito de fabrico no mesmo. A situação reportada não se trata de um defeito do produto, mas sim de uma limitação, que eventualmente poderá ocorrer em situações raras e apenas na conjugação de vários fatores.

Certos da sua melhor atenção.

Com os melhores cumprimentos,

	Luis Sintra RCC - CIG Service Country Coordinator Marketing (CIG Service) Canon Portugal, S.A.

Translation:

Dear Mr. Rui Leal,

Thank you for your question and contact to our services related to your new EF 70-200 2.8L IS U II.
 
Sorry that your new objective is not meeting your expectations.

Please be advised that after technical analysis to the model in question, was not detected any manufacture defect. The situation reported it is not a product defect, but rather a limitation which may possibly occur in rare instances and only on the combination of several factors.

Grateful for your best attention.

Yours faithfully,

Leave to your attention to comment a spread the word around on this very serious lens problem that Canon keeps ignoring. Thanks

--//-- --//--  

--//-- Update 30-10-2013 --//--

No more news from Canon about this problem. They keep insisting it's a normal procedure of the lens and that it should work like this.

Apparently this only affects the full frame sensors has they cover a larger area of the lens. Never happened to me before on my previous versions of this lens.

So the best and only way that Canon have is to say that this is a normal thing so they don't have to recall all their defective lens.

Shame on Canon support and German CPS service center.

Canon, Thank God this is a normal lens feature ;)

--//-- --//-- 

--//-- Last Update 04-2018 --//--

Got a new 70-200 f2.8 L IS USM II serial 6150005393 it has the same problem after all these years they still did not bother to silently fix this. It's a shame for such an expensive lens!

 --//-- --//-- 

--//-- Last Update 06-2019 --//--

Got the new 70-200 f/2.8 L IS USM III serial 761000601 and apparently this lens did not only got the new white color (that apparently does not look as white as people have named it, well at least my version), noticed some improvements on the IS stabilisation system (not much but is sound more smooth and lens noisier and now when you shake the lens you can see it stabilising well it's not much and can't be measured in stops but something has changed and they did not tell us about), noticed the lens is sharper at the corners just like the new 24-70 USM II and finally the new lens coat that I believe this is what makes the difference after all. Tested it under heavy controlled light environment and even pointed a flashlight to it, like I did on previous models, and now you got this nice flare as it was supposed to. THANK YOU Canon finally after all these years you got it!

Do not know if this would be something to upgrade your old 70-200 f/2.8 L IS USM II but for me this was definitely the best thing that happened in a long time and only for this, for me personally, it's a well deserved update for sure.


 --//-- --//-- 

Lens Align - Calibrate Your Lens the Way You Like It

Honorable mention to Lighting Mods blog been posted has one of The Top 100 Photography Blogs on the Tips & Learning category place 52 right below the Strobist blog.

Thank you for the mention as it truly represents and rewards months of hard work and lots of bumps in the middle. This was also an inspiration to maintain and keep going the Lighting Mods blog.

Hope you all have a wonderful New Year's Day!!

You can follow all other brilliant sites and blogs about photography matters at the Photography Colleges blog.

And since this will be the last post of 2008 I also would like to share with you this great piece of equipment that could make your dreams come true regarding the lens focusing problems you may have...

It's called LensAlign Focus Calibration System and comes from the same guys who build the so acclaimed WhiBal the White Balance Calibration Card.

What does this thing do, you may ask?

LensAlign is a focus calibration system that allows you to determine if any of your body/lens combination's suffer from back or front focus. LensAlign is the only solution that allows fast, accurate, and repeatable results that confirm and/or calibrated auto-focus of all of your lens/body combination.

Note: LensAlign can test and display back/front focus on almost all cameras. However, auto-focus calibration requires that the camera body has an AF micro-adjustment feature.

Cameras with micro-adjustment currently include:

* Canon 1D MarkIV, 1D MarkIII, 1DsMkIII, 5DII, 50D
* Nikon D3s, D3, D3x, D300, D700
* Sony A900
* Pentax K20

And since I do own one of these complete packages I can tell you that it's worth every penny and you will always have your lens calibrated the way you want them.

You can find more full details and reviews on the links below:

* Imaging Resource

* Jeffrey Friedl (Creator of The AutoFocus Test Chart in 2007)
* CanonPhotoGroup.com (Adam Jay)
* Luminous Landscape
* Lens Align Documentation and Videos

Press Release

RawWorkflow unveils LensAlign™ for managing back and front focus issues

The remarkable LensAlign Focus Calibration System from RawWorkFlow.com provides a unique and precision tool for testing cameras for front or back-focus problems when using “fast glass” (lenses with aperture openings of f4 or larger). Owners of today’s sophisticated DSLRs and modern lenses are quite aware of the potential front/back focus problem but, prior to LensAlign, have lacked access to a proper testing methodology. Without confirmation of proper AF operation, a purchaser of new or used equipment has no idea if it is working to its full potential. With LensAlign, a new lens purchase can be verified on one or more camera bodies from the photographer’s arsenal.

Release of LensAlign also coincides with the camera makers’ subtle but real acknowledgement of back/front focus problems. Beginning with Canon Mark III Series 1 cameras, almost all professional and enthusiast DSLRs are now equipped with an AF Microadjustment function that allows the camera body or individual lenses to be calibrated and focus problem neutralized. Yet to date no official calibration procedures have been announced by any of the leading camera makers. The release of LensAlign provides camera makers with a universal reference upon which to base at least one calibration procedure. Although LensAlign is not yet officially endorsed by manufacturer, Canon US and other camera makers have been kept in the loop during its development, and their feedback was implemented within its innovative design.

“In conceiving LensAlign, it occurred to me that there was no good way to communicate the range of focus problems that were being widely reported,” offers RawWorkFlow.com founder Michael Tapes. “Photographers could post test images, but they lack a common reference from which the performance of the camera or lens could be judged. I hope that LensAlign becomes that common reference, allowing specific camera/lens combinations to be profiled for their auto-focus performance. We plan to create a database of LensAlign images from camera/lens combinations so that a perspective buyer or new owner can compare the results that they get from their equipment against a profile of performance images stored in our database. Since there is no specific specification parameter for auto-focus, the best way to determine if equipment is offering its full potential is to compare it with identical camera/lens combinations being used by others.”

LensAlign will be available in two different configurations. The first is LensAlign Pro, which will ship Dec 16, while the portable and less expensive LensAlign Lite, will ship around January 10. Both models are comprised of a focus target and a companion depth-of-field ruler, together with a novel, custom-designed sighting system that ensures accurate parallelism between the LensAlign focus target and camera sensor/film plane. Having set up the camera and LensAlign using the sighting mechanism – all of which is explained in the accompanying video tutorials – the user takes an image of the target and ruler. Any front/back focus anomalies will be instantly revealed on resultant image of the angled ruler scale.

“If the focus is spot-on,” Tapes explains, “the ruler's zero mark will be in perfect focus, with proper depth of field in front and rear of the mark. But, if the auto or manual focus system is off, then the ruler markings will show this instantly, either in front of or in back of the target plane - the ‘0-ruler’ marking). The entire process is easy to perform, accurate, and is entirely repeatable.

“Even photographers who focus manually can benefit from the regular use of LensAlign,” Tapes considers. “While not as complex as the AF system, manual focusing of DSLRs or rangefinder cameras utilizes a separate light path than the capture, which is the primary cause of the focusing problem.”

LensAlign ships with a companion DVD tutorial series and is available on-line from RawWorkflow.com for $179.00 (Pro), The Pro Plus with a Long Ruler for $249.00 and $79.95 (Lite) and they also have the Long Ruler sold separately for $99.00, plus shipping. Because of the portable nature of the LensAlign Lite design, it is well suited for international purchase and is shipped in a Flat Rate postal envelope to minimize shipping costs outside of the US.

Tip: Canon Lens Aging - How Old Is This Lens?

A surprising element when buying anew lens is always old are they.

When you buy them through Canon distributors or even when you get a great second hand bargain.

But would it be really a bargain?

Find out more by knowing how old your lens are by just following my tips.

Beside the rear lens element of many (but not all) Canon lenses is a date code (as seen above) in the form of "UV0913". This code is also present on many other Canon products including camera bodies.

The first letter, "U", indicates that the lens was made in Canon's Utsunomiya, Japan factory. Prior to 1986, this letter is moved to the last position of the date code.

U = Utsunomiya, Japan
F = Fukushima, Japan
O = Oita, Japan

The second letter, "V", is a year code that indicates the year of manufacture. Canon increments this letter each year starting with A in 1986 and prior to that, A in 1960 without the leading factory code.

Here is a table to make things simple:

A = 1986, 1960
B = 1987, 1961
C = 1988, 1962
D = 1989, 1963
E = 1990, 1964
F = 1991, 1965
G = 1992, 1966
H = 1993, 1967
I = 1994, 1968
J = 1995, 1969
K = 1996, 1970
L = 1997, 1971
M = 1998, 1972
N = 1999, 1973
O = 2000, 1974
P = 2001, 1975
Q = 2002, 1976
R = 2003, 1977
S = 2004, 1978
T = 2005, 1979
U = 2006, 1980
V = 2007, 1981
W = 2008, 1982
X = *2009, 1983
Y = *2010, 1984
Z = *2011, 1985

* assumption of continuation being made for future years.

The first two numbers, "09", is the month number the lens was manufactured in. Month 02 is February, month 11 = November. The leading zero of the month code is sometimes omitted.

The next two numbers, "13", are meaningless in determining how old a Canon lens is because this is a Canon internal code (that is occasionally omitted).

You now know the manufacture date for your lens - But - You cannot know how long the lens was in inventory, in shipping transit and on a shelf until it was originally purchased (without having the original receipt or a reputable person accurately informing you which in most cases you will never get access to it).

The Canon lens date code in the sample picture indicates that this Canon EF 400mm f/4.0 DO Lens was made in Utsunomiya, Japan in September 2007.

So as you can see I bought it this month June 2008 but the lens was manufactured last year in September. Now you just have to check this on your lenses and see how old are they.

This is also very helpful when buying items on second hand at dealer shops or even over Ebay transactions.

Last but not least this is a good way of telling if the lens came out on a period that people complain about focus issues and canon replace them for new ones, etc, etc, etc.

Canon: Virtual Lens Plant

If you ever wanted to know how Canon make their lenses you now have a great opportunity.

Canon has created a Virtual Lens Plant with lots of information about their lenses.

You can navigate through the factory and see the several process that the lens have to pass before they reach your hands.

From Material Processing (Material Blending, Pre-Fusing, Fusing/Cooling, Quality Inspection, Press/Forming and Annealing), Lens Machining (Rough Grinding, Fine Grinding, Polishing,Inspection, Alignment and Coating) to Lens Assembly (Assembly1 - front Unit, Asembly2 - Back Unit and Comprehensive Inspection Completion) you got it all.

You can see all these stages on small videos instructional videos.

And last but not least you can also check the Lens Gallery and take a look at some of the most used types and features of the nowadays lens coatings and materials.

From the Optical Glass Lens, Ultra Low Dispersion Lens, Fluorite Lens and Spherical/Aspherical Lens and also come with small videos.

I think that after you look at all the website in the end you will know a lot more about your lenses and why they are so expensive :)