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Introduced again in February 2019, the full-frame Panasonic Lumix S Professional 70-200mm f/4 OIS for L mount cameras is a well-liked lens. This isn’t a lot of a shock, because it’s considerably cheaper than the corporate’s f/2.8 model. They’re in style rental lenses, too, and the parents at LensRentals have a couple of of them. The truth is, they’ve a few them that appear to have developed an autofocus challenge.So, LensRentals did what LensRentals does and tore it to items so as to determine what’s flawed, mounted it and put it again collectively. Panasonic doesn’t actually supply a restore service for this lens, simply an trade service, which is okay however they don’t need to have the merchandise out of inventory for weeks. There’s just one little snag. They’ve by no means taken this lens aside earlier than. The group documented the entire course of on the LensRentals weblog, however listed here are a few of the highlights.It’s a fairly beefy lens for an f/4, weighing in at 985g. It incorporates 23 components in 17 teams and zooms internally, so it doesn’t change bodily size as you regulate the focal size. It contains a essential linear focusing system, which LensRentals notes are “a bit fragile, but in addition simply repaired”, containing the linear focusing motor itself and a secondary stepper motor and 5-stop optical picture stabiliser.As with all lenses they haven’t opened up earlier than, the primary job is determining which technique to get in. The bayonet mount is the apparent place to begin, because it’s usually a distinct piece of metallic from the remainder of the lens and is simply held in place by a number of screws, in order that’s the place they started. And as soon as that was off, eradicating the remainder of the rear barrel to entry the electronics appears to be a little bit of a doddle.The group notes the climate sealing gasket across the bayonet, and the thorough grounding of the electronics all through the lens, though they jokingly admit that they “doubt it’s going to affect anybody’s buying choices”. Additionally they spot a variety of sensors together with the OIS place sensor and a brown flex connector that connects to one thing they discuss with as “Sensor of Uncommon Kind and Unknown Operate” or “SUTUS”. Undecided what it’s “SUTUS” and never “SUTUF” however there we go.Just a few extra screws take away the PCB nearest the rear mount and issues are actually beginning to uhh… come collectively? collapse? Even fairly early on within the disassembly course of, you may see that there’s quite a bit to this lens. And should you can’t see that but, you undoubtedly will by the top of the method. As they transfer round to the entrance, they discover that some elements aren’t fairly really easy to take away, and must sort out the entrance factor with some warmth and a spudger.However with the entrance factor eliminated, eliminating the remaining is solely a matter of unscrewing some screws till you finally get to… Nicely, should you ever hear anyone accusing Panasonic of not having any balls, they’re flawed. This lens has a bit pair of them that match into slots and are used as rollers when the clutch is shifted to go between handbook and autofocus.After rather more disassembly, together with extra of the rear part, the optical picture stabilisation unit and extracting the SUTUS, they lastly make it all the way down to the autofocus system and the linear focusing motor that they should restore. They word a few of the design components that seem to recommend a degree of high quality and a focus to element that was paid within the design of this lens that isn’t all the time there on different lenses.After getting all of it dismantled and at last attending to the motor, the wrongdoer was one they’d seen earlier than. Not less than way back to 2015 once they say they first described this challenge with the Sony 24-70mm f/4 OSS Vario Tessar and so they seemed a bit deeper into it in 2016 on the LensRentals weblog. Primarily, the electromagnetic coil was solely glued to the focusing group plastic and the glue has come free, preserving it connected to just one aspect.When this occurs, the coil slides up and down because it’s purported to however doesn’t shift the focusing factor together with it. So, the autofocus both doesn’t work in addition to it ought to or it doesn’t work in any respect. And that’s the issue with this lens. They stated in 2016 that glue on the AF motor coils is a reasonably frequent level of failure and even again then they’d “reglued dozens of them”. So, whereas lens tech undoubtedly evolves and every new lens the group tear open reveals one thing new, it appears that evidently some issues by no means change.I wouldn’t fear an excessive amount of about your Panasonic Lumix S Professional 70-200mm f/4 OIS growing this challenge, although. Fewer than 10% of LensRental’s stock of this lens have had this downside and their lenses get very closely used. They advise towards taking it aside and attempting to repair it your self, although. They are saying that it’s not a simple disassembly and from trying on the picture above, placing it again collectively once more is not any picnic, both!You may take a look at the entire teardown over on the LensRentals Weblog.
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