Camera Labs

Hi folks,

I was out today with my usual combo of canon 550d plus tamron 200-500 lens, never had any problems before but today the camera started making buzzing noises every time i tried to take a pic, plus error message 01 - 'Communication between Camera & Lens is Faulty Clean the Lens Contacts'. I've tried cleaning the connections but to nno avail.

Strange thing is the camera works fine with another very recently purchased tamron lens which i bought in France, an AF 18-200 aspherical.

The camera has a few days warranty left and thinking of contacting Canon but is the camera or is it the lens?

Any help would be much appreciated.

If this particular lens has worked well in the past, on this particular camera, and your camera works fine with another Tamron lens, then I would suspect the lens. If this particular Tamron is not labelled as Di II, it is not meant for cropped-frame Canons such as yours, but for full-frame Canons. See the Tamron web site for full details. The non-Di-II Tamrons will mechanically fit just fine on EF-S bodies, but may not properly communicate with the camera's electronics, causing an error message. One would think that a mis-fitted lens that worked in the first place would continue to do so, but perhaps not.

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Canon 7D/5D/40D/1D2N; Nikon F6, FM3A, & Coolpix A; Canon 40mm Pancake, 135L, 50L, 35L, pre-II 50mm 1.8, 100mm 2.8L Macro, 10-22mm EF-S, 28-135 EF, 400mm 5.6L; Nikkor 50mm 1.2 AI-S, 50mm 1.4G, 50mm 1.8D, 16mm 2.8D Fisheye, 180mm 2.8D, 100-300mm 5.6 AI-S; Tokina 17mm & 100mm 2.8 Macro

Thanks Rex,

Looking at both lenses, my old Tamron is marked GP AF Di LD (IF) 200-500 F/5-6.3 ..... so clearly not Di11 but new lense IS marked as Di11.

Thing is the old lens has worked fine for over a year. Could there be something to do with switching lenses over the past couple of days?

I'm mystified! Hate to think I've buggered the old Tamron, cost me near on £600!

You can try to, gently, clean the contacts on the tamron lens with an eraser.

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Canon Rebel XTi, BG-E3 Grip
Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II, 24-105mm f/4L, 50mm f/1.4, 70-300mm f/4-5.6 DO, 85mm f/1.8
Sigma 150mm F2.8 EX Macro
Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II
Canon 430EX II
Opteka 13mm, 21mm, and 31mm extension tubes

If you have a friendly camera shop nearby then you could do a quick test. Your lens on another camera body and a different version of the lens giving errors on your camera body. This will help you narrow down the fault to camera or lens.

The only time I have had a lens give an error was when I did not seat it correctly on the camera body. It happened a couple of times (when I was a newbie) so now I make sure everything is aligned when switching lenses.

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Nikon D90
Nikkor AF-S DX; 18-105 f/3.5-5.6G VR, 55-300 f/4.5-5.6G VR, 35mm f/1.8G
Speedlight SB-700

http://keystrokesukimages.com

My Tamron SP 70-300mm Di VC USD will do this after I have been shooting for a long period, say after 3 hours. The store I bought it from did clean the contacts and it didn't help. Tamron is supposed to have a great warranty program, been trying to get some time to call them and see what they say. Let you know what they say.

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Mike "The Squirrel"
Canon 550D | Canon EF 35mm 1:2 | Canon 50 f/1.8 II | Sigma 18-125mm DC OS | Tamron SP 70-300mm Di VC USD | Canon 430EX II
Military Issued Canon 40D | Canon 55-250mm IS

Its a complete mystery to me - have tried gently cleaning the contacts with an eraser. No Joy.

The camera works fine with both my Tamron 18-200 Di11 and a canon 50ml lense I have. So thinking it must be the lens. I'm in France at the moment to access to another camera body is tricky but I have tried the lens on an ool eos100 - no error message but many buzzing noises and camera was clearly not happy, whereas same camera was fine with other 2 lenses.

So it's clear to me it's the lens. Lens was 2nd hand and out of warranty so looking at hefty repair bill methinks!

Thanks for al you helpful comments.