[Volker76]

Hello,

today I had my first lens drop event. I am notoriously clumsy so I am mostly surprised it took so long.

1m height.

On bare cobble stones

Front element first.

When I saw it there, standing on its front, my first reaction was 'oh sh*t'. Second was 'luckily not the 100mm macro'. I picked it up. Filter ring is broken, but glass looked ok.

Put it on camera, tried autofocus. Motor run like mad, no focusing.

Manual focus worked.

After manual focusing AF worked again. Yay!

Did some test shots - works like before.

Conclusion: it might be plastic, but it is sturdy. And the light weight might have been a factor in its survival.

[Rimfiredude]

Way to go Lucky.

[ChristianRock]

I have dropped two lenses from about the same height. The first one was the Rikenon XR 28mm 2.8 which scared me because I love that lens. Being all metal, the filter ring bent which meant the focusing ring also got bent. With pliers I was able to get it somewhat back to shape so that it now focuses to MFD again, and the filter ring is useable again. The lens however doesn't look that good anymore and is probably not worth much - which is OK since I won't sell it anyway. Incredibly, there is no drop in sharpness at all (at least on APS-C).

The other was the plastic Tamron 70-300mm. The filter ring broke in one place but it still takes filters and the hood. Image quality seems unaffected. It handled the fall much better even though it is all plastic and there is a portion of the filter ring missing now.

[Na Horuk]

Whew!
Check for decentering, maybe? But good stuff. I dropped my Pentax M 50mm f1.7 (similar optics to the DA, but all metal barrel) and the barrel got all bent, couldn't turn the focus ring.

[Volker76]

test shots look ok so far.

[rayallen]

Thank you for your field report. It's nice to know that it is a sturdy lens as I have just purchased one. It is not here yet but I now feel more confident! I will try very hard not to drop mine.

[SpecialK]

Conclusion: it might be plastic, but it is sturdy.

It handled the fall much better even though it is all plastic...

Plastic gets a bum rap. It has some give to it that metal does not. And it will last a million years :-)

[pathdoc]

I have had an 18-250 (Pentax) either dropped or kicked somehow while in its bag. Camera bag was full of broken glass and I feared the worst, but thank God it was only the sacrificial filter and the front element was unscratched. While it's felt a bit rattly ever since, it still functions and takes good pictures. I'm going to let things be.

You've had a lucky escape. I think your manual focusing managed to put the thing "back in gear" somehow. I wonder whether that would have happened with a quickshift lens.