Well, it's time to say bye to my most used lens, by far, my DA 40mm Limited.
I bought it back in early 2007.
It has been my most trusted companion ever since. And it's so small, I almost never leave home without it. If I needed a guaranteed tack-sharp shot, this was the lens.
Well yesterday I was shooting a wedding and it was acting finicky trying to focus. I switch the body to manual focus and reached for the focus ring.. The focus ring racked back and forth approximately a half centimeter in either direction, no more than that. It was stuck at somewhat less than infinity.
I knew something was wrong, I replaced it with my DA 70 for the moment, until I had a chance to look at it today.
I was able to wiggle the focus ring a little bit and get it unstuck... but upon rotating the ring from close focus to infinity, the front end of the lens sometimes moves about a millimeter. Sometimes it moved the proper distance.
Sometimes there is almost no visible movement at all. Either way.. something in the focus mechanism has gone horribly wrong.
This thing has been a workhorse for me.
With the exception of my Tamron 70-200mm, which I bought a few years back almost exclusively to shoot hockey at the local ice rink, this is by far my most used lens.
Now the question is, send it in for service or just get a brand new one? I'm going to see what estimate would be.
*sigh* Just wanted to share my story. I probably have 50k photos with this little gem.