Canon Lens Repair

[The_Penguin]

The last time I had an L lens repaired, Canon still had a repair center here in Calgary. 16-36L focus mech froze. Covered under warranty despite being grey market, but it took a long time.
Today the IS died on my trusty 17 year old 100-400 L IS. Looks like I have to ship it to Mississauga.
Anyone dealt with a lens repair lately? How did it go?

[The_Penguin]

Remembered that the lens was on the camera, in my backpack when I had to nail the brakes to avoid a collision and the backpack flew off the seat onto the floor. Probably jarred the lens substantially.
Anyway filled out a form online at Canon.ca,got the info and shipped the lens to Brampton.
About a week later got an estimate for around $775. ouch!

[taemo]

Ouch... dont used 100-400L Mark I go for around 1000$?
Might as well buy another one and sell that for parts.. you might be able to get 100-300$ for parts

[Mitsu3000gt]

The problem with shipping a lens, especially a big heavy zoom lens with tons of parts and elements with tolerances measured in microns, is that when the courier is using that package as his personal football, or when it is flying around the sorting facility and dropping onto different conveyors, it is just as likely to be returned damaged or somehow imperfect after you paid for shipping and repair. Similarly, it may also get to Canon with new damage that raises that repair estimate substantially. Kind of a crappy situation. If it's $775 to repair I would go find a good used one rather than risk shipping it twice.

I am always reminded of a big reddit thread where people who work for UPS and other courier companies were telling stories, mostly about the abuse packages take both by the machines and the employees. They said the best way to unclog a jam on the conveyors at the sorting facilities was find just the right sized package to throw at it as hard as they can. Shipping a camera/lens is my nightmare haha.

I didn't have to look very far into completed eBay sold listings to find good condition copies being sold for $750-1000 CAD just to get an idea of value. There is one on Kijiji for $900 and another for $1200 (probably wants $1000).

Anyway, sorry about your lens - sounds like you may have already shipped it so I hope everything comes back good as new.

[Rarasaurus]

Took a while and expensive but we did get the shipped lens back and it has been good since.