My DIY canon 18-55mm lens fix

Late last year I got my first DSLR; a secondhand Canon 450D (Rebel Xsi) including a 18-55mm IS kit lens and a 50-200 Tamron zoom. It worked great for a few weeks and then the Auto-focus (AF) on the 18-55 decided to stop working. This was just before my Christmas holiday to Europe which I was very sad about as I was going to be visiting family. Thankfully my step-dad Lanthus (who has a great photography blog HERE) lent me one to use during the vacation...thanks a lot!

When I returned I wanted to get it fixed so I researched it a bit and found out that this seems to be a very common problem. The issue with this lens is caused by a design flaw which forces the AF flex cable to be bent at a very sharp angle when the lens is at the normal position for storing. After a few years it's bound to tear! Canon will charge you upward of $100 for the repair and I thought; Forget that. I can do it! I managed to find the replacement cable online at TMART for about 3€ and they have free worldwide shipping, which was a HUGE saving. When I received the part, I found a good screwdriver, (the correct size is VERY important so you don't strip the heads. For this lens the correct size is a PH00 which you can buy HERE) and enlisted my girlfriends brother as usual to give me a hand. I though I'd make a tutorial and hope it can help someone with the same problem. I'll include photos step-by-step. There are several other tutorials like this on the web, but mine is the best!

First thing is to find workplace that has minimal dust. Next as you remove pieces place them in order so that the reassembly is easy. Finally, this job does require some dexterity and use of small parts in confined spaces, so be prepared.

1. Remove the lens from the body and put the body cap on to keep dust out. Next remove the plastic cover from the lens (on the side that connects to the body) by removing the four screws that hold it in place.

2. The cover can now be partially removed but DOES NOT come off entirely! It is still attached by some connectors which I  have circled below in red.
You have to hold it in this angled position while you remove the five FPC's (circled in green) from their slots. This can be tricky but if you use a small flat screwdriver or a pair of tweezers like I did, you can eventually work them loose. Be careful as they are delicate. It was great to have an extra set of hands for this part!
After removing these you can carefully lift out the PC board and the plastic cover. Make sure not to snag any of the FPC's on the way out. 

3. Next you can see a metallic cover for the drive mechanism. This can be removed after taking off the two screws at the ends. The other screws on the mechanism can be left as they are. I circled the two again in green.

Remove two screws

Lift out the mechanism

4. After removing the metal plate you can see inside the lens and can see the problem; the broken Flex Cable (at the tip of the screwdriver). This is what you will be replacing.

From here you need to remove another metallic sliding plate right at the base of the flex cable. This is what extends the lens during focus. Make sure it's a close as possible to the top and then remove the two screws that attach it to the body of the lens. You can then remove it completely. You can see it below in the tweezers.

 

5. You can finally remove the broken piece of flex at the base of the lens by pulling with tweezers. In my lens it was glued on quite tight, so you may have to do some real pulling to unseat it.

 

Pulling it out

Removed completely

You need to also remove the top half of the broken flex by unsticking it from the side where it sits tight on two little black nubs. you can see the holes where it is attached in the photo below.

6. Now it's time to place the new Flex cable in the now empty space. Here's the new one and you can see the covered adhesive zones that will need to be placed carefully inside the lens. remove the adhesive covers and then get to work.

You need to very carefully place this in the correct position and behind the little black clip circled in green. Getting the big part placed at the bottom takes patience and precision, but it fits very snugly. After you get it in use something like a q-tip to push it firmly in place. This is how it looks when finished.

And here below you can see a pic showing the source of the problem. As you can see when the lens is at 35mm which is the regular closed storing position it has this weird crook in the  flexible board.

It's possible that when you do this repair, you could leave the FPC outside of the black little clip and relieve that tight angle a bit. This may work, but could also possibly un-stick the FPC from it's place over time, or even get stuck when the lens moves. I left mine behind the clip, as this fix is so cheap and easy I don't mind doing it every few years! I'm planning on getting an upgrade for this lens anyways in the near future so I'm sure it'll last till then.
7. Now you just have to re-assemble the lens in reverse order and you're good to go. Mine worked straight away immediately after this fix! Make sure you put the switch back to AF instead of MF, and I wish you happy trails :)

Our cat

In May 2012, Steph and I found a little lost/runaway kitten in the garage. It was scared, hungry, and so thirsty it couldn't even meow anymore, so it had this strange croak instead. It was hiding under some pallets and didn't want to venture out, so we lured him out with some food and managed to capture the little tiny white fluffball. We gave him food and some milk and found a little bed for him. He was so tired and squeaky and still couldn't meow so we let him sleep for a day or two and waited to see if someone came by looking for a kitten. Thankfully no one did and so we decided to keep him. We got the name Bibi for him (thanks to Stephie's sister Sara), and just like that we had our first pet....together...big step for a couple (so they say). It's like having a child :) and not a planned one either. But sometimes those can turn out to be the best ones. He was so white and fluffy and very good as a kitten. We got him used to baths so he didn't mind them and tried to keep him as a house cat as long as possible....turned out to be a bit of a vicious little devil in the end.

 

Yeah he loved to fight. By now of course he's "too old" for such things, but now that he lives outside he loves to hunt. He turned out to be a Red point Siamese so quite a good looking little man. He's one of the most affectionate cats I have ever seen, and loves to be with us wherever we are. He waits in the driveway for us to come home at night and loves to just lay on our couch (or the bed when we just can't deny him it). He's been a good friend and is much loved!

Here are some pics of him, taken with my Rebel Xsi and 60mm lens

Macro photos. They are a wonder, reproducing things at life size or larger and giving us a unique view and a bit of a better understanding of our "Gulliver" status compared to little creatures.

Meet Lilit, king of Lilliput

A little while ago I was quite interested in making a macro lens for my phone camera...not out of necessity since it takes pretty crummy shots, but just for the fun of it. I had seen a few of these online and they were (in my opinion) pretty ugly. I set out to make one better and more beautiful, and I chose to do this not because it is easy but because it is hard....so anyways, the first task was to acquire a small curved lens. I got my girlfriends brother to help me out and so it began.
Plan I: We tried first with the tiny plastic focus plate from the laser under an old mouse (I am of course not referring to the ancient ball type mice, nor to it's furry living cousin above.) It was very small and looked like it would be a mission to attach to anything, not to mention very convex. We gave it a try and got it all smoothed out and then decided to attach it to a rubber washer. I needed a way to mount this on my phone so came up with a pretty ugly contraption of 1mm metal wire bent and shoved into the washer, and then some electrical tape to keep it from scratching up my phone. Here it is:

Prototype 1

I'm not gonna lie, it was about as good-looking as a Fiat multipla, but I was pretty proud of our work. I took a few shots with it, which was pretty tough as the plane of focus is so tiny and it's HARD to keep a camera steady at this magnification. Here are some shots that were not completely atrocious.
Not too bad for handheld, and I was pretty excited by what you can see on for example the drill bit at bottom left. One not-too-terrible side effect, was the black vignette from the rubber housing. I had smoothed the angle of view into a bit of a cone from the lens outward, but it still needed something to attach to so I was left with a tiny sliver of black. Then, disaster struck. I tried to attach the lens to the washer with a tiny bit of super glue, but I guess I didn't know the definition of tiny. 

Yep. Covered half the lens. Genius. There was no way to use this now so it was back to the drawing board.

Plan II: I needed an old camera...I asked around, scoured high and low, and even rifled through several random drawers, but to no avail. I finally got an old Pentax from my girlfriends mom which I stripped apart with much interest and managed to locate one or two lenses that would do very nicely. I also wanted to make a better frame this time as prototype1 had been weak and uUugly. I eventually chose a lens that had a nice curve and a bit of a fat edge to assist me and my super-glue mad hands, and to do away with the rubber washer. I spent a while looking through all my electrical wires and found a great bit of black insulated 3mm copper wire. Using some needle nose and regular pliers, I carefully worked it into a strong frame that was not too bulky but still strong, aesthetic, and easy to attach/detach. Here is the final product:
This is a perfect fit for my LG Optimus Black, but you really can bend it to any shape and size to fit any phone (maybe not those weird mid-phone cameras). Make sure you get enough of a curve to cover at least 2/3 around the diameter and then just pop some glue on and you're good to go. It has been solid since I made it, but if you have a small hard case to keep it in, this'll obviously be the best. I keep it in my glasses case. This was one of my favorite projects and actually very easy. I think I could sell these :-) Here is a collage of some shots I've taken since making this macro lens: