400mm prime lens broken, options?

I'm not going to spend a lot of time explaining what happened, except to say that I am NEVER again loaning out a lens to ANYONE, EVER AGAIN!!!

Long story short, the loaned lens (Sigma 5.6 400mm manual focus with the Ricoh pin), was attached to my friends Pentax MX, and he tripped. I have not had a chance to examine the lens but he told me that the mount was separated from the barrel.

Can the mount be reattached or am I basically out of luck? Are there any options in trying to fix my lens? If possible I want to keep the Ricoh mount because it was being used on my Ricoh KR 30sp camera.

so what are my options?

wait to see and judge, but if the mount came off the lens barrel it is a safe bet that something got busted.

Tiny screw? Major flange? Only inspection will tell.

Plus there the painful possibility that the fall smacked the side of the lens, knocking optics out of line.

This is where you find out how good a friend that was -- good friend="i just bought you a new lens, it's being delivered Friday, no debate, my cost, deepest apologies."

amen to never loaning equipment out -- lesson learned the painfully hard way here as well.

Once friend wanted to loan a M3 with elmar 90. I refused. Only thing that I am loaning are point and shoot cameras (value <= 20 euros).

I see that this lens used is around 200$ on ebay - you should get a new "used" lens, and he can keep yours.

Hard to imagine that a fall that would separate the lens mount from the body of the lens would not have caused damage to the internal alignment of the lens elements.

I doubt his camera came through it all undamaged.

A guy I worked with 30 years ago borrowed one of my two cameras to take some pictures of some work he was doing. I told him to keep the strap around his neck all the time, and do NOT put it in the glovebox where it would get hot and be banged around. He drove his vehicle out into tall, dry grass, his catalytic converter set the grass on fire (I had also warned him not to take his vehicle out into that area for that very reason). The vehicle was destroyed, the destroyed camera was in the glovebox, and he claimed no responsibility because he had handed the camera to his passenger and she put it in the glovebox, so it was not his fault. I tried to explain to him the flaw in his reasoning, but finally gave up. He refused to replace the camera, and his insurance did not cover it.
He then had the gall to ask me to loan him the other camera so he could get the rest of the pictures he wanted, and got angry when I refused!
Before that I thought of him as a friend- after that he was just a co-worker. Well, I do have some other labels for him, too.

So yeah, never again.

mgb74 said:

Hard to imagine that a fall that would separate the lens mount from the body of the lens would not have caused damage to the internal alignment of the lens elements.

Click to expand...

Whether the lens is well and truly broken depends on its vintage. Once upon a time Stigma lenses were held together by double-sided adhesive tape and sometimes split into two pieces when the tape failed. Newer ones are, I understand, much better made.

A most unfortunate incident; I, too, would assume the worst (damage-wise). Two things I never lend out: books and camera equipment ( in the past, both have disappeared...or have been forgotten about).

His camera was severely damaged when he tripped. I sent him the 2 ebay links that I could find for a replacement lens. LEt's see what happens. He did tell me that if I found a replacement that he would either reimburse me or buy it,

In the mid 70's I was working at a camera shop when Leica introduced the original Noctilux 50 f1 lens. The owner ordered one lens for the shop and when it arrived he wanted to know if I'd like to take it out with a M4 for a test.

My immediate response was yes but halfway through that my brain kicked in and I said 'no way'. I wasen't going to be responsible for a $700 lens. (a small fortune for me at that time)

The owner just grinned and took it out that evening himself.