Strange Problem with RED 18-50 Zoom Lense

[Stelios Kokotos]

I was on a shoot today and the DP pointed out an issue with the 18-50mm zoom lense being used with the RED camera. He suspected that one of the elements had dislodged but had never seen this on a RED lense before.

On the long end the lense rotation would stop at around 20', well short of the infinity mark. On the wide end it would rotate past the 8" mark by about half an inch. This disparity would also be reflected on the viewfinder data where it would refuse to go to infinity.

Otherwise the lense optics still appear generally sharp and the rotation of the focus, zoom and iris is very smooth.

I will be taking the lense in for a service but I was wondering if anyone else has encountered this problem with the RED zoom before?

Thanks.

 

[Antony M]

Yes, I had a similar problem.

Sent it back to Red under warranty. All fixed now.

 

[Clint Johnson]

Yes, it happened to my 18-50mm as well. It started when some Scorpio motors torqued it right past the limits while it was registering the lens. The barrel appears to be friction set and not geared so I gently (but forcefully) rotated the barrel back past were it was stopping and on out to where it should be. Hey, it was out of warranty so I wasn't voiding anything. A quick focus check with a tape measure leading to another slight tweak and it was back where it should be. Since then, it was chased off the marks three or four more times by overly enthusiastic firsts or when a motor was registering the lens. I never bothered to send it back to get fixed and when I sold it earlier this year I let the buyer know about that little "attribute" and adjusted the price downward accordingly. It was a good little lens other than that- tack sharp and very little chromatic aberration.