How to remove a stuck camera lens. Did you drop your camera and now your 50mm lens won’t come off? Here’s how to remove it.
Check it: Christmas Eve. Snow Storm. Wouldn’t it be great to take some pictures of the snow falling? Sho nuff! You grab your camera bag and swing it emphatically over your shoulder and there’s an immediate un-weighting, a loud clunk and an expensive camera sitting lens-down on the floor. Note to you: keep your camera bag zipped at all times!
When operating a food blog, camera mishaps can engender T-Rex tears and necessitate half a gallon of pistachio ice cream. You may never experience a stuck camera lens, in which case you can use this post as a source of entertainment, but in case you do ever get a lens stuck, this post may save you a lot of time and money…and T-Rex tears.
When my camera leapt out of its bag on Christmas Eve, I did what I always do when something un-awesome happens – I ignored it without assessing the full damage. My boyfriend and I left the house to pitter patter around in the storm and when I turned my camera on to snap photos, it came on just fine.
I thought I had gotten away with my mishap. But when I went to take a picture, the camera wouldn’t focus. See picture below – this is how you learn you broke your Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens:
After sitting in dumbfounded silence and repeating the f bomb more times than necessary, we inspected the lens and found that the plastic ring that moves in and out to focus was lopsided and would not retract all the way. Goodbye cheapo lens.
I then tried removing the lens and it would not budge. It would only twist part of the way and would not rotate to the position it needed to be in for removal. I can deal with a broken lens, but I can’t deal with a lens that won’t leave my camera upon command.
We went back to the house and I started googling to see if I was the only dork on the planet that couldn’t remove a 50mm lens. Turns out there’s a ton of us dorks out there and it’s by no fault of our dorky selves but due to the fact that the lens is cheaply made.
The part of the lens that mounts to your camera is plastic on these $100 beginner lenses, which drastically increases the probability of it getting stuck if impacted. The first thing I found was a youtube video of a guy manhandling his camera to try to force the lens off.
This made my insides laugh and hurt at the same time. Pass the bowl of pistachio ice cream, please. I would not be trying the removal-by-force methodology in spite of the comments below the video which stated you can indeed remove a lens by force without damaging the camera. We discovered later that even though some people had successfully removed their 50mm lens by force, others did not have the same result and broke part of their camera.
I also googled camera repair shops and there was only one in the area, which was an hour’s drive but they were closed due to the holiday.
The other option would have been to send my camera to Canon and wait for three weeks to have them fix it and send it back. Not. Gonna. Happen. No way, no how. After more googling, I found a couple of tutorials for removing a stuck 50mm lens. This and this site were what ultimately saved the day.
Since my love bird is very mechanically inclined, I urged him to remove the lens while I read directions to him in spite of his fear of messing something up and having to endure my red-headed wrath of anger. After producing the get-out-of-jail free card, he and I got going on lens removal.
How to Remove Stuck Camera Lens:
Removing a Stuck Canon 50mm f/1.8 Camera Lens
Equipment
- 1 small Philips screw driver
- 1 small pair of needle nose pliers
Ingredients
- Camera with stuck lens
- 1 bar of chocolate or ½ chocolate cake for comfort purposes
Instructions
- Keep your camera powered off and don’t try to take pictures. Your lens is broken, the pictures won’t be pretty anyway.
- Breathe and remember this loss is your perfect excuse for purchasing a better lens
- Collect your tools (small Philips screw driver and small needle nose pliers).
- Remove the guts of the lens (glass and plastic ring) by pulling them out or simply turning the camera over to allow gravity to let them fall out (mine just fell out because the lens was already broken). Note: In the first picture of the post, the "guts" are the piece of the lens that is closest.
- The outer part of the lens will be attached and there will be a big hole where the guts used to be. It is important that you don't let anything fall into this space because now your camera is unprotected.
- Using a small Philips screw driver, unscrew the two small screws on the inside of the lens.
- Turn your camera over (lens down) or tilt it downward so that no dust or camera parts fall inside of the body.
- Turn the lens to where it stops.
- Using needle nose pliers, lift the piece of plastic that is hitting the gold-plated studs (which is the electrical connection between the lens and the camera).
- You can see in the part of the lens that I'm holding (below the gold stud part) that there's a badly chewed piece of plastic. This piece of plastic broke when Garrett was pulling the lens up over the connection. It doesn't matter if you break parts of the lens since it's already toast but you want to be sure nothing happens to the camera.
- Pull the plastic up over the gold-plated studs while turning the lens. The lens should come off.
- Hallelujah, order a better one, that’s what the ol’ credit card is for!
This photo was taken with my new 50mm 1.4 lens in Star Valley, WY. Smiley face.
I LOVE YOUR FACE!!!! Thank you thank you thank you!
Haha! You’re very welcome, Joelle! So happy my blog post helped ya out 🙂
Very charitable of you Julia to spend the time helping others. I’m looking at at a camera on ebay with a similar problem. :>)
Give the ol plastic lens credit for cushioning your camera’s fall – if it had been the better lens then both may have met an early end. :>(
Loved the snow covered fence by-the-way.
If you’d like some Aussie landscapes, find me on fb;
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This is very helpful! Thank you for this article! Although, I am stuck somewhere.. I’m stuck at #11. I don’t know what plastic you meant exactly 🙁
This is a great post. I in fact killed my old Rebel XT and nifty fifty trying to force it off. You are absolutely right. I killed one of the gold pins on my camera when I forced off the lens. The spring mechanism that pushes the pins out doesn’t work anymore:(.
Ruh roh!! Is it just the lens that didn’t make it through the event, or is your camera damaged, too?? Those lenses are such a pain, and I’m so happy with my upgraded 1.4…I hope your camera made it through okay!!
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I just wanted to say THANK YOU SO MUCH! You have just saved me so much time and money!! I am so incredibly grateful! You weren’t joking about the chocolate.. I got the guts out of the lens and then couldn’t get the rest out so I had to go for the chocolate while I was waiting for the boy to get home and do the rest! haha I appreciate this SO much!! Thank you again!!! After getting it off I was seriously the happiest girl haha
Crystal, you are so very welcome!! I’m so happy my experience helped you unstick your camera lens…There was no way in hell I was going to send my camera in and wait several weeks for someone to just remove the lens, so I feel lucky there are other people who posted about their experiences on the internet and fortunate to have a man around to help with a screwdriver. Best of luck to you and thanks for letting me know this post helped you! 🙂
Thank you so much. I was screwing around with an old 1.8 ( I have the 1.2 now) and threw it on my 5d mark iii because I thought it would look funny… It looked funny after I killed it >:) Thank you for saving my 5d mark iii <3
Hey Jakob! YES! I’m so glad this post has been helpful to you and others in the same position. I had no clue camera lenses could even get stuck until mine did so I know how stressful the situation is when it happens. You’re very welcome and enjoy that camera!
So glad I followed your instructions. I finally got my Canon 50 mm f/1.8 lens off of my 7D and now I have a fully functional second camera again!
Janelle, I’m so glad to hear it! I about flipped when I couldn’t get my lens off my camera…I was fine with the lens being toast but just wanted to be able to snap photos. Happy to hear my post was useful!
I don’t mean to laugh at your misfortune, but this post is hilarious! This totally sounds like me, especially the unnecessary f-bombs 😉
Oh man! That sucks that it did that! I hate it when stuff like that happens!! Glad you guys got it off and you got a shiny new one!!
Oh my goodness I don’t know what I would have done if this happened but if it ever does I know where to come to fix it :). Julia, I love your blog and your photography is awesome. Looking forward to following your future posts!
Oh NO! So glad you guys were able to remove the lens without damaging your camera!
This also reminds me of a recipe I saw ages ago. It was for spanakopita–phyllo dough central–and included a valium and a bottle of scotch.
First of all, how cute are you to write of a recipe card for removing a stuck cannon lens! That last photo is absolutely stunning. I love Wyoming!
Thanks, lady! I’m still in Wyoming for a nice family vacation. I love it out here – so peaceful and the pace is so relaxing. I’ve been able to take some photos of the landscape which is a wonderful change up from the typical food photos. 🙂 Thanks for the thoughtful compliment!
Oh, I feel your pain. I busted the same lens when I was in Italy of all things. I had just bought the camera before my trip and it was the only lens I had, plus it was a photography workshop! Mine wasn’t nearly as bad though, it wasn’t stuck on the camera and it wouldn’t auto focus. I could focus it manually. So, in addition to everything else I ended up learning how to manually focus my camera during the trip too! I ended up going with a 40mm 2.8 when I got back. I found the 50mm not to be a very good multi-purpose lens.
Thanks for stopping by my site today. So glad you did as I’ll be stopping by here more often too!
JULIA! I’d be all sweaty and needing a whole cake… not a half. Glad you’re problem is fixed! XO
Thanks, Laurie! I figured I’d be replacing the 50mm 1.8 but I didn’t realize it would be that soon. Definitely not a huge loss but pretty sure I went pre-diabetic for a second there. 😉
Oh no! What a funny post, though. Glad you’re up and running again 🙂
Thanks girly! I’m glad it all worked out but I have to admit, I was a hot mess for a moment or two while we were trying to get the dern thing off 😉