I contacted Canon and the customer service rep that I spoke to was extremely friendly! She said that I will have to send in the camera body with the lense to properly assess the situation.

Because I am an XL Owners Club member, she even sent me a box to ship the components in. I still have to pay shipping though.

I'm skeptical about sending the camera in because I am going to have shoots coming up very soon and I am going to need my camera. I guess I'll have to bight the bullet and rent a unit if need be.

I'll post the results of the "fix" when I get the camera back.

Just in case anyone was curious the name for the technique is "critical focus"

When you zoom in all the way, get focus and zoom out you will have the ability to zoom in/out and know you will still be in focus. Sometimes you can catch people doing it on live TV. You should be doing it every shot, or at least every shot you want to have in focus.

OK, the Canon Service Center just sent back my camera. They received my camera last Thursday and to my surprise the camera showed up today.

So I pulled it out of the box and ran a few quick tests and critical focus is now maintained! My camera is fixed! The focus ring is now quite a bit stiffer as well. Before, the focus ring seemed a little sloppy and loose.

My hat goes off to Canon for the quick turn around time and excellent repair. I will make sure to post again if I run into any problems that are not apparent at this time.

Ryan

One thing I'm not clear on with this technique is: In a run and gun or documentary style shoot where I (the shooter) am not constantly at a fixed position, everytime I move the focus changes. As well, if my subject, i.e. wildlife, or moving subjects are in motion, and I am as well how does that work?

How does one maintain focus with this camera in this situation?

RP