Nothing to add other than this is the same behaviour my personal one and a rental exhibited
I tend to hang this lens off of a cross body strap so the zoom ring does rub a little and the focal length can change, even when on tight, bit more pronounced than other lenses due to how wide the zoom ring is but nothing that bothers me
CPWarner wrote:
I used my 100-400 f/4.5 extensively last weekend and can say that there were zero issues with creep. If I have it in smooth it performs as it always has since taking it out of the box, which is that it creeps in a controlled way when pointed up or down. I used it on tight and there is no creep.
Feeling kinda dumb, I spent several minutes trying to figure out why I couldn't replicate this issue before I noticed that apparently I always reflexively keep my hand on the zoom ring and realized that duh the if the external ring can't creep the internal elements won't creep.
Mine's almost as fast as Andy's but since I find the zoom ring perfectly fine in "Tight" mode it's not really that big of a deal.
I find my lens works very nicely with the zoom ring set to "tight", which still allows smooth zooming when required (even though I'm usually at the 400mm end. The other day I hiked a little over 5km carrying this lens through the bush, and the zoom ring never once budged from where I had set it, so for me the "zoom creep" is totally a non-issue.
schlotz wrote:
The 'tight' setting will most likely work for many but if you are shooting fast action sports... not so much.
Is this statement based on use of the lens in that setting and situation? The reason I ask is that I was using mine for tracking dragonflies and had no trouble with zooming quickly on the tight setting. Not sure fast action sports move much quicker than a darting dragonfly in the air.
In my experience shooting with this lens, the smooth setting is a one finger flickable setting were it is super easy to zoom. The "tight" setting is a thumb plus forefinger setting that zooms quickly with a small amount of force. This is very different from the first generation 100-400mm GM where "tight" was hard to turn with a firm grasp of the zoom ring.
Yes, it's from how I use the lens on the soccer field. Hat's off to you Cliff in tracking dragonflies, that can't be easy! Using any tracking function on the A1-II to shoot soccer has it's limits in that many times you are swinging over to pick up a new player that's been passed the ball or going up for a header. Zooming in or out during that process is also in play.