Because you might have missed his great posts the first time around, we’re republishing some of Jim’s greatest hits here on Tuesday and Thursdays.

Barrie was nice enough to send us an inquiry about a comment we’d made regarding using rubber-bands to stop lens creep.

In order to illustrate (photographically) what I had mentioned as well as explain what lens-creep is for those who might not know what it is or have yet to experience it, I decided to write up an explanation here.

When I first got my Nikon 18-200mm VR zoom lens, which is my “all around travel light” lens (and which I love by the way), I noticed that, whenever I had my D200 camera hanging around my neck, with this lens pointed down, it would tend to slowly zoom all the way out. It could be disconcerting to be somewhere, having just taken a photo at 18mm, then letting the camera hang vertically, I’d bring it back up, expecting it to be at 18mm and all of a sudden there I was at 200mm, filling the frame with somebody’s nose.

Now this isn’t the first time I’d run into the problem, but the last time it’d happened to me was back in the day, when all I could afford was a used Soligor lens or something similarly well used and low priced (like $50.00). Something like the used Soligor (or Hanimex) had been well-used and put away wet, so some “fitment” problems were to be expected (as well as cobwebs inside the lens), but, on my nice new Nikon, it was a bit of a surprise.

I have also experienced this with my Tamron 18-250mm lens and have read of other people having similar issues. I haven’t found out, in my web-research, if this is particularly (but not exclusively) a problem with these “superzoom” lenses or just a problem with certain batches of these lenses as they’re manufactured.

I also haven’t talked directly to Nikon Service to see if, maybe, this is something that can be simply “tightened up” and it’ll fix it for life, or if this is the type of issue which would need to be addressed from time to time as a maintenance-issue, being more frequently required if the lens sees heavy use.

So, that in a nutshell, is what lens-creep is.

Now, how is one way to fix it?

Well, after discovering this problem on my Nikon, I was off once more to the low-priced yet informative web-research. I looked at discussion-boards, lens reviews, articles, rants etc. and the one common denominator for lens-creep was the rubber-band.

Touted as a miracle-cure for all this lens-creep related, and mentioned by some of the best in the photo business, I decided to give it a try.

The first issue was “Where do I get a decent, wide rubber-band?”

Off I was to Office-Depot, Office MAX, Home Depot, JoAnn’s Fabrics, Target, and many other sources for a nice wide rubber-band. Much to my chagrin, the widest rubber-band I could find was about 3/16″ wide ( less than .200 inch). Plus, these were only available in an “assortment pack” meaning you got 3 of the “wide” bands and a bunch of the very skinny “normal” bands. This, plus the fact that they seemed to self-destruct told me I needed to get “webbing” again.

The intent (as seen in the photos) is to provide some tension between the “zoom ring” and a stationary part of the lens, while ensuring that the focus-ring is entirely free to move to avoid stressing the focusing motors (this also assumes the zoom-lens you’re trying to corral is a “manual zoom” and not a motorized one).

I finally came across a supplier who had a nice variety of rubber-band widths and diameters.

The site I found is called “Dykema Rubber Band” (click here) and “with over 100-years of Quality” I figured they’d have some decent stuff.

I ordered a box of #84 and #94 rubber-bands. The 84’s are: 3 1/2″ X 1/2″ X 1/32″ and come 210 to a pound and the 94’s are: 3 1/2″ X 3/4″ X 1/32″ and come 140 to a pound.

For 2 one-pound boxes, shipping was less than $5.50 and they arrived swiftly to my house.

The quality of these rubber-bands was everything I’d hoped for (they didn’t snap apart in my hand like so many store-bought ones do) and they fit both my Nikon 18-200mm VR lens barrel perfectly as well as my Tamron 18-250mm zoom.

They overlapped the zoom-ring with the stationary part of my lens barrel with enough friction to stop the lens-creep cold, but were still compliant enough to allow fast, easy zooming when I needed to.

As bonus, they also fit around the lens of my Nikon SB-800 Speedlights, giving me a nice, tractive surface to hold my home-made accessories like cardboard snoots and gobos. Sweet!

So, what you’ll want to do is:

1). figure out what diameter you need to fit your lens snugly (without binding anything)

2). Figure out what width you need (again as wide as you can without binding any operations, but still wide enough so it’ll work if it moves around a bit from where you’d like it).

3). Got to http://www.dykemarubberband.com/products.php and order up a box of these bands.

4). e-mail us and let us know how this worked for you.

Just a note, I don’t have any association with Dykema Rubber Bands (wish I did), but that’s where I’ll be heading if I need more, or different styles of rubber bands.

Thanks for your inquiry, Barrie, hope this helps!

(Check out Barrie’s blog: here )