Thank you, all, for the suggestions. We're having a nasty thunderstorm right now, and I would have had to go outside to retrieve the WD-40 or Goo Gone from the shed, so I decided to start with the rubbing alcohol, since that was available in the house. With the alcohol and a bit of elbow grease, I was able to clean all of the gunk from the lens. Then I removed the black liner from the tripod collar, which unfortunately made the lens spin too freely inside the collar, even when it was fully closed. So I snipped the damaged ends from both pieces of the liner and put it back inside the collar. Now it works great!
Unfortunately, the third-party collar, while it now fits over the lens, is still so snug that it doesn't have any play, so I can't rotate the lens (guess it would work fine if I knew I would only use the lens in portrait or landscape orientation, but thats pretty rare). For now I'll hang onto it as a backup and will experiment later with removing bits of its liner if necessary. Thanks again! Pattie * **** ******* *********************************************************** * For list instructions, including unsubscribe, see: * http://www.a1.nl/phomepag/markerink/eos_list.htm ***********************************************************
