Counterfeit Canon EOS rear end caps - how to avoid them.

As we all know, there are various easy-to-manufacture Canon bits out there that are counterfeited. Some work, others don't.

Lens caps are amongst the most popular of these ripoffs, though most copies are honest enough to strike the Canon logo from the back end. Nevertheless, there are a few Chinese industrial thieves out there who make copies bearing the Canon logo, the following being one of them:

Given that whoever ripped this off was armed with an AutoCAD designer and at least one injection molding machine, it should perform its function as intended.

<voice="Dom DeLuise_blazingsaddles"> 

WRONG!

</voice>

I wound up with three of these after ordering a set of what was advertised as unmarked blanks on eBay. I received three Canon-badged counterfeits marked "Made in China" on the plastic packaging and the part number D00564.

All three varied drastically in fit on both Canon lenses and the adapters - one wouldn't even fit the adapter - and all three caps fit different when tested on one single lens.

By comparison, two genuine Canon caps (one marked "JAPAN" with a matte inner finish and the other "CANON INC. MADE IN TAIWAN" with a high-gloss inner finish) fit every lens and adapter of mine with no issue, in addition to an unmarked Canon EOS clone cap from eBay seller Digitalgoja (ironically enough, marked "MADE IN CHINA" on the reverse).

L-to-R: Canon (Taiwan), Canon (Japan), Canon-badged counterfeit (China, unmarked), generic (China)

Reverse of the above - same order

That said, there is a slight difference in finish and shape of the counterfeits to the two genuine Canon caps (which differ amongst themselves), as there is between the counterfeit and the unmarked clone. Unfortunately, the multitude of castings make it difficult to identify the clone while juggling an unknown in a store:

Can you spot the fake? I'll give you three guesses.

Probably the easiest way to detect the counterfeit are three ridges that are cast on the inside of the cap:

Convenient garbage indicator.

For the record, the counterfeit caps came from eBay seller Worldokit, who advertises them as unmarked blanks with this photo:

Worldokit - you took my money, so I'll take your photo.

Caveat emptor.

-Kurt "Man with the 5D"