70-400 focus ring moves

[motor]

Good afternoon everyone! I just received my 70-400G and took it out yesterday. I noticed something different from my old 70-200G and called sony quickly. I received 2 different answers from 2 different techs. Which one is correct? If your 70-400G is in AF both on the lens and the camera can you turn the focus ring? My old 200G it doesn't move it is locked in AF. I just want to make sure that the focus ring can move and make adjustments to the focus even while it is in Autofocus. I'm afraid if I hold the focus ring with my palm and it rotates that I don't jam the SSM while it is focusing. I know in cannon it has a M/A and M bar that allows for focusing in autofocus. Is the new 70-400G the same now? One tech said something is wrong and should be locked while in autofocus another said it shouldn't be locked. Which is it? I want to get it fixed if it is broken! Anyone who has one can you please check. I apologize for such a dumb question but I don't have any stores close to even go investigate and I value all your opinions

[Winston]

Enjoy the lens. There's nothing wrong with it.

[Javelin]

On SSM motors the focus ring is directly attached to the motor theres no clutch or gears involved. the nature of the motor is that the driven part can be held or rotated indendantly from the driver portion without any consequenses even if the driver is running.. so there is no problems with your lens. The thing that makes it turn like a motor is ultrasonic sound waves rather than a mechanical connection to a magnetic motor. The sound vibration doesn't care if the piece moves or not. No heat no binding no wear.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrasonic_motor" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Winston]

Javelin,

Mine has a clutch. I can feel it and hear it.
See the lens' feature page (near the bottom) on the Sony Style site.

[Javelin]

Thats the same as my 70-300G. I was meaning no clutch or gearbox between the motor and the lens parts it's moving. the focus ring itself has some sort of a clutch between it and the same parts that keep it from spinning. probably a spring and roller clutch or finger clutch but mine is quiet, I don't hear anything when I turn it even against the direction the motor is turning it so it can't have many parts. my 28-135 is also rear focusing but the focus ring spins with focus and doesn't diesengage if it's held (it regularly scares the doggie-doo out of me when I get a finger caught on it if I forget which lens i'm using) I can see that causing wear on the parts if something is adding a lot of drag on that focus ring because it's all mechanically linked