I really kind of discount most of those reports. It never seemed
logical to me that a high precision manufacturing process would be so
flawed as to produce the number of bad examples people seem to find.
I remember one instance long years ago with Modern Photography
accidentally testing the same lens twice. They used to publish the
serial number of the lens in the review. First time it was a great
lens. Second time it was a dog. The lens may have been damaged, but I
really these guys doing their tests were probably barely competent,
certainly compared to the manufacturer.
After looking at DPReview forums for a while I am even more convinced
of it. People don't read or understand their manuals or the operation
of the controls, do stupid things and send their cameras back or turn
them in for repair and having set up this dialogue with people on a
list berate the repair facility when they charge for the repair
because of customer abuse and loudly denying they dropped the camera
or lens. I am convinced that most, not all, of the focus problems are
because people don't understand the settings and what they do and
call it a hardware problem because they could not possibly make a
mistake. When it is an actual problem and even though it may or has
been repaired under warranty there is still outrage that they had
been sold a faulty item.
One of the issues with the new D200 is banding because some people
have discovered that if they set the ISO to 400, add 4 stops of
exposure compensation and take a picture of a light bulb they can
sometimes drive the sensor into a state which makes a corduroy like
pattern in the shadows when viewed at 100 percent. Nikon has repaired
the ones that do this, but I am sure that they never anticipated that
their customers would demand perfection in that atypical photographic
situation.
A good one today was someone who had recently bought a $5000 Nikon
D2X, said he had searched the manual to no avail and was asking for
advice on how to turn off the shutter sound, preferring it to be
silent like his point and shoot.
And rather than slipping quality control it may also be just the
immense complexity of cameras and lenses now with all the
electronics, motors, sensors and controls. Even so, I think that
there is a low probablility that someone who knows what they are
doing like yourself is going to get a dud supersomething.
I wonder that anyone who produces anything is able to continue to
deal with their customers.
Winsor
Long Beach, California, USA
On Jan 21, 2006, at 11:54 AM, Chuck Norcutt wrote:
> If you read a lot of end user lens test/experience forums you see lots
> of reports of bad samples in all brands. Much of it is autofocus
> problems but there is a fair amount of what sounds like mis-aligned
> lens
> elements. Things like: image not sharp in upper left quadrant or some
> such. I suspect the Japanese are having a lot of QC problems with
> lens
> and camera production farmed out to China and elsewhere.
>
> I've never had any particular qualms about buying a used 1980's lens
> from ebay or elsewhere. I'm not so sure I'd buy a used DSLR lens.
> But
> I'd still be pretty PO'd if, after buying a new super duper
> something or
> other it disappeared for six weeks of fresh air and sunshine treatment
> back with the manufacturer in order to make it focus properly.
>
> Chuck Norcutt
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