Posted by Paul DeCesare on October 9, 2008 at 11:42 PM
I mentioned in a previous post about Canon Service in Irvine, CA calibrating my 17-40mm lens, and a few folks wanted to know what I meant. It's simply that: the 17-40mm often comes soft or even misaligned out of the box when purchased new. I supposed other lenses do too.
Anyway, now that my 5D is sold and I'm twiddling thumbs waiting for the sequel, this was a great time to have Canon calibrate the lens (it's still under warranty). I sent it on 9/30 and just got mine back today. Sure enough, they stated that my "PCB assembly was out of adjustment", and so they electronically aligned it (no clue what a PCB Assembly is, but glad it's aligned).
Sorry to be so wordy, my point actually was to list the steps to get yours done if need be, between fall color and snow of course! The Online Repair submission makes it very easy:
-Fill out this form to set the repair up.
-Print the repair order and staple it to a copy of your purchase receipt. If you bought it used but it's still under warranty, they still honor it. hopefully the seller sent you the receipt.
-Pack well and ship to the IRVINE, CA address, not the NJ address. Irvine seems to have a better reputation (I was born in NJ, I believe it).
-That's it! In 8 or 9 days, Canon will Fedex the lens back. You can track the progress of the repair on the web, very handy.
Most people state the lens comes back razor sharp. I'm testing mine tomorrow on a friend's Rebel, so we'll see how the adjustment went... well, at least I can test the center of the glass.
(Disclaimer: this doesn't fix the edge softness that plagues most Canon wide-angle zooms! See Darwin Wiggett's excellent article about all that).
Posted by David Rogers on October 10, 2008 at 1:28 AM
PCB = Printed Circuit Board
Posted by Jim Erhardt on October 10, 2008 at 7:56 AM
Paul, thanks for the info! I've had my 17-40 since they were first introduced - I wonder how much Canon would charge to do this?
Posted by Phillip Noll on October 10, 2008 at 3:54 PM
Maybe its just me, but I would expect, given the $1000s we spend on professional lenses, that they would actually work right out of the box!??!
Posted by Don George on October 11, 2008 at 7:04 PM
Thanks Paul for taking the time to publish this information. I'll be sending mine in shortly.
Posted by Paul DeCesare on October 11, 2008 at 9:04 PM
It would be SO nice if Canon lenses worked right out of the box, Phillip! Imagine that?? I've never heard of the 70-200mm's being soft out of the box (mine is a razor), but the beloved 17-40mm is a hit/miss purchase. Most people return soft copies in exchange for another (you read that all the time on Amazon). I say send it to Canon so they can get it right!
Don, you're welcome, and you'll be happy once it's back.
Posted by Steve Foss on October 11, 2008 at 10:18 PM
I've owned six Canon lenses and every one of them was correctly calibrated right out of the box, including my 17-40. I had a 30D that needed recalibration after one year's use, and that's been it.
Posted by Paul DeCesare on October 11, 2008 at 10:42 PM
Wow, Steve, how'd you do that??
Seriously, where do you buy your gear?
Posted by Steve Foss on October 11, 2008 at 10:46 PM
www.canogacamera.com. All my gear comes from there.
Probably I was just lucky, particularly on the 17-40, which has that rep for quality control. The lenses are: 17-40 f4L, 24-105 f4L IS, 100 f2.8 macro, 70-200 f2.8L, 100-400 f5.6L IS, 400 f5.6L. I'd have included the 18-55 kit lens, but that's not really a lens - it's a paperweight.
The only problem I've had with any of these lenses was not a focus calibration issue. The 100-400 was giving me error 99 lockups on three different camera bodies, so it went back on warranty and came back perfect.
I will add that, though I don't doubt any brand of lenses has its share of issues on quality control, I think the problems tend to be falsely magnified through many online photo forums (fortunately, not this one). Each lens has its own learning curve, and many a lens has been dissed by someone who is not experienced enough or patient enough to master the lens's idiosyncrasies before condemning it, and those grumblings get picked up by other inexperienced photogs and passed on, and pretty soon it sounds like fact.
The 100-400 is a classic example of that. I've shot four copies of that lens and each was a sharp wide open at 400mm (nicely sharp but as you'd expect not as sharp as a top prime) as the other. However, I know two experienced pros who had to sort through a couple or three copies of the 17-40 in the store on their own body before they found one they thought was right, and that's the kind of opinion I listen to.
Discussion
9 repliesAnyway, now that my 5D is sold and I'm twiddling thumbs waiting for the sequel, this was a great time to have Canon calibrate the lens (it's still under warranty). I sent it on 9/30 and just got mine back today. Sure enough, they stated that my "PCB assembly was out of adjustment", and so they electronically aligned it (no clue what a PCB Assembly is, but glad it's aligned).
Sorry to be so wordy, my point actually was to list the steps to get yours done if need be, between fall color and snow of course! The Online Repair submission makes it very easy:
-Fill out this form to set the repair up.
-Print the repair order and staple it to a copy of your purchase receipt. If you bought it used but it's still under warranty, they still honor it. hopefully the seller sent you the receipt.
-Pack well and ship to the IRVINE, CA address, not the NJ address. Irvine seems to have a better reputation (I was born in NJ, I believe it).
-That's it! In 8 or 9 days, Canon will Fedex the lens back. You can track the progress of the repair on the web, very handy.
Most people state the lens comes back razor sharp. I'm testing mine tomorrow on a friend's Rebel, so we'll see how the adjustment went... well, at least I can test the center of the glass.
(Disclaimer: this doesn't fix the edge softness that plagues most Canon wide-angle zooms! See Darwin Wiggett's excellent article about all that).
Don, you're welcome, and you'll be happy once it's back.
Seriously, where do you buy your gear?
Probably I was just lucky, particularly on the 17-40, which has that rep for quality control. The lenses are: 17-40 f4L, 24-105 f4L IS, 100 f2.8 macro, 70-200 f2.8L, 100-400 f5.6L IS, 400 f5.6L. I'd have included the 18-55 kit lens, but that's not really a lens - it's a paperweight.
The only problem I've had with any of these lenses was not a focus calibration issue. The 100-400 was giving me error 99 lockups on three different camera bodies, so it went back on warranty and came back perfect.
I will add that, though I don't doubt any brand of lenses has its share of issues on quality control, I think the problems tend to be falsely magnified through many online photo forums (fortunately, not this one). Each lens has its own learning curve, and many a lens has been dissed by someone who is not experienced enough or patient enough to master the lens's idiosyncrasies before condemning it, and those grumblings get picked up by other inexperienced photogs and passed on, and pretty soon it sounds like fact.
The 100-400 is a classic example of that. I've shot four copies of that lens and each was a sharp wide open at 400mm (nicely sharp but as you'd expect not as sharp as a top prime) as the other. However, I know two experienced pros who had to sort through a couple or three copies of the 17-40 in the store on their own body before they found one they thought was right, and that's the kind of opinion I listen to.