Returning Canon L's for recalibration

[Riggaberto]

So I'm about to pull the trigger on buying the canon 17-40 L, and before I do I want to know what the deal is with returning them for calibration.

I've heard some people get them and they're fine, but many people get soft copies, who then send them in for calibration. My question is where do you do that through, canon directly, or where you bought it from, and does it cost anything?

B&H has good service right? I was thinking about ordering from there because I've heard good things, but I want to be sure I understand the whole returning it for recalibration thing first.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Iron Flatline]

Chances are you'll get a good one, they're pretty tight with their quality control. If not go to the Canon website, call the 800 number, and go through the shipment process. Not sure how far you are from SeaTac, but chances are there's a Service Center around there where you could drop it off.

 

[Alex_B]

well, from my experience, and that of other photographers I know, Canon's quality control is pretty poor (as is that of most other manufacturers).

I am not saying most of my lenses were unuseable right from the box, but when you go for very shallow DOF, the AF was just not 100% where it was supposed to be (also checked that with test charts), and one lens was not well centred, which gave faint ghost images with maximum aperture and point-like highlights.

All effects where just subtle and you could not realise them on 90% of all my images.

Aynway, so far I handed all my L-glass in at Canon (I am lucky enough to live close to one of their European headquarters ... 20 minutes drive ) ... and got it back only a couple of days afterwards. Service was free since I handed them in within one year of the purchase and I am happy with the result.
They even offered me to adjust some of my older lenses for free.