Canon L Glass Nightmare- Help Needed

[photographydude]

Ok I finally was able to get the sample for the 17-40mm up. It is here:
[deleted]

 

[Overread]

I don't know about the 17-40mm but I'm certain that 100-400mm is suffering from softness
Juza Nature Photography
Juza Nature Photography

A quick look at the tests there shows that the lens certainly can perform well and its calibrated adn working

 

[Derrel]

Both the 100-400L and the 17-40L sample photos are poor. No doubt about that...both test shots are easily worse than the ones made by the much cheaper lenses. The $64,000 Question (an old USA TV show,long gone) is: why?

 

[photographydude]

Both the 100-400L and the 17-40L sample photos are poor. No doubt about that...both test shots are easily worse than the ones made by the much cheaper lenses. The $64,000 Question (an old USA TV show,long gone) is: why?

That is my question as well. I know I am not nuts. I should be seeing the reverse effect in my photos. The cheap lenses should look horrible and the L's great but its the other way around. I don't know why. I thought it might be the camera so I ran some tests with other lenses I have. My primes, macors and cheap (nearly toyish -ironically the ones that didn't get stolen) zooms all give me better quality. The backfocus/frontfocus test passed very well so I have no clue what is up. I know the 400d is not that hot of a camera. It suffers from noise at high ISO's and it is a crop so there is a lot of detail crammed into a small imaging sensor.

I don't know guys. Now that you know I am not nuts, what do you think is the problem? I only have one camera right now and I don't want to buy another crop. It will be a while before I can get a full frame body.

Suggestions and comments kindly still welcomed.

 

[Overread]

Send the lenses under warrenty to cannon for recalibration. There is however still the chance that its not the lenses nor the camera body but the combination of the both - ei both are within canon manufacture tollerances but are opposite ends of the scale and thus when put together you are getting softer results. This makes it a lottery setup whereby you keep sending them back to be recalibrated and canon either state that they are fine or make random adjustments in the hope that they hit the nail on the head.

The best move would be to send the lenses (under warrenty) to canon for recalibration and to send your camera body along with them - with a note to adjust the lenses only (that way you don't lose calibration with the rest of your current setup).

Your third option is to exchange the lenses you have with new ones from the store you purchased them from - again in the hope that you hit a sharp copy. This might be more viable an option for the 17-40mm, but its a bigger lottery on the 100-400mm (as said its a complex lens and very hard to get balanced)

 

[Flash Harry]

I'd ditch both of those lens, I shoot nikon and the only nik glass I've found to be totally unusable is an 18-135dx which I found to be soft across the whole range and found its way to the local pawn shop. H

 

[photographydude]

I'll probably end up selling these two off. I got them nearly a month ago so no returns (what being sick and not opening the boxes right away will do) and It's not worth having to ship the lenses back and forth a million times to have them serviced (which is what a camera shop owner buddy of mine said I might need to do - plus some others here). I also can't go sending in my camera as I need it on a daily basics to make a living. I'm thinking I will just sell these off with a note that I had a problem and just give a discount so the buyer can get them fixed if need be. I just feel so sick over all this. My dream of restoring my stolen collection of lenses with high end L glass has turned into a nightmare.ale:

 

[Overread]

Since you can't send your camera in with the servicing my advice is to first use the warrenty! Take shots (good shots mind) of the lens calibration test images mentioned earlier in the thread and send those (burn them to a DVD) with the lenses to canon. That way at least you can give them an idea of how they are performing on your camera bodies. Use the warrenty as there is a good chance you can correct the problem.
Also even if you are outside of the 1 month return policy contact the store and ask, you never know you might get lucky and get some help - at the very least they might be a helping hand with getting the warrenty servicing done.

It reads very much to me like you didn't get what you want and now you just want to be rid of it - but you can't get rid of them without making a loss and there is a good chance that lowgrade lenses will sell for a very small fraction of what they could get. Use the warrenty, try to get it fixed - you'll feel far happier with yourself if you at least try than if you just dump them.