joseph_wei Posted January 28, 2008 Share Posted January 28, 2008 I recently bought my first L lens - a EF 70-200mm f/4L - off of Ebay. The lens is very sharp, and I was really happy with it until I noticed some problems with the left side of the picture. At wide apertures (4-4.5), the left side of my photos is blurrier than the right side, which is fully sharp. Pictures taken at these apertures of flat objects show that the left side is soft - to the point that it looks like motion blur or uncorrected coma. Everything else is killer sharp. I confirmed this by running the lens through the classic "newspaper test" - I put the lens on my Rebel XT (which has never had any signs of focus problems) on a Gitzo tripod, leveled it with bubble level, used mirror lockup and self timer, ISO 200 - JPEG large, and took pictures of an evenly lit article taped to the wall. Again, the left side showed up as blurry, while everything else was sharp. I'm in communication with the seller of the lens, and he's not sure what to do, since he tested the lens before and found it to be sharp. Has anyone here had a similar experience with this kind of problem? Does Canon do repairs on used lenses like this - and if so, will it be prohibitively expensive? (I'm a college photo student and spent most of my budget buying this lens already). Any help will be appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sattler123 Posted January 28, 2008 Share Posted January 28, 2008 Insist on returning it to the seller. Who knows what happened to this lens! Canon would repair it but for a price - unless the seller is willing to pick up the tab for the repair, I would return it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgpinc Posted January 28, 2008 Share Posted January 28, 2008 This is a know problem with these lenses and probably not something that the previous owner caused. Although he may have been aware of it and should have disclosed the problem. Canon service will fix it for a price. You have several options. You may want to negotiate the price of the fix with the seller, return it to the seller or if the price was good enough you may just want to eat the price of the repair. Once it is fixed by Canon it's a great lens that you will get great pictures with. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shambrick007 Posted January 28, 2008 Share Posted January 28, 2008 I had a similar problem w/a used 28-70/2.8 L. I returned it as should you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PuppyDigs Posted January 28, 2008 Share Posted January 28, 2008 My 70-200 4L had the same problem--blurry left side. According to Canon it was due to an "obstruction" in the gear train and was fixed for free, albeit several years outta warranty. Now it's tack sharp. Incidentally, anytime I mentioned this problem on most forums I'm told I'm full of it and dumb as a stick! Sometimes the light’s all shining on me. Other times I can barely see. - Robert Hunter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter_j2 Posted January 28, 2008 Share Posted January 28, 2008 General rule. Avoid buying used privately. Buy used with a warranty from a dealer. This is not going to help your cause, but I used to own this lens and fortunately did not experience the problem your lens is experiencing. It sounds like a batch problem based on Puppy Face's response. Let us know what Canon did for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrew_viny Posted January 28, 2008 Share Posted January 28, 2008 If you send it to Canon they may want you to send in your body as well. This was the case with my 24-70 so I returned it. The issue I encountered and the issue which my research lead me to believe most people encounter with these lenses is a general soft focus. ~Andrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Katz Posted January 28, 2008 Share Posted January 28, 2008 If there is a signficant difference in the border sharpness of one side of the frame vs the other side, I would recommend returning the lens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan_myers Posted January 28, 2008 Share Posted January 28, 2008 If UPS (or whoever) dropped the package in shipping, it's possible that's why it's misaligned, too. If seller can prove it was sharp edge to edge before shipping and you can prove it's not now (sample photos from each party), then your best recourse might be to talk to the shipper. They might cover repair costs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joseph_wei Posted January 28, 2008 Author Share Posted January 28, 2008 Thanks for all your advice! I contacted Canon this morning, and I'll send the lens to them in a few weeks (after I finish shooting some important photos that I absolutely need the lens for - I'll simply crop out the soft edge, since the rest of the lens is so sharp). I considered returning the lens, but that would leave me without a lens for the photos I need to take and the seller would have to get it repaired anyway, in order to sell it again. I wonder how hard it'll be to actually get UPS to pay for the repair - the box itself doesn't look like it has any significant damage (other than one dented corner), and the lens itself was extremely well packed. If this lens of the same batch that Puppy Face encountered, then it may well be a factory problem; the seller may not have noticed it earlier, since he primarily used the lens for landscape photos (and I've noticed that the softness definitely disappears once the lens is stopped down to 5.6 or 6.3). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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