Lens calibration cost?

[mad325is]

Has anyone on here ever sent their lens in for calibration? it seems to me that no matter what i shoot with my 24-70 2.8 its always a little soft and its obviously not like it would be soft because the elements were plastic...

oh and another question kind of unrelated, if i were to send my lens in to canon to be serviced, does anyone know if i can insure that though ups if i dont have a reciept? i have enough friends who work for ups to know that stuff has/does get broken a lot.

[Pank]

I know the 24-70 is a little soft all the way open, and when its stepped down to its max aperture (f/32 i think? f/64?) due to diffraction, but it should be fairly sharp through out its zoom range. What body are you shooting with? do you have any examples? if you're shooting full frame, its going to be softer in the corners than the center, just due to the glass design

Also, normally, you have to send in your camera body to have the lens calibrated to it, since all bodies are a tiny bit different from eachother.

You shouldn't need a reciept for the lens to insure a package. When you pay for the insurance/ship the lens/body, they SHOULD give you what is basically a packing slip that has the contents, their value, and the amount you insured. At least, it was like that when I did it a while back.


sorry my first post here has nothing to do with cars

[Bimmerteck]

the 24-70f2.8 is slightly soft wide open, but by 4.0 it should be sharp. Have you tested it on a tripod? Do you have an example shot? What body are you using it on? (if it's a 50d, t1i, 1dmkIII, 5dmkII, or 7d. you can use the fine adjust feature in the body.)

Erik

[mad325is]

ok so about a year ago I traded a guy my 24-105 for his 24-70 and when I traded him the lens I knew that my copy was sharp and he stated the same, and when I picked it up I had a ruler, and a battery (as suggested by a few friends) and a laptop to test if it was sharp, and it was... kind of...

here’s what I mean... it is sharp about 90% of the time... however sometimes when I take a picture (and I’m not retarded lol) but I’ll focus on something and instead it chooses to focus on say the wallpaper behind my subject or something that is nowhere near where my focal point is.... which is very frustrating... and while shooting weddings and things I really don’t have a lot of time to zoom in on each picture to test for sharpness...

so needless to say I primarily use my 30 1.4, 50 1.4, 85 1.8, and never have a problem, and only use the 24-70 if I use manual focus... however.... what’s the damn point in owning a lens like that if I am rarely going to use it? Simply because I can’t trust it

oh and I’m using it with the 40D

[Bimmerteck]

Well I take it your using the center focus point?

Have tried to use ai servo to make sure you aren't moving slightly(or the subject moving).

What are the Shutter speeds of the unacceptable shots? (got any 100% crops with exif data)

What firmware is your 40d currently at? (1.1.1 is current)

Your shutter speeds will have to be higher with the 2.8 than many realize b/c of it not having IS. the IS on the 24-105mm is great and it can be a big switch going from IS to not if you don't do it often.

Erik

[mad325is]

ok so i just upgraded my firmware havent thought about that in a while... it was at 1.0.8 which i upgraded from 1.0.1 or whatever was on it when it first came out...

i have not tried to use AI-Servo very much but am familiar with it...

and yes i almost always have the center focal point set.

and i am aware that the shutter speeds need to be higher then say, atleast 1/125th or even faster and know what to expect if they drop below that especially if the subject is moving, what i am talking about is clearly not motion blur... ill see if i can find a pic when i get home... i delete most of the blurry ones but im sure i can find one...

and to be honest when i had the 24-105 i didnt really have it very long before i knew i made a mistake, when i bought it i thought that the IS with the longer focal length was more of what i was looking for but soon came to realization that IS definatly was not a replacement for 2.8, and when i first got the 24-70 the heavier weight was welcoming and found that i could hand hold my shots with more ease (i say that now but at the end of a wedding after shooting hard all day, that last thing i want to do is lift a heavy lens, and then ill eat my words )

[gotsnostance]

The Canon 24-70L f/2.8 is known to be a lens that came from the factory soft. I purchased mine new from BHphoto, shot 40 test shots, boxed it back up, and shipped it back to Canon for calibration for free. This made the lens act like an L lens and not like a kit lens. It should not cost much to send it but MAKE SURE you insure the lens!!! I sent mine Fedex and it was $$$ to insure for that much but its worth it. And with Fedex I did not have to have a receipt. Although, to send a lens back to Canon for warranty work you must have a receipt but for simple repair (which you pay out of pocket) you do not.

I fell on this same lens hiking and it had to be shipped back to Canon to be cleaned, threads replaced, and calibrated which iirc was ~$175.

Hope this helps,

Graham

[mad325is]

ok so ive found a couple images.. but every time i look at them it just looks like i mis aimed...



pic is for example purposes only... (oh and does anyone recognize the trophies on the left?)

The Canon 24-70L f/2.8 is known to be a lens that came from the factory soft. I purchased mine new from BHphoto, shot 40 test shots, boxed it back up, and shipped it back to Canon for calibration for free. This made the lens act like an L lens and not like a kit lens. It should not cost much to send it but MAKE SURE you insure the lens!!! I sent mine Fedex and it was $$$ to insure for that much but its worth it. And with Fedex I did not have to have a receipt. Although, to send a lens back to Canon for warranty work you must have a receipt but for simple repair (which you pay out of pocket) you do not.

I fell on this same lens hiking and it had to be shipped back to Canon to be cleaned, threads replaced, and calibrated which iirc was ~$175.

Hope this helps,

Graham

actually yes that does help... i wondered roughly how much it cost and that helps to gauge it somewhat, so thanks

[Bimmerteck]

It will be free if your in warranty, or if your a CPS member and sending the camera in for a free cleaning/tune up, otherwise I think it's gonna be somewhere under $200 based on the fact that you will not need any shop lobor other than the adjustment. If you haven't joined CPS and are elegible, now would be the time as the membership fee would be negated by the free cleaning and adjustment, and if you did have to pay it would be discounted and priority.


Erik