Are there really such things as bad copies?

gasrocks wrote in post #7081716
So I bought a new SIgma lens. The focus was off a little. I sent it to SIgma. They fixed it right away and free. It works great. I do not consider that a "bad" copy. Just because something isn't perfect are we going to yell at QC? Has anyone gotten a new car that was perfect?

Actually, yes. I bought a Nissan Maxima SE, new, back in 2000. Other than oil changes and wear and tear repairs such as brakes, it has never seen a mechanic.

gjl711 wrote in post #7081503
So, concidering that you had a 50% failure rate with Canon and a 20% failure rate with Sigma, and since the majority of bad copies can be attributed to bad photographers, do you then consider yourself a bad photographer?

I don't see how anyone here can attribute most bad lenses to some inability or short coming of the photographer as seems to be so common here. POTN has a fairly educated poster base and many here are very aware when a piece of their equipment is not performing as the expected. To say that the majority of those folks are just bad photographers is grossly unfair.

Well the thing is the camera shop agreed my canon was bad, and Sigma agreed my lens was bad. I'm taking those as qualified opinions Neither of them had a "focus" issue either.

POTN is huge and has a huge influx of new users all the time and a lot of the time it is user error, how many times have you seen a 100mm lens used with a shutter speed of 1/20 and the user complaining about a soft lens.

Are you living in a world where nothing fails and all users are perfect

bohdank wrote in post #7081989
Actually, yes. I bought a Nissan Maxima SE, new, back in 2000. Other than oil changes and wear and tear repairs such as brakes, it has never seen a mechanic.

I've had two Grand Prix one I sold at 160,000 having never seen a bit of work other than wear and tear and oil. My current Grand Prix is at 120,000 and it too has never seen the inside of a shop so it does happen.

KarlosDaJackal wrote in post #7082197
...Are you living in a world where nothing fails and all users are perfect

I was just sort of messin’ with ya and there are the posts from those that are shooting with not optimal settings, but I do believe we dismiss too many too fast and are eager to blame the photographer. Heck, in this thread alone out of the posts we are running almost a 50% lens failure rate. That’s pretty high.

gjl711 wrote in post #7082673
Heck, in this thread alone out of the posts we are running almost a 50% lens failure rate. That’s pretty high.

Hmmm, better improve that figure a little.

I have 7 Canon EF / EF-S lenses and have never sent one back yet, they are all working 'as expected'. I do find my 28-135 a bit soft, but it is a budget lens and the couple of others I tried out, to compare it with, were no better. I concluded that it is performing 'to spec' and don't really find it surprising that it can't match the 24-105L I bought to take it's place.

I realise that there are bad copies of all lenses of course, the amount is exaggerated by the fact that people are far more likely to come on a forum and moan about a bad lens than say they have a good 'un.

1 dud out of 4 lenses purchased. The Tamron was sent in and returned to me in 2 weeks and works really well now. No longer a dud.

canon only pulls one lens out of many lenses to test. this gets worse as the price of the lens is lower. I think the only lenses that are tested individually are the super telephotos. my uncle got a tour of one of the factories a few years ago, he told me there was an entire table with 70-200 f/2.8 lenses. They are assembled on the masses and not all of them are tested. there is a separate division for super telephoto assembly and those lenses are assembled much more carefully then the other L lenses. thats how he described it to me. of course this may have changed by now.

Yes there are bad copies... Over the years I got a bad Sigma lens, a Bad 40D Body and most recently a bad 500L of all things

Thankfully I've been able to return them all and got good copies as replacements.