My Brand New 70-200 2.8 IS has a speck of dust inside it. Should I send it back? Help

I just talked to B&H and it it will be exchanged. I will be shipping it out as soon as I get my packing label.

THey said they have had a few others returned with similar specks of dust.

Thanks for the help

Well, it MAY be a very *good* sample in terms of the pictures you get. There is always a risk you will end up with a replacement that has no visible specks, but is less perfect in sharpness, for example. Just a thought...

J

There's no way that's ever going to affect your photos, heck it's probably outside the image crop area of the 20D anyway. However it's your money, and it is a lot of money. You're entitled to get a product in what you consider to be perfect condition.

[edit] Just read Wibbly's post. Very good point. Take some photos. If it's super sharp I'd keep it...

Jackal wrote:
He wouldn't have taken the picture of he didn't see the speck to begin with, Sicily.

No, no... I meant that in the pic it looks like a dot inside the metal edge of the lens, not that it looks like there's a dot in the picture itself

But who knows, maybe he can see specks only cameras can

hello - new here, just hunting around for lenses and, as the 70-200IS L is on my 'want' list, I'm a little alarmed to notice that a few have been returned to source from new. I know its been at the back of my mind for a while but I didn't think canon's QC had dropped this much. if you're going to spend a lot of money on a new 'top of the line' lens then you'd expect it to be flawless out of the box. It doesn't instill a great deal of confidence to hear of this.
what other QC issues have i heard of? a guy I know is on his 5th 20D...all previous ones returned as a resut of part failures or unacceptable pixels within the sensor (i saw the example images and there were dodgy pixels all over the place!). so perhaps canon's QC has dropped a bit in all areas as this was the first I read about a lens - and a damn high quality one to boot - getting missed on the qulaity control line...
this doesn't sway me from believing canon stuff is excellent but it does worry me a tad...

You know I find it sometimes hard to believe that people would accept company like canon to have a perfect QC. It can be a case that some people are just un-lucky when it comes to buying new gear. Since everything has a human component then there will always be errors.

My camera and my lens are all canon and I don't have a single problem with them (apart from operator error)

I wouldn't let small things like this effect my option on canon gear. I still believe that canon is way better than anything else on the market.

I have been using Canon for a while and still beleive it is the best also. I understand there is always human error even with robotics and todays technology. But If there is a error, I expect them to fix it and replace the faulty part.

I know part of this is mental, but I can't stand paying as much money as I did for the lense knowing there is a particle of something floating around in my lense.

It may not show up currently on my images, but if it moves to the middle more, it could.

I am more than happy with all my Canon gear. I am like a walking endorsement to my freinds

You did the right thing. Trust me, most of us here would have done the same thing. We want to see some pics when you get the replacement.

For what it's worth, a mate who's a Nikon man replaced a new pro digital body from new (mirror was getting stuck up), and a 70-200 VR lens (bad bokeh). It's not just Canon that have bad'uns.

In the UK the 70-200 2.8L IS can be had for ~£1380 on-line. I can import from Germany for ~£1180. Maybe I can import from the US (VAT and Tax paid) for a little less. Or buy in a shop in the UK for the highest price of all.

For me the issue is just how much of a premium it's worth paying for the ease of swapout if I feel the need... This is like a trade off between the 'insurance' premium and likelyhood of a 'claim'. Alternative is just to send for service if I have to under warrantly to one of the better service centres (eg Fixation in London) and just buy as cheaply as I can...

J

Even if that particle fell right onto the middle of the glass you'd never see it in photos. Way too defocussed. And even sealed "L" lenses accumulate some dust inside after years of use. But I don't blame you for sending it back--it would have bugged me too.

I have a similar speck on my Canon 17-85mm lens. It has not effected the image quality though I was also concerned. I kept the lens after taking some test shots with no problems yet.

Sorry to hijack this thread but I didn't think it was worth starting a new one. I was just going over my 2 month old 70-200IS with the blower when I noticed a very small mark underneath the back glass, right smack in the middle. It won't budge so I took some test shots of a blue sky and of course it doesn't show up, but as I'm a kind of perfectionist it's kind of annoying!

...which means that it would never go away. Even though it's the very expensive "L-dust" I'd send it back. Tell the how VERY unhappy you are & maybe they'll throw in a CP!

I'm not too big on optics, but it always seems like the front elements are supposed to pretty much come in contact with each other... if something is prevening it then it may affect the image quality.

But I don't know the tolerances

If it was on the side, I'd say maybe live with it, but like you said it's inside the glass and not right on the side. So, I'm guessing that could affect the lenses performance, and for 1700 bucks that isn't acceptable. Return it immediately!