Did I make a bad purchase?

I picked up a Canon 70-200mm f2.8 L USM from B&H Photo this week. They had it listed for 889 which fit my budget and I just bought it without even calling.

I have been in love with this lens. Its uses and range are perfect.

When it came in I noticed a few things. The front glass has a scratch a few mm from the edge, does not effect picture quality. But the date code on the lens is from 1998. It focus's fast, accurate, and doesn't really hunt to much. I took it out for the first time tonight and captured a quick picture of a flower that seemed pretty good. I had the ISO set at 400 or so.

The light kept dropping and I tried shooting some pics of my car at 400 iso and those didn't come out well at all, my car is black and in low light the lens just wouldn't stop hunting for focus.


Here are a few shots from my homeade light box and one from outdoor cloud cover from tonight. I hope I did alright :/. This is my first L lens.

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I think the one thing that would bother me would be the scratches. I get so paranoid about keeping my tech in good shape!

danny819 wrote in post #10574803
I think the one thing that would bother me would be the scratches. I get so paranoid about keeping my tech in good shape!

I know, I'm the exact same way. It won't ever have another scratch thats for sure. The rear glass is mint.

And the focus and zoom rings are smooth as can be. I'm just leary about buying a 12-13 year old equipment piece.

What are costs associated for sending a lens off to Canon to have it maintenanced?

Don't worry about having old gear. Some of the older lenses are still quite honored (Magic Drainpipe)

The focusing problem is not your lens, but the body and subject. Black in low light is hard for almost any body to focus on.

Though it is one hell of a lens and still in production, and canon flat rates most thing is you want to get the element replaced. I believe it is $135 USD to have the lens cleaned, most any part replaced and check over my canon for that flat fee.

Nick

Yeah,I kinda figured.

When I looked at the pics my car was super grainy (probably from the low light and 400 iso setting) and slightly oof (from the black paint).

I wanna go out and snap some pics in good out door light. not really impressed yet.

Seems like a good copy aside from the front element. I see that you're in Illinois (albeit on the western border); Canon has a service center in Elk Grove and will do lens cleaning/calibrating for free if you're under the warranty. If you go near Chicago anytime soon you could easily drop by and get it quoted for the scratches or they may even do that for free if you show up with the receipt since it's so new (not sure of the probability of this, but you never know).

The scratches likely dont affect your picture quality at all..dont worry about them

The focus is down to 2 things, 1 is lack of contrast and the second is the fact you're using a rebel, the rebel doesnt have the best AF out there to be honest with you...

id say just enjoy your new toy!

Lens has to be pretty darn scratched up to impact IQ. Have to worry about flaring more than anything.

That's a fairly good price even by ebay standards... but you could have gotten cheaper if you'd browsed for a bit and purchased with 8% BCB...

I had no idea the 70-200 f/2.8 USM went back over 12 years!

Don't worry about the scratch, it won't do anything to your IQ.

https://www.lensrental​s.com …0/front-element-scratches

The scratch won't impact the image unless its a super super big gash. It's not in the focus range. A lot of scratches will impact the overall image though, but if it's just one it won't matter.

Doesn't B&H have a no question return policy? I would just send it back if it bugs you that much. It'll haunt you forever.

You'll be fine, good price for the L

Go and shoot around and have fun. It is a marvelous lens.

No guys, the scratch really does'nt bug my nerves that much. Its so small and so close to the edge of the element there's no way it effects quality.

I just didn't know if there was a reason to be worried about buying such an old Copy of a lens. I guess there's no IS unit to be worried about so its mainly just the AF motor and such. It seems to work fine.