I was afraid this would happen.

I decided to take a chance on ebay with a tamron sp 70-300mm f4-5.6 Di VC USD and in the end I think I got "shafted."

The lens indeed seems to be brand new no wear, original packaging flawless, etc. BUT when attempting to auto focus the inner drive slams back and forth from the min to max of the focus range. Its extremely loud and WILL not focus. What can cause this? I'm planning on calling tamron soon to ask. Just figured I would get some input until then. Thanks.

Your lens is hunting for focus. This happens because you are trying to focus indoor under poor lighting. Try to focus at something tomorrow morning with day light.

Just to make sure, you've tried to focus outside some good light? Sometimes if you test a 5.6 lens in a dark room you cant get enough light to focus so it hunts.

I'll give it a try but I'm a little skeptical about "low light" being the issue. I'll post results in the am. Thanks for the input guys.

my 70-200 2.8 IS hunts in a dark room...
then I crank the iso and it all goes away.....

keep us updated.

shayneyasinski wrote in post #11826938
my 70-200 2.8 IS hunts in a dark room...
then I crank the iso and it all goes away.....

keep us updated.

A 2.8 lens has twice the light, coming into it as the f4, and 4 times the light of the f5.6 and that makes a difference. The ISO setting should make no difference in how the focus performs.

I went outside this morning and as expected this is not a hunting issue but rather a defect or damage to the lens. The inner drive continues to slam back and forth in pure daylight.

Contact the seller and demand they take back the lens with shipping at their expense or receive scathing feedback. Contact ebay and paypal immediately. Get in touch with Guido and Vinny.

whuband wrote in post #11827792
Contact the seller and demand they take back the lens with shipping at their expense or receive scathing feedback. Contact ebay and paypal immediately. Get in touch with Guido and Vinny.

Vinny is on vacation this week. He said the snow has him "stressed."

OP: Definitely dot your "I's" and cross your "T's" via E-bay and PayPal. Good luck getting this hashed out.

asysin2leads wrote in post #11831119
Vinny is on vacation this week. He said the snow has him "stressed."

OP: Definitely dot your "I's" and cross your "T's" via E-bay and PayPal. Good luck getting this hashed out.

whuband wrote in post #11827792
Contact the seller and demand they take back the lens with shipping at their expense or receive scathing feedback. Contact ebay and paypal immediately. Get in touch with Guido and Vinny.

Thanks guys.

shayneyasinski wrote in post #11826938
my 70-200 2.8 IS hunts in a dark room...
then I crank the iso and it all goes away.....

i can assure you that any improvement that you experience is all in your head.

The dispute has been filed through paypal and now I guess it's time to play the waiting game. Hopefully everything works out. This is my first time having to take action against a seller.

I do not know if you were "ebayed."

I do not know if your particular lens is damaged or not.

However, I do know that I purchased one of those lenses and was extremely disappointed. It was completely, unacceptably soft to begin with. But supposedly that is attributed at least partially to the hefty zoom range.

The lens also hunted for focus terribly bad. Back and forth, back and forth. It was the only purchase I ever returned to a store - it was that bad.

But the hunting, at least in my experience, is not unusual for Tamron lenses. I have a 1:1 90mm macro. It hunts so poorly that it often never DOES find focus. However, I kept it because optically it's great.

Bottom line: just may be the nature of that lens.

ShaneKPhotography wrote in post #11832528
The dispute has been filed through paypal and now I guess it's time to play the waiting game. Hopefully everything works out. This is my first time having to take action against a seller.

Good luck, I truly do hope you can get satisfaction. Advice from someone that has been there: Get ready to be willing to just forget about this and take it as a lesson learned.

If you do unfortunately end up stuck with it, you might want to cut a slot in the front lenscap, bust out the inards, glue the base cap on, and use it for a piggy bank to save for better equipment.

Picture North Carolina wrote in post #11833661
I do not know if you were "ebayed."

I do not know if your particular lens is damaged or not.

However, I do know that I purchased one of those lenses and was extremely disappointed. It was completely, unacceptably soft to begin with. But supposedly that is attributed at least partially to the hefty zoom range.

The lens also hunted for focus terribly bad. Back and forth, back and forth. It was the only purchase I ever returned to a store - it was that bad.

But the hunting, at least in my experience, is not unusual for Tamron lenses. I have a 1:1 90mm macro. It hunts so poorly that it often never DOES find focus. However, I kept it because optically it's great.

Bottom line: just may be the nature of that lens.

It is in no way a hunting issue. It has never went into focus even once! And I guaruntee the banging this thing does is in no way normal. Thanks though.