Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Cameras, Lenses and Shooting gear => Topic started by: davaglo on June 09, 2013, 05:30:18 pm

Title: Lens Maintenance
Post by: davaglo on June 09, 2013, 05:30:18 pm
How often, if any, should a person send an L lens in for calibration? Is there a suggested preventative maintenance standard?

Thanks for your replies.

Jerry
Title: Re: Lens Maintenance
Post by: PeterAit on June 09, 2013, 05:54:54 pm
What does lens calibration entail? I know that some cameras let you enter an adjustment factor when the autofocus is not quite spot-on, but what else?
Title: Re: Lens Maintenance
Post by: davaglo on June 09, 2013, 07:07:27 pm
Maybe I should have posed the question differently.  Through normal ware and tare does a lens slip out of it's +/- specification and need adjustment?

 
Title: Re: Lens Maintenance
Post by: digitaldog on June 09, 2013, 07:12:39 pm
I've used software to adjust back focus which isn't always spot on in every case and that's effective. But the only time I've sent a lens into Canon is when I knew it needed service or I dropped one. It is expensive but worth it.
Title: Re: Lens Maintenance
Post by: langier on June 11, 2013, 03:36:51 pm
The only time my lenses go in for service is usually after they are dropped or something wears out/fails. Most premium lenses today seem to keep going and going.
Title: Re: Lens Maintenance
Post by: francois on June 12, 2013, 03:05:29 am
The only time my lenses go in for service is usually after they are dropped or something wears out/fails. Most premium lenses today seem to keep going and going.

Same for me, only when something is wrong with my lenses… The last time I sent my EF 24-70 f/2.8 for autofocus malfunction, I got a bill of $600…
Title: Re: Lens Maintenance
Post by: Rob C on June 12, 2013, 04:08:56 am
Francois, you are not playing properly.

Expensive lenses are meant to be bought after much sacrifice, placed within an airtight glass cabinet (never on a mantlepiece), bowed down before and worshipped twice a day.

Under no circumstances should the focussing ring be moved, either electronically or manually (by hand). Why else did you imagine that QC departments were recently and collectively deemed unnecessary? It's the new way - Passive Photography, the new form devoted to theoretical imaging.

Enjoy from afar.

Rob C
Title: Re: Lens Maintenance
Post by: francois on June 12, 2013, 04:40:36 am
Francois, you are not playing properly.

Expensive lenses are meant to be bought after much sacrifice, placed within an airtight glass cabinet (never on a mantlepiece), bowed down before and worshipped twice a day.

Under no circumstances should the focussing ring be moved, either electronically or manually (by hand). Why else did you imagine that QC departments were recently and collectively deemed unnecessary? It's the new way - Passive Photography, the new form devoted to theoretical imaging.

Enjoy from afar.

Rob C

Good morning Rob,

Actually, I have a friend who has a collection of expensive lenses and it looks like he plays properly! Maybe 80% of his lenses stay in the original boxes, in a closet. He also had a collection of Leica bodies and lenses and he kept all that stuff in a safe in a Swiss bank. He could never show me a single photo made with his Leicas. That must be theoretical imaging!

Me? I've dropped lenses, took them under torrential rains, in blowing sands, got on top of the Alps by freezing temperatures.
So, you're right, I don't play according to the new Passive Photography rules. I'm already too old, I guess. It's a case of adapt or die!

 :D