Damaged Lens ?

fmkjr

Hello,

A buddy of mine has a Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 he bought it used and the front piece (where the hood and filter mounts) is lose. It moves forward and back aprox 1/8 to 1/4 inch. The person he purchased it from stated he could take it to someone and they pay the cost to have it repaired. (They stated it might have got damaged from the shipping but the box did not have damage. However, who knows... the lens might have got jostled in the box. )Thus, a few questions;

What does this piece do other than hold the hood and filter?
Could it indicate other damage? To the elements?

The lens focuses well and fires the sb600 without problems.

Any ideas are welcome... He is considering sending it back and purchasing a new lens. The savings is over $100 compared to the cost of a new lens but no savings if a potential problem.

thanks
frank

mr peas

If I was in his situation, I would still ask the seller to at least refund me my money as I return the lens. If that doesn't work, if you used PayPal, you may be able to file a grievance and hope they will take your in consideration for a refund/exchange, but with PP, its hit or miss. I would use the box as evidence, so make sure you keep it.

Also, I'm betting the seller did this on purpose. How would he know how much it would cost to fix the lens unless he's already taken it in to have it looked at?

But to answer your question, the filter-ring should be separate from the front lens element. To truly check for damage on your lens, you have to take several shots to figure it out. Take shots using a tripod, note each settings you use and give it a look-see on the computer screen. If the front lens element has been jostled a little, I'm sure the picture will come out blurry all the time (within the entire frame or even a small area), so I would closely look at all the test images I took.

I'm unsure about this part, but I think the lens will also not autofocus correctly, therefore giving you areas where the image may be blurry.

Lastly, did the seller include a filter for the lens? If so, check it for bumps and scrapes. I'm sure the only way that thing will fall off is if he dropped it and it lands on the filter ring.

Sorry to hear you received a bad lens. I've had the same thing occur to me, but it was a problem with the aperture disk and not the filter. I'm sure with a little bit of glue, you can repair it yourself, just be careful about touching the glass with glue.

I really dislike dishonest sellers. Next time, be sure to ask the seller to throw you photos of the lens next to a newspaper of somesort or something that shows the date. If they hesitate, then you should too. Especially with the more expensive lenses. You didn't buy this from someone on Dgrin did you?

ziggy53

Frank,

If I understand your description of the problem, the front bezel is loose. This is a fairly common occurrence in used lenses, and any competent camera shop should be able to tighten it for a nominal cost.

The seller probably did know about the problem, but it can indeed be worsened by mailing the lens, due to vibration mostly, so it may not have been all that bad when they shipped the lens.

I do recommend having the problem corrected if they intend to keep the lens because it will just get worse and eventually strip some very small screws. Worse case scenario, in some lenses (probably not this one however) the screws can actually drop into the inner body of the lens, and potentially cause serious damage. If the bezel is indeed moving 1/4", the screws may already be stripped.

fmkjr

It focuses great but...
It focuses great... we took at least 20 or more images without a problem. However, the concern is what actually caused the damage. The front lens cover has a small mark on it. Possibly at one time the lens took a hard bump and the travel caused the plastic ring to come lose.

It focuses very fast and accurate. The images are sharp from edge to edge. It stops from 2.8 to the full range without a problem.

The seller stated they will cover the cost of having it repaired. However, it might be best to send the lens back and eat the shipping cost as a lesson learned... No, this was baught on ebay with a seller that has excellent ratings. 100% for nearly 200 sells.

thanks!
frank