Would you send this lens in for repair?

[VTEC_EATER]

Hey all. Ive been having sporadic issues with my 12-24/4 where the left side of the image is all messed up. Its blurry, or choppy, or whatever. Its just not good.

Here is a shot I took at one of our job sites (I'm an Architect) of some of the construction going on. As you can see, everything is in great focus except for the ladder/coat/paint supplies. The entire floor is good, the background is good, the doors on the right hand side are good, but the ladder just didn't want to stay in focus. To me, this means that its a lens issue, not a focusing issue.

Please take a look at the image below and tell me I'm not just seeing things.

Edit: Sorry for the large image, but you just couldn't see how bad the ladder was at 800 pixels. It was necessary...

[swpars]

I'd agree with you. That left side doesn't look so hot.

However, I'd find a brick wall to shoot - just to prove this issue beyond a doubt.

[herc182]

hmm, it does seem blurry. Does this happen at all focal lengths and apertures?

oh, and does it happen with other lenses (therefore ruling out a sensor issue)

[VTEC_EATER]

The shot above was shot at 12mm F/4.5. I know reviews say this lens is soft at large apertures, but if the lens is sharp everywhere else but the left hand side, (to me) that its an issue worthy of having Nikon take a look at. If the whole image had a general softness to it, I would find it more acceptable and probably not throw a stink. But its just really annoying to have the left side of the image be "unusable", ya know.

Here's another shot at 12mm. This one is much better, but it is also shot at F/8. The left side is still slightly less sharp than the right hand side but it is much better than the first one.

[VTEC_EATER]

hmm, it does seem blurry. Does this happen at all focal lengths and apertures?

I really need to do a much more extensive test with this lens, but I think its fairly safe to assume that the wider I go, and the larger the aperture, the more susceptible this lens is to having this problem. As I mentioned above, if the problem was a general "softness" I could live with that. A little unsharpen mask could fix that. But this looks more like a lens alignment issue. It has a strange blurry pattern to it. Like a really bad bokeh effect.


oh, and does it happen with other lenses (therefore ruling out a sensor issue)

This only happens with this lens. All my other lenses are very sharp across the entire image. This one just happens to have a couple problems at times.

[erichlund]

It's hard to say. As Sam suggested, you want to test the lens on a single, detailed, focal plane (Brick wall test). That will tell you if there is an alignment problem. What you are describing above could be simply shallow depth of field issues, and the items that seem out of focus are simply not in the valid DOF to appear sharp. The wider the aperture, the shallower your DOF, and therefore, the more pronounced the issue will be.

Shoot a brick wall (or similarly detailed surface) straight on at f4. That will tell you what you need to know.

[VTEC_EATER]

I will try a few brick wall shots, but in most of the "testings" Ive done, everything looks good. Its real world shots where this problem exists. As you can see in the first shot, the ladder and the doors are on the same plane. The doors are sharp and the ladder is not. The ground at the very bottom of the photo is sharp, and the background is equally as "sharp" (I didn't use a lot of USM as Ive been accused of over sharpening my images).

The only part that is not good is the left side.

Let me take some brick wall shots at lunch and I will post up a couple of those tests.

[VTEC_EATER]

Okay. I took some brick wall test shots. Shots are as follows: 12mm F/4, F/8, F/16; 24mm F/4, F/8, F/16

[VTEC_EATER]

Now, the brick wall tests are showing softness on the right side, not the left. All of my real world shots have the softness on the left.

Overall, I'm not disappointed with the image quality in the brick wall tests, but many of my real world shots are ruined by what you see in post #1.

Like I said, its totally sporadic when it happens. Some days its perfect, others it is not.

[faisal]

send it in...cause it does seem messed up!!!

[erichlund]

Make sure when you send it in you send copies of your test photos with it. Contact Nikon directly, and ask them what they want. They give very specific directions on what they need from you.

[jcon]

Now, the brick wall tests are showing softness on the right side, not the left. All of my real world shots have the softness on the left.

Overall, I'm not disappointed with the image quality in the brick wall tests, but many of my real world shots are ruined by what you see in post #1.

Like I said, its totally sporadic when it happens. Some days its perfect, others it is not.

Yea, I notice that too. Contacting Nikon is the best idea here. As previously mentioned, include your sample images, you can even send them to CS online.

Good luck, keep us updated!

[Prospero]

I have a similar issue with my Sigma 10-20. When using this lens, I sometimes get a soft right side of the image. The lens is known to have this problem and it's caused by some sort of missalignment.

With my lens, it also only occurs sporadically. I couldn't get the problem to show up in brick wall test shots. I think it only happens at some combinations of focal length and focussing distance. Usually, I get this problem at 20mm. I rarely get the problem at 10mm. Since I hardly ever use this lens at any focal length other the 10mm, I didn't bother to send it in.

Anyway, it seems to me your lens has the same issue, and since it seems to show up in the pictures you shoot, I think it's best to send it in.

[RichNY]

Just another reason that buildings should be built out of bricks. Didn't they teach you about the 3 little pigs in architecture school? :)