Tamron Calibration?

I recently purchased a Tamron 17-50 and discovered it had a back/front focusing issue. I was disappointedsince I was really looking forward to using this lens a ton this summer. I suck at manual focusing so this is something I really need to do.


If anyone hassent oneof these in for service,or any tamron lens for that matter, can you fill me in on your experience? I have been lucky and have never sent any lens for calibration and I am looking to ease my mind. I purchased the lens from B&H. Should I contact them first? Sure wish I owned a camera with Microadjustment capabilities(or at least I think that would solve the problem).


Thanks,


Jayson

Take look at this site, you can ask them first what needs to be done. I don't think lens calibration will take that long.


http://www.tamron.com/about/services.asp

Jayson,


Around a year ago I sent a 70-300 f4-5.6 DI Macro in for service under warranty. It was around 3-4 weeks total trip time. As far as the experience, I called, the rep pointed me to the service doc, I printed it, filled it out and shipped the lens to the address given. 3-4 weeks later the lens arrived in perfect working order.


If I had bought the 17-50 f2.8 DiII from B&H, I would ask them first for an exchange.


You will have to pay shipping charges regardless, so I would weigh the to different options carefully.


1) Send back to B&H for another copy and hope it's a good one. Round trip time about 1-2 weeks.


2) Sendto Tamron service and hope it comes back calibrated correctly. Round trip time 3-4 weeks. Also, they may be hard to convince that the lens has a front back focus issue. You will need to verify by placing the camera with lens on a tripod and shooting multiple photos of a focus chart. Tim Jackson's is the one I use. http://focustestchart.com/chart.html


I bought my 17-50 f2.8 DiII from a local shop. The 1st copy I tested (in their store) did not have a front/back focus issue it was just soft. The 2nd copy tested was perfect. Absolutely, a fantastic bargain. What a wonderful lens!!


Hope you get things worked out.


Chuck

Thanks for all of your advise. I am going to try and send it in to Tamron for the calibration. Thanks Chuck for the link you provided, I printed it off and it is off by quite a bit. I decided to do the calibration route as this lens is a good copy. I have been manual focusing on subjects and it is razor sharp. Only problem is on the AF. Hopefully they can get that corrected. Just to be sure I tested my other lenses and this is the only one that had an issue. Hopefully it will work out great.


Thanks again.


Jayson

Good Deal Jayson,


Let us know how Tamron service reacts to the focusing issue. It's always good to hear feedback. Like AC360... "Keeping Them Honest"


Chuck