Lensrentals.com - great blog entry - statistcs on repairs, failures and support

[marekjoz]

So again I'm admired to Roger Ciala's blog entry. You can take a look on which lenses in their business require more repairs and why, as well camera bodies. There is Canon as well.

http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2012/09/lensrentals-repair-data-january-july-2012

The quality of his posts is really really high.
BTW: Words "Nikon fanboys" were  often used :-)

Quote: "Would I change brands or something over it? Of course not. That’s silly. Nikon makes excellent, reliable equipment and most people need a repair maybe once every couple of years. But I certainly am advising newcomers in a different direction, and I’d be a bit hesitant about picking up used Nikon equipment."

Another quote: "Among the Canon zooms, the 24-105 L is one we just think of as bulletproof. Never fails. The Canon 17-55 IS used to have lots of IS failures but obviously got fixed a couple of years ago. Another lens that rarely fails."

[Albi86]

Very interesting.

Seems that 3rd party like Sigma and Tamron - often bashed on this forum - actually offer the best service.

A second interesting observation is that more expensive lenses not always are better built. I'm talking in particular about Sony, Canon and Nikon professional f/2.8 zooms.

[marekjoz]

Very interesting.

Seems that 3rd party like Sigma and Tamron - often bashed on this forum - actually offer the best service.

A second interesting observation is that more expensive lenses not always are better built. I'm talking in particular about Sony, Canon and Nikon professional f/2.8 zooms.

More expensive Canon lenses he is pointing to are 70-200 2.8 II and 24-70 mkI. He says, that similar solution used in 70-200 2.8 II didn't make problems somwehere else, but in this partiular model does, what's even more  interesting.
In some previous post http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2012/09/a-peak-inside-the-canon-24-70-f2-8-mk-ii he shows what was the problem with the mk I version of 24-70 and shows that Canon has improved it, so he expects less problems.
Refering to other posts here there is also another statment interesting, that some new lenses coming directly from the shop are sending for repair because of troubles they have, but they are sent back with a note "shock damage". That's funny!

[M.ST]

Thank you for your reports Roger.

[risc32]

Roger is in a unique position of having many copies of so many lens. They all see a good bit of use, and he bench tests them all. I'm with you guys, his blog is very interesting and provides info that no other reviewer can obtain. The sort of info only Canon themselves would have in the past.

[FunPhotons]

Repair wise, he barely indicates that Canon has the edge over Nikon. They both have 5 lenses/bodies on the list, but Nikon does show up higher on it on average. The repair cost & time of Nikon service is somewhat higher.

He does use "Nikon fanboy" a lot - probably some personal experience there he is talking to. Reading between the lines I think he has a bit of a grudge against Nikon because they stopped selling repair parts to him and raised prices.

As far as I can tell Canon has somewhat better reliability and repair service, but it doesn't seem to be enough to get excited about. As usual Canon and Nikon are more or less neck and neck.

By the way I'm all Canon and will never buy a Nikon.

[DJL329]

From the article:

With 5D Mk IIIs, CF pins are bending at an amazing rate. With the latter, I suspect the combination of a CF slot and and SD slot (rather than 2 CF slots) allows CF cards to wiggle a bit more during insertion, so the card slots might not line up with the pins properly. I don’t know that there will be an easy fix for this, but be gentle putting those CF cards in your 5D III.

I felt that sliding a card into the 5DIII CF slot wasn't as "smooth" as with the 5DII.  The card does seem to wiggle a bit when pushing it in, so I'll be more careful from now on.

[Random Orbits]

Repair wise, he barely indicates that Canon has the edge over Nikon. They both have 5 lenses/bodies on the list, but Nikon does show up higher on it on average. The repair cost & time of Nikon service is somewhat higher.

He does use "Nikon fanboy" a lot - probably some personal experience there he is talking to. Reading between the lines I think he has a bit of a grudge against Nikon because they stopped selling repair parts to him and raised prices.

As far as I can tell Canon has somewhat better reliability and repair service, but it doesn't seem to be enough to get excited about. As usual Canon and Nikon are more or less neck and neck.

By the way I'm all Canon and will never buy a Nikon.

For running a rental business, repair service cost and turnaround time (6 days for Canon and 26 for Nikon) are significant factors because a lens out of service is lost income.  Another point that he makes is that now everything needs to go back to Nikon.  Their company does many of the smaller repairs on their own, which helps lower costs and time out of service.  For a individual user, it matters less but can still be a factor.  I'd hate to have a in issue with a lens, and then having it take a month's time to get it repaired.

[dilbert]

While we don’t use them often, Tamron even goes a step better: they guarantee they’ll have an item fixed 3 days after they receive it (I’ve confirmed this with Pat Simonetti, Director of Tamron Customer Service). If they can’t fix it in a timely fashion, they supply a refurbished or new replacement. I should also mention that when we’ve reported a problem to Tamron or Zeiss, both make inquiries about it, getting all the information they can and passing it on to manufacturing. It’s a pleasant change from “there is no problem, we never have problems.”

Now that's a company that gets customer service and gets that it needs to improve its image.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what the new Tamron 70-200/2.8 VC is like and what other lens they come out with.

[dstppy]

Repair wise, he barely indicates that Canon has the edge over Nikon. They both have 5 lenses/bodies on the list, but Nikon does show up higher on it on average. The repair cost & time of Nikon service is somewhat higher.

He does use "Nikon fanboy" a lot - probably some personal experience there he is talking to. Reading between the lines I think he has a bit of a grudge against Nikon because they stopped selling repair parts to him and raised prices.

As far as I can tell Canon has somewhat better reliability and repair service, but it doesn't seem to be enough to get excited about. As usual Canon and Nikon are more or less neck and neck.

By the way I'm all Canon and will never buy a Nikon.

When talking to friends about DSLRs, I always favor Canon, but if they're not going to Canon, go with Nikon; community size and availability of used lenses (not to mention available options) is on par.

That said, I have to 100% agree with Roger on the fanboy thing; it's starting to die down here, but man it got nasty and irrational.

Good find marekjoz, I love reading Roger's stuff.  Before making any purchase decisions, I always read up on what he and neuro have to say; I'm rarely disappointed after making an informed decision.

[Albi86]

Don't know in US, but here in EU Tamron offers an amazing 7-years warranty.

[DJL329]

Don't know in US, but here in EU Tamron offers an amazing 7-years warranty.

Here in the States, it's 6 years.

[DB]

Roger's reports are invaluable as always. They also raise the question about how 'renters' treat high quality optical equipment. I find that insightful.

[tobiasg@gmail.com]

From the article:

With 5D Mk IIIs, CF pins are bending at an amazing rate. With the latter, I suspect the combination of a CF slot and and SD slot (rather than 2 CF slots) allows CF cards to wiggle a bit more during insertion, so the card slots might not line up with the pins properly. I don’t know that there will be an easy fix for this, but be gentle putting those CF cards in your 5D III.

I felt that sliding a card into the 5DIII CF slot wasn't as "smooth" as with the 5DII.  The card does seem to wiggle a bit when pushing it in, so I'll be more careful from now on.

I have already had to send mine in for repair - Damaged two SanDisk cards in trying to figure out what the hell was going on.  Nicely Sandisk has replaced those for me.   I have no idea how it happened but feel less of an idiot knowing it is happening to others.   I am on the GOLD plan with Canon and it still cost over $200 to repair


And Roger is such a great source of information. 

[marekjoz]

From the article:

With 5D Mk IIIs, CF pins are bending at an amazing rate. With the latter, I suspect the combination of a CF slot and and SD slot (rather than 2 CF slots) allows CF cards to wiggle a bit more during insertion, so the card slots might not line up with the pins properly. I don’t know that there will be an easy fix for this, but be gentle putting those CF cards in your 5D III.

I felt that sliding a card into the 5DIII CF slot wasn't as "smooth" as with the 5DII.  The card does seem to wiggle a bit when pushing it in, so I'll be more careful from now on.

I have already had to send mine in for repair - Damaged two SanDisk cards in trying to figure out what the hell was going on.  Nicely Sandisk has replaced those for me.   I have no idea how it happened but feel less of an idiot knowing it is happening to others.   I am on the GOLD plan with Canon and it still cost over $200 to repair


And Roger is such a great source of information.

5d3 it's still far better built because here they change only small board with pins. In 5d2 they had to put a new mainboard.