Focusing issue with the 35mmf 1.4L II

[CW Aust.]

I've just had very similar problem with my sigma 35 Art lens, twice returned for recallibration and twice came back with unchanged behaviour. I'm not sure where you are Eldar, but in Australia our consumer laws say that the product must be fit for the purpose for which it was intended for. I told my retailer that I could stand right there at the counter and demonstrate in 5 minutes the focusing inconsistency just using a printed page as a target, after discussion with the local sales rep they have agreed to replace it. Do you have an equivalent of our Office of Consumer affairs? You could write to them including prints or hi res. digital images of you test results and have them act on your behalf?
Just threatening to do so usually gets the desired results here ...as in my case, no need to enter into a bunfight, all very friendly in the end if they know you mean business and won't be deterred...

 

[Viggo]

Makes me rethink if I should save the 1000 usd having my brother buy it in the States, or just buy it here to exchange without issues.

Anybody else heard of anyone else with this issue with the 35 L II? If it's an isolated case I feel really bad for you Eldar since you had those issues with the Art lenses also...

 

[Eldar]

Makes me rethink if I should save the 1000 usd having my brother buy it in the States, or just buy it here to exchange without issues.

Anybody else heard of anyone else with this issue with the 35 L II? If it's an isolated case I feel really bad for you Eldar since you had those issues with the Art lenses also...

I seriously doubt this is more than an individual issue. I have and have had so many Canon L-lenses through the years and they have all performed to my expectations. This is the first time I have had AF issues with one. If anything, Canon improves their AF, they are not deteriorating it.

 

[Viggo]

Makes me rethink if I should save the 1000 usd having my brother buy it in the States, or just buy it here to exchange without issues.

Anybody else heard of anyone else with this issue with the 35 L II? If it's an isolated case I feel really bad for you Eldar since you had those issues with the Art lenses also...

I seriously doubt this is more than an individual issue. I have and have had so many Canon L-lenses through the years and they have all performed to my expectations. This is the first time I have had AF issues with one. If anything, Canon improves their AF, they are not deteriorating it.

Yes of course, but if this is batch problem? I'm 100% sure it's not a design flaw like the Art lenses.

What does focal say for AF consistency/Quality of focus ?

 

[Eldar]

Makes me rethink if I should save the 1000 usd having my brother buy it in the States, or just buy it here to exchange without issues.

Anybody else heard of anyone else with this issue with the 35 L II? If it's an isolated case I feel really bad for you Eldar since you had those issues with the Art lenses also...

I seriously doubt this is more than an individual issue. I have and have had so many Canon L-lenses through the years and they have all performed to my expectations. This is the first time I have had AF issues with one. If anything, Canon improves their AF, they are not deteriorating it.

Yes of course, but if this is batch problem? I'm 100% sure it's not a design flaw like the Art lenses.

What does focal say for AF consistency/Quality of focus ?

FoCal reported that it was unable to achieve focus, so I had to do it manually with the LensAlign rig. This is a new version of FoCal, so it might be that it is finger trouble on my side, but I don´t understand what I may have done wrong.

 

[Viggo]

Makes me rethink if I should save the 1000 usd having my brother buy it in the States, or just buy it here to exchange without issues.

Anybody else heard of anyone else with this issue with the 35 L II? If it's an isolated case I feel really bad for you Eldar since you had those issues with the Art lenses also...

I seriously doubt this is more than an individual issue. I have and have had so many Canon L-lenses through the years and they have all performed to my expectations. This is the first time I have had AF issues with one. If anything, Canon improves their AF, they are not deteriorating it.

Yes of course, but if this is batch problem? I'm 100% sure it's not a design flaw like the Art lenses.

What does focal say for AF consistency/Quality of focus ?

FoCal reported that it was unable to achieve focus, so I had to do it manually with the LensAlign rig. This is a new version of FoCal, so it might be that it is finger trouble on my side, but I don´t understand what I may have done wrong.

That has happened to me also, I tried everything but gave up. I tried again later and everything worked. Weird. I tried the second newest and with the 24-70 it reported 100% CoF at 24mm! But at 70mm it was very poor and fit quality was poor and everything looked quite bad, but I got a value of +3 and that works when I do
Normal shooting, so FoCal can have some issues.

 

[Ivan Muller]

I have had the same bad experiences with our local Canon Repairs in that they just send a lens back stating its within specs....I am not sure yet how to get around that yet....

 

[Viggo]

I have had the same bad experiences with our local Canon Repairs in that they just send a lens back stating its within specs....I am not sure yet how to get around that yet....

Have experienced that also. I write a separate document with everything I have tried and which tools I've tried and pictures to show the result. That makes them realize, often, that I'm not some idiot who doesn't know what afma is..

 

[YuengLinger]

Makes me rethink if I should save the 1000 usd having my brother buy it in the States, or just buy it here to exchange without issues.

Anybody else heard of anyone else with this issue with the 35 L II? If it's an isolated case I feel really bad for you Eldar since you had those issues with the Art lenses also...

Can you wait until after the holidays? Should be a lot more info by then...

 

[caMARYnon]

My copy is flawless.
f1.4, shot hand-held, 1,5m from a Spider Lenscal : 10 of 10 shots are in perfect focus.

 

[AcutancePhotography]

This just illustrates that one can get a bad copy from any manufacturer.. and the importance of not condemning an entire manufacturer because of a bad copy.

Good luck with it. I hope you can get it fixed or replaced.

 

[Viggo]

Makes me rethink if I should save the 1000 usd having my brother buy it in the States, or just buy it here to exchange without issues.

Anybody else heard of anyone else with this issue with the 35 L II? If it's an isolated case I feel really bad for you Eldar since you had those issues with the Art lenses also...

Can you wait until after the holidays? Should be a lot more info by then...

My brother isn't going to the States before January. I'll consider the US price vs the Black Friday offerings here. If the price difference is narrow enough I'll buy it here.

 

[Viggo]

Got my 35 L II today. It seems spot on with the center point, but I have much sharper shots with One Shot than Servo(never seen that before) and with any other point, for example to the sides, it front focuses by a mile, completely off. I switch to center in the same situation and it hits okay.

Doing a calibration tonight, but suspect it will be a 0, since it uses the center. This issue I had with the 50 L also, but not as bad as this.

I'm really really fed up with useless AF now... Feel like selling it all...

 

[Eldar]

Got my 35 L II today. It seems spot on with the center point, but I have much sharper shots with One Shot than Servo(never seen that before) and with any other point, for example to the sides, it front focuses by a mile, completely off. I switch to center in the same situation and it hits okay.

Doing a calibration tonight, but suspect it will be a 0, since it uses the center. This issue I had with the 50 L also, but not as bad as this.

I'm really really fed up with useless AF now... Feel like selling it all...

This lens is weird. When I started using it, it would front focus in one shot and back focus in the next. I sent it to CPS, but they found nothing wrong. I was more than a little frustrated. Now I have been using it for a while and the weird thing is that is is improving ... The total different experience to the Sigma Art lenses.

I can now use any focus point and focus is pretty much dead on and it is fast. When going from minimum focus distance to something close to infinity or the other way around, I still get variable results, but not nearly as bad as when I first got it.

The only thing I have done, post sending it to CPS, is a proper FoCal AFMA, which gave a slightly different value than with the manual LensAlign rig. That should not have made much of a difference though.

So Viggo; It might be that you just need to use it for a while.

 

[Viggo]

Got my 35 L II today. It seems spot on with the center point, but I have much sharper shots with One Shot than Servo(never seen that before) and with any other point, for example to the sides, it front focuses by a mile, completely off. I switch to center in the same situation and it hits okay.

Doing a calibration tonight, but suspect it will be a 0, since it uses the center. This issue I had with the 50 L also, but not as bad as this.

I'm really really fed up with useless AF now... Feel like selling it all...

This lens is weird. When I started using it, it would front focus in one shot and back focus in the next. I sent it to CPS, but they found nothing wrong. I was more than a little frustrated. Now I have been using it for a while and the weird thing is that is is improving ... The total different experience to the Sigma Art lenses.

I can now use any focus point and focus is pretty much dead on and it is fast. When going from minimum focus distance to something close to infinity or the other way around, I still get variable results, but not nearly as bad as when I first got it.

The only thing I have done, post sending it to CPS, is a proper FoCal AFMA, which gave a slightly different value than with the manual LensAlign rig. That should not have made much of a difference though.

So Viggo; It might be that you just need to use it for a while.

It's actually funny you should say that. I've had countless L's I had to break in. And also that when its unstable and then calibrated it becomes stable.

I hope calibration tonight will fix it and that I can use it, because the IQ from sharpness to ca to distortion is nothing short of epic.

 

[Viggo]

I get a -3 at the center point and +6 at the outer points, ridiculous.

Think I will send it back and move to Leica with proper manual focus, because this cr@p will make me insane.

 

[YuengLinger]

I get a -3 at the center point and +6 at the outer points, ridiculous.

Think I will send it back and move to Leica with proper manual focus, because this cr@p will make me insane.

Aggravating!

Don't get mad at the question, but do you have any fast primes with great AF on the body you are using?

 

[Viggo]

I asked myself the same question I asked Eldar, how is it on another body? Calibrated on my wife's 6d and it flew through the FoCal test and gave me a +2, tried it with outer most points and everything is dead on with absolute certainty, same with the center point. I kind of felt my 1d wasn't the same AF wise after the major service they did, and I was right, they screwed up something in alignment or something.

VERY happy it's not the lens, but really pi$$ed off it's my 1dx.

 

[Viggo]

Anyone experienced that the outer points need a completely different afma setting than center on the 35 L II?

It seems almost consistent in good light with the center point, but as soon as I try in less than 9 ev light it doesn't work. and I have disabled the non-crosstype points on my camera, but the outer point does not work at all, and looks like -2 afma on the center and +6 on the outer should be right.

I have had nothing but trouble with new lenses AND my 1dx. If buying the best there is still doesn't produce a properly focused picture, then what?

Here's a typical example, nice enough light, f1.4, iso 2500 shutter 1/640s. I tried both One shot and Servo and it wouldn't focus at all. The Servo performance is completely useless. Never used One Shot almost in my life, but now it's the only option, and it still doesn't work 85% of the time with the center point.

 

[YuengLinger]

Anyone experienced that the outer points need a completely different afma setting than center on the 35 L II?

It seems almost consistent in good light with the center point, but as soon as I try in less than 9 ev light it doesn't work. and I have disabled the non-crosstype points on my camera, but the outer point does not work at all, and looks like -2 afma on the center and +6 on the outer should be right.

I have had nothing but trouble with new lenses AND my 1dx. If buying the best there is still doesn't produce a properly focused picture, then what?

Here's a typical example, nice enough light, f1.4, iso 2500 shutter 1/640s. I tried both One shot and Servo and it wouldn't focus at all. The Servo performance is completely useless. Never used One Shot almost in my life, but now it's the only option, and it still doesn't work 85% of the time with the center point.

I've found that disabling the non cross-points avoids unexpected hunting or inability to lock AF, but if a non cross-point does find the right contrast to lock on, seems just as accurate. In other words, I don't think the type of point is the issue in unreliable AF here.

I'm sorry I haven't kept up enough to know, Viggo, but what was the major service on your 1DX?

Has Canon offered any insights?