Well following the last post on this blog about my “lens review” a few things have changed in my opinion!! No problems at all with the 24-70 lens, still works like a dream and the initial review holds firm. However the 70-200 f2.8…………………………….

All was going well after the initial bunch of test shots. I was happy. I took the lens out on it’s first paying job following the initial tests and in post processing I had a series of around 6 images in sequence which were horribly overexposed. Of course sods law states that they would have been the best shots of the session Grrrrrrrrrrr. Following a call to the suppliers of the second hand lens they agreed that this was a lens malfunction and they were confident that it could be fixed. The lens was duly returned and off it went into repair, followed almost immediately by a call from the shop saying the damage was caused because it had been dropped and was not covered by the warranty. Now I bought the lens second hand because the new version just cost so much and even though this lens looked like its previous owner was a street photographer in Beirut I assumed that the lens would live up to its reputation as being rock solid, indestructable. So, to be told that I had dropped it and damaged it when I had treated it with such loving care for the brief time it was with me was too much.  I won’t name the company but suffice to say I think I left them absolutely clear that any damage on that lens was no fault of mine and had occured prior to its delivery to me. I was seething.

5 minutes after that phone call the shop phoned back and explained that somehow it had bypassed their internal process and had not been checked before sale so the fault was all the shops. They replaced baffles and bits on the lens and assured me this would fix the problem. They were very efficient and the lens was promptly returned. However, on return the exposure problem appeared to be fixed but the lens hood just kept dropping of the lens (they had also changed the damaged front end baffle). I took the camera out on an outing and on return the post processing revealed another issue that wasn’t initially spotted! There was a massive loss of focus at the edges of the lens. On many shots this didn’t show up but where the subject covered edge to edge on the same focal plane the results were pretty obvious.

More phone calls to the shop ensued and they offered me my money back or another second hand lens or a new lens. As I had lost confidence in buying second hand (the proposed replacement one was two years old and used by a sports photographer, which just made me think of one very expensive lens being regularly out in pouring rain, covered in mud and generally being abused) I took the plunge, found some more money and bought the new version of the 70-200 f2.8 VR Mk II.

I have now taken a bunch of photos with the new lens and  am not sure if to be really happy at how good this new lens is (sharp everywhere, quick, can’t hear the VR motor or focussing motor whereas the old one sounded like a steam train each time it kicked in) or really dissapointed with how bad the old one was in comparison.  Anyway alls well that ends well and I hope to be producing many photos with this one for many years to come.