I had stopped on en route to photograph daffodils in a local park since it was bright but overcast - ideal low contrast light for such subjects - but as I arrived on the shore of Poole harbour, Dorset, later in the afternoon the sun put in a brief appearance, and I decide to shoot details in the landscape.
The side-lit sign on an hotel wall caught my eye, along with the two yucca plants, and I shoot a number of abstract images. All is well until I attempt to photograph a person in the distance - peering over the harbour wall into the waters below - that I observe that the image in the viewfinder doesn't snap into sharp focus. Thinking I may have inadvertently knocked the focus mode switch - or made some other unwanted adjustment - I check everything and re-compose. For a second time I find the lens won't focus at infinity, no matter what settings I try.
Since this was only a test shoot I decide that it is over and return home to try the lens on another camera body. It is possible that the autofocus module in the camera may be suddenly malfunctioning, but upon mounting the optic on my back-up body it confirms just what I had suspected all along: the lens is not performing to specification.
I phone the repair facility (no names mentioned for now), and advise them of the issue. After a brief period of being put on hold I am told, by the pleasant lady dealing with my issue, to return the lens so they can see "what has gone wrong".
I will re-package the lens and post it tomorrow. Although covered by their warranty I will leave it for now to see how this issue plays out, and the way this company deals with a customer who has a problem. Mistakes do get made, and hopefully all will be well, but I will report back with names once the dilemma is resolved.
70-200mm f/2.8D Apo Sigma lens. 1/1600 second at f/6.3. + 0.67 EV compensation. ISO 400. Monopod
© 2013
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