Comments on: What I Did Over Winter Vacation

By: Ken

Ken — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:52:55 +0000

Looks like your packaging solution is pretty good but have you ever looked at something like these?

http://www.betashell.com/

By: Michael

Michael — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 03:53:10 +0000

Wow! Roger, you guys are amazing. I bought my Canon 10-22 from you guys this past thanksgiving and have loved it, and never doubted the purchase at all. It was an amazing deal.

I feel even better about my purchase now than I did before, even if my lens probably did’t go through this extra testing.

P.S. I’ve reused the box my 10-22 came in too! Great packing.

By: TM

TM — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 21:57:42 +0000

A German branch would be awesome^10!

By: Bryan Conner

Bryan Conner — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 09:29:08 +0000

If only you had a facility in Germany………just dreaming.

By: Roger Cicala

Roger Cicala — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 21:44:51 +0000

Ralf and Hakon,

We’d love to, but we’d need European partners: we don’t know shipping, taxes, collections and all the other things that would go with running a business in Europe. All we know about is gear

By: Ralf C. Kohlrausch

Ralf C. Kohlrausch — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 18:27:08 +0000

Hi Roger,

I second Hakon. Please do open a branch in Europe. Most rental-companies around here stock old stuff, so if you wanted a 2,8/300 it likely would be one without VR. If you want to go beyond 300, your are lost at most places. Rental conditions demand you to pick stuff up in person and/or you pay for the shipping days as well.

Thanks for the informative and entertainings lines,

greets
Ralf C.

By: Randy

Randy — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 01:13:20 +0000

Roger,

It’s a shame you left medicine, maybe you could have had an influence on the quality of medical care. Oh well, I guess you found another “calling.” lol.
Keep up the good work!

By: Roger Cicala

Roger Cicala — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 00:17:26 +0000

I wouldn’t mind showing it as far as business purposes, but unless you have a lens test projector, Imatest, or a collimator there’s no way to do it at home. Plus you can really, really screw things up amazingly.

By: Roger Cicala

Roger Cicala — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 00:14:59 +0000

Infinity focus is a combination of lens-to-flange distance and within lens distances. That’s why it’s really common with adapters: if they’re off just a bit, some lenses won’t focus to infinity. But it can be a problem without adapters. If you send me your order number (email me) I’ll check how that first lens did when it came back. My guess would be it didn’t show up on any of our test cameras since we routinely check for that.

By: CarVac

CarVac — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 21:58:26 +0000

I’m not sure if I should bring this up here, but I rented Canon mount Tokina 11-16 for a trip last week and it could not focus all of the way to infinity in the wideangle range. Of course, I was sent a replacement immediately which, while it exhibits the same focus shifting tendencies when zooming, can focus (if just barely) to infinity. Do you have any way (or plan) to test that sort of thing before sending out lenses?

I was surprised that this problem existed at all, since it was a mechanical and not electrical issue. Its sharpness was perfectly acceptable, but the problem probably wouldn’t show up in the resolution or focusing accuracy tests (it autofocused alright up close).

Also, just wondering: is that a typical problem with 11-16′s (in Canon mount)? That the problem existed to a nonzero extent in both lenses worries me, especially since I was considering purchasing a copy of the lens.