Canon Lens Quality
 

I am considering (strongly) changing my kit from Nikon to Canon. I am doing loads of reading etc to educate myself on exactly what I should buy. I am a little worried that I am seeing in a lot of articles and reviews that Canon lens xxx is good If you can get a good one. I do not see this when reading about Nikon kit. Is Canon QA this bad ? and if so it might dissuade me from changing manufacturer

Personally I've owned six Canon lenses (still have four of them) and they have all been excellent. There have been a couple of Canon lenses (100-400 IS and the 400 f4 DO) that seemed to have quality control issues in the early days, but they now seem to be fine. I guess as with anything you could get unlucky and get a dodgy one, but if you did it would soon be replaced or re-calibrated.

I have seen it suggested that the reason that you hear of more issues with Canon lenses than other manufacturers is that they are selling significantly more units. I guess the safest way to do it (if you make the change), would be to go to a real shop so you can test the gear before buying. Or at least buy from a local mail order company with a good returns policy. Thankfully it's quite easy to test that a lens is sharp and that it is not front/back focusing.

It could be that once the suggestion that there may be QA issues gets around, people test their purchases more rigorously.

I had heard this when i was looking to upgrade from my 17-85 IS to either a 24-70 f2.8 or 24-105 f4.0 IS. So when I had 28-70 (the fore runner to the 24-70) on apro - as well as taking shots out in the real world - which looked good - I did some test shots. Now it definitely had better contrast than my lens, but it was not as sharp. I ended up buying a 24-105 as this suited my type of photography better, but even then I had to take the first one back - see this thread NB - Leif suggests at the end of the thread that Nikon QA is not that brilliant either :(

Either way it pays to check - after all you are paying for quality - make sure you get it

I am sure that all manufacturers have their problems. Some of the forums are rife with ''pixel peepers'' who love to bash the equipment manufacturers to the nth degree but they still stay ''loyal'' to their chosen manufacturer. I sometimes wonder if they ever take photos to look at as pictures and print to anything less than A3+! The only Canon lens I have had that I was not altogether happy with was a 75-300 but this was a typical example of that budget lens that is known to be soft. I don't know why you want to jump ship but I feel Canon lenses in general are no different than anyone else's QC wise.

Thanks for all the good advise - and I have made the decision to jump (I think) so look out for some good Nikon kit for sale soon

May not be a good time to swap, all indications are that Nikon is catching Canon and in some cases it's equipment is surpassing in quality and results. The D3 has come in for some great reviews and in some circles is considered to be superior than the 1D Mk3.

Also from my recent experience, Canon's after sales service sucks. I feel that Canon may be going through the Xerox effect, whereby the company has such a commanding market lead it feels that customer care doesn't matter. This attitude broke Xerox the best part of 30 years ago and I can see the same happening to Canon.

I hope you are wrong about the Xerox effect as like many people I have considerable (to me) investment in Canon gear. The competition is hotting up not only with Nikon but also Sony and Pentax not to mention any others. Canon would have to be mad to relax now! I know, I know, they might be!

From my point of view as equipment sales staffer. I can honestly say I have to agree with comments made here. Typical retailer (and customer when I am speaking on behalf of one) recently has been absolutely hopeless from Canon. Long winded, uninformed....I feel Sigma aren't far behind in those poor stakes either.
Whilst, my experiences of retailer support in two separate retailers I've worked for has been moderate with Sony (We presume that over priced Sony Centre's do need some sort of lift against high street opposition!?). Support from both Nikon, JVC and believe it or not Kodak, really has been second to none

However, with the exception of a few models...(example quite recently the unfortunate high profile problems with Canon 1D mkIII).....generally speaking what you get is what you pay for. I might well be a bit of a nikonian at heart(and always have been really), but I have to admit the new 450D and 40D units are exceptional cameras......just so long as you don't have one under manufacturers warranty with an intermittant problem (If judging from the poor service they've provided to some of our customers of the 400D)

...That isn't to say we haven't had one or two Nikon D40's back tho! ;)

Horses for courses I suppose

One thing that I have noticed in my trawling of the fora (not this one!) is that there are quite a few Canon owners who are total dipsticks! These turkeys can't be doing the company any good, and 99% of the trash they talk can be safely ignored.

I can't say I have met anywhere near as many flat-out unreasonable Nikon owners, but then (being a Canon owner myself) I tend not to spend any time to speak of in the Nikon fora. One imagines that every brand has them.

Ho Ho, one dipstick to another eh? :D Agree with you though but all forums are the same and not just camera forums. There are a lot of Canon owners tout there so they have a lot of dipsticks. I loved the complaint I saw about a Canon camera that the pop up flash did not work. The only thing was that that model did not have one! There are many other fine examples.