zeiss - strike 2 for quality control

[back alley]

dear zeiss,

i love your new zi camera and i think your lenses (the ones i have anyway) are very sharp...but i have a concern.

your camera does everything i ask of it. i am a simple street shooter mostly and your 25 and 35 mm lenses are ideal for my style of shooting.

both the 25 and 35 lenses came out of their respective boxes just perfect, flawless and ready to shoot.

but the body had focus problems and focused way past infinity.
it was a hassle, but i was lucky and the dealer sent me another while i was still packing mine for the return trip.

and now, my new 50/2 lens has aperture blades all over the place. no neat little circle formed so i can shoot my simple little street scenes.

again, the dealer is sending me another lens and i will be returning mine to him.

but this is not good. i have a zi body with 3 lenses...the body and one lens had to be returned and exchanged.

i expect more.

joe

 

[wlewisiii]

I do hope you have gone to the zeiss website and sent that into them, joe. Because that's the kind of email that they need to get in order to have a chance at fixing the QC issues.

William

 

[bmoc]

ugh! i'm sorry to hear your having troubles like this--it can be so gut-wrenching. i was hoping for more from the zi as well. i handled one at photovillage for a bit, and the framelines kept sticking as i focused--far from the quality i expected for such a price. hopefully they'll work out the kinks as they have with the bessas. good luck with your next body and lens.

-barry

 

[SDK]

It seems you are very unfortunate, Joe. Such is the stochasticity of life, you have 2 new Zeiss products with problems, I have 5 of their lenses without any hint of problems, even the 28mm Biogon that I dropped 18 inches onto a sidewalk (fell back cap first, still OK but for scratched paint 10 months after the incident). Sometimes bad things happen to good phtographers. I hope your replacements will be trouble free.

 

[bmattock]

Screws fall out, the world is an imperfect place. Entropy tends towards maximum. And my beer got warm because I left the carton out on the kitchen counter. It is to weep.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[Andy K]

If you buy beer in a carton you deserve what you get.

 

[bmattock]

If you buy beer in a carton you deserve what you get.

At least it is not Watney's bleeding Red bleeding Barrel.

 

[Branestawm]

It's not just you. Amateur Photographer in the UK have just done a test on the ZI. The origonal test camera initially suffered a problem with a couple of the frames overlapping followed by a total failure of the shutter. By all accounts it's a fine machine to use but Zeiss' quality control is not doing them any favours.

 

[Socke]

Phew! I agree, that's beyond bad luck although I too am a good QC tester. I break anything in no time 🙂

And William is spot on! Report it to Zeiss, they need to know.

 

[dcsang]

While we're on the subject... is the quality control really Zeiss or is it just CV again under the Zeiss name?? I get so confused by this..

Dave

 

[Andy K]

At least it is not Watney's bleeding Red bleeding Barrel.

An American, Canadian and Englishman were in a bar. The American ordered Bud, the Canadian ordered Molson, the Englishman ordered water. The others looked at him and said, "Just water?"
The Englishman replied "Well if you two aren't drinking, then neither am I."

 

[bmattock]

An American, Canadian and Englishman were in a bar. The American ordered Bud, the Canadian ordered Molson, the Englishman ordered water. The others looked at him and said, "Just water?"
The Englishman replied "Well if you two aren't drinking, then neither am I."

Alright, I'll give you that one. Personally, I prefer Guinness on tap, but beyond that there are a few American beers that I will drink. And yes, they come twelve twelve-ounce bottles to the carton.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[Bertram2]

and now, my new 50/2 lens has aperture blades all over the place. no neat little circle formed so i can shoot my simple little street scenes.
i expect more.
joe

I'd expect more too. !! That's really bad ,I've never seen anything like that reported for CV lenses, ZI can't afford such sloppy QM at all. That's not the way they will succeed .
Curious if this was a exception or if other lenses will have similar probs too.
We all know that at the beginning of a production line there are always probs with optimizing the assembly process, let's hope that kind of annoying crap will get eliminated soon.
I know how you feel like now, this story is not too amusing . 🙁

Bertram

 

[Andy K]

Guinness is ok, but I like to relax with a bottle of Everything's Gone Blank, from the Fine Ale Club.

 

[bmattock]

Guinness is ok, but I like to relax with a bottle of Everything's Gone Blank, from the Fine Ale Club.

Ah, but does your beer have Guaruana and caffeine and Gingseng added to it? Guess not!

http://www.briansbelly.com/beerbelly/btothee.shtml

I ran into this for sale today on the way home from Raleigh and visitng Cap'n Slack and Tritrisol. I didn't buy any, and reading this, you'll see why. God, we Americans have a lot to answer for.

I'm Sorry,

Bill Mattocks

 

[Andy K]

Guarana and caffeine? Nope, we just stick to boring old malt and hops. And brew it to 13.5%.

 

[NIKON KIU]

Out of four items, two had to be returned? Quality Control? what Quality control?
I'll stick to my Nikkors, at least they are not badged as some German brand.
I thought you said" New is...",
Kiu

 

[telenous]

That's very embarrassing for Zeiss. Makes you wonder what the signed QC certificate that comes with the lens stand for. Having said that, I used the Planar ZM for four months, no problems here.

 

[MP/CLE]

With straight face and complete sincerety, as I sit here with my Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, has anyone experienced similar qa issues with any late model m series bodies and lenses? I once thought that my 35 'lux asph had an issue with the aperture ring being loose (not bouncing around, but not the accustomed solid click I was used to) right out of the box. Took it in and we looked at the others in the boxes... all the same and apparently a characteristic of the model later confirmed by the rep. Another case of "I thought I was wrong but then it turned out I was mistaken..."

 

[sunsworth]

I read the same review in AP and raised an eyebrow, it was almost a throw away line on the part of the reviewer. After saying that I've had no problems with any of my CV lenses - and the Zeiss 21mm f2.8 is tempting to buy and use on a digital M 🙂

Steve