Well, I've been very bad and have one of these on the way. Poor life choices, but I can't help myself. Hopefully, it lives up to my expectations b/c I love the rendering more than any other 50 I've seen just based on internet samples. Price was low enough that if it underwhelms or I find my Canon FL 55mm f/1.2 to be 'close enough' I can sell it without a loss.
Mine is on the way to Sony/Precision Camera in Connecticut. Sent Sony an email asking for instructions about the recall. They gave me a number to call. Guy at the number (eventually, through the automated voice answering maze) knew what it was all about. He wanted the formal model designation of my lens, checked my serial number, asked me what I saw in terms of a problem, wanted to know exactly when it was purchased, sent me an email to print out and enclose with the lens, told me to enclose a copy of the purchase receipt, to send only the lens and caps, to pad it well, and that the turn-around time would be 7-10 business days. He described where it was going as the "Sony Electronics Repair Center," not as Precision Camera. Who knows.
This was a sharp copy. I hope it comes back that way. Another poster said his/hers was delayed waiting for a part--an "optical block." I think the "optical block" may actually be the part of the lens that contains the actual optical glass, all assembled as a single unit. If that is correct, one winds up with a new and different lens than what you sent in.
chiron wrote:
Mine is on the way to Sony/Precision Camera in Connecticut. Sent Sony an email asking for instructions about the recall. They gave me a number to call. Guy at the number (eventually, through the automated voice answering maze) knew what it was all about. He wanted the formal model designation of my lens, checked my serial number, asked me what I saw in terms of a problem, wanted to know exactly when it was purchased, sent me an email to print out and enclose with the lens, told me to enclose a copy of the purchase receipt, to send only the lens and caps, to pad it well, and that the turn-around time would be 7-10 business days. He described where it was going as the "Sony Electronics Repair Center," not as Precision Camera. Who knows.
This was a sharp copy. I hope it comes back that way. Another poster said his/hers was delayed waiting for a part--an "optical block." I think the "optical block" may actually be the part of the lens that contains the actual optical glass, all assembled as a single unit. If that is correct, one winds up with a new and different lens than what you sent in.
chiron wrote:
Mine is on the way to Sony/Precision Camera in Connecticut. Sent Sony an email asking for instructions about the recall. They gave me a number to call. Guy at the number (eventually, through the automated voice answering maze) knew what it was all about. He wanted the formal model designation of my lens, checked my serial number, asked me what I saw in terms of a problem, wanted to know exactly when it was purchased, sent me an email to print out and enclose with the lens, told me to enclose a copy of the purchase receipt, to send only the lens and caps, to pad it well, and that the turn-around time would be 7-10 business days. He described where it was going as the "Sony Electronics Repair Center," not as Precision Camera. Who knows.
This was a sharp copy. I hope it comes back that way. Another poster said his/hers was delayed waiting for a part--an "optical block." I think the "optical block" may actually be the part of the lens that contains the actual optical glass, all assembled as a single unit. If that is correct, one winds up with a new and different lens than what you sent in.
Yikes!...Show more →
Did you see fogging in your copy? I think it was Dj R who posted a link to a Japanese forum where one person was showing an example of the defect. It's quite pronounced. In looking at mine, it's very clean right now.
Chainring wrote:
Did you see fogging in your copy? I think it was Dj R who posted a link to a Japanese forum where one person was showing an example of the defect. It's quite pronounced. In looking at mine, it's very clean right now.
I did not do a flashlight test to look for fogging, but it was unclear to me whether this was a problem in the sealing of the lens that lets moisture in, or a deterioration in an adhesive (like in the Zeiss 100-300), or an other manufacturing or materials defect that might occur or lead to difficulties either now or in the future. Therefore, i sent it in. My lens was purchased in September and has been very gently used and stored in ideal conditions when it was not in use. So it has not been stressed in ways that might provoke the problem.
It is hard to know whether I made a wise decision to send it in or an error. I have this much faith in Sony's commitment to their products and customers: If it does not in fact require any servicing, they will return it with a cleaning and nothing else done; if it is in some way problematic, they will replace what needs to be replaced (the "optical block"?). If they do nothing and the problem does occur in the future, I will have a record of having sent it in for repair during the repair period.
The major downside for me is that this is a very good copy of this lens. If they do have to replace some of the optics because of this problem, there is no assurance that the lens I get back will be as good as the lens I sent them. So, if it doesn't in fact need anything, I will be glad to have them only clean it.
Getting it back with a notice that it has been cleaned but with nothing else noted as done or replaced is the best outcome from my point of view.
when you look with the flashlight.... be sure to look from both ends and look at different angles.
if you have the problem, it'll look almost like a ton of little specks on an inner element, like in the middle of the barrel.... they almost look like tiny specks of crystals. it looks completely diseased.
good luck all.
I had the fogging issue in mine and never noticed any issue in any of my photos. But I sent it in and just received it back with the optical blocked replaced and no more dots. I will use it this holiday and see how the quality is compared to before the repair.
I had mine repaired recently. I had dots inside the rear element. I don't think I could see them in photos but I did bring it to Sony for diagnostics just to be sure, and the engineer confirmed that my lens was affected.
At least one optical block was replaced. I was told that the lens is now a completely different lens and I should not expect the same performance. This turned out to be completely true because the lens became notoriously sharper after the repair. At F1.7 the microcontrast and 3d pop exceeds any expectations of mine. Also it became clearly sharper. Before the repair the F1.7 was just a good balance of sharpness, microcontrast and light gathering capability, now it's a separate story at F1.7. It's like having 3 lenses with 3 different renderings in one: first lens is F1.4 to F1.6, the second is F1.7, and third is F2.0 and onwards.
Hello, btw, very nice forum!
50mmFF Shooter wrote:
I had mine repaired recently. I had dots inside the rear element. I don't think I could see them in photos but I did bring it to Sony for diagnostics just to be sure, and the engineer confirmed that my lens was affected.
At least one optical block was replaced. I was told that the lens is now a completely different lens and I should not expect the same performance. This turned out to be completely true because the lens became notoriously sharper after the repair. At F1.7 the microcontrast and 3d pop exceeds any expectations of mine. Also it became clearly sharper. Before the repair the F1.7 was just a good balance of sharpness, microcontrast and light gathering capability, now it's a separate story at F1.7. It's like having 3 lenses with 3 different renderings in one: first lens is F1.4 to F1.6, the second is F1.7, and third is F2.0 and onwards.
Hello, btw, very nice forum! ...Show more →
Any reference out there describing exactly what consists of the Optical Block on the FE 50 F1.4? From what I understand it includes all the glass elements, but i can't find any online reference.
LBJ2 wrote:
Any reference out there describing exactly what consists of the Optical Block on the FE 50 F1.4? From what I understand it includes all the glass elements, but i can't find any online reference.
I am not really sure. From what I understand the lens consists of several optical blocks and one of them is replaced. Instead of disassembling the block and conduct whatever repairs inside, they replaced the whole block.
The engineer told me that at first the repair instructions by Sony concluded in repairing the block, but for the last month, during the repair process of my lens, Sony changed their mind to replacing the whole block instead of repairing it.
50mmFF Shooter wrote:
I had mine repaired recently. I had dots inside the rear element. I don't think I could see them in photos but I did bring it to Sony for diagnostics just to be sure, and the engineer confirmed that my lens was affected.
At least one optical block was replaced. I was told that the lens is now a completely different lens and I should not expect the same performance. This turned out to be completely true because the lens became notoriously sharper after the repair. At F1.7 the microcontrast and 3d pop exceeds any expectations of mine. Also it became clearly sharper. Before the repair the F1.7 was just a good balance of sharpness, microcontrast and light gathering capability, now it's a separate story at F1.7. It's like having 3 lenses with 3 different renderings in one: first lens is F1.4 to F1.6, the second is F1.7, and third is F2.0 and onwards.
Hello, btw, very nice forum! ...Show more →
It's great that it worked out well for you. Though I'm quite apprehensive about the fact that I'm going to be getting back an altogether different lens... given that I'm quite happy with the sharpness of my copy, as it is. I guess the only consolation is that the 50/1.4 isn't known to have an unusually high level of sample variation.
Dj R wrote:
Anyone do the firmware update yet?
Mine, a SN within the recall batch, yet manufactured in Nov 2017, already has the 2.0 firmware. I'm still baffled over the SN range for these lenses in the recall.
I as well. I purchased mine from Samy’s in early December my serial fall just within the higher part of the serial range.
I’ll keep mine for the time being and take comfort that I have until oct 2019 to act on this.
Chainring wrote:
Mine, a SN within the recall batch, yet manufactured in Nov 2017, already has the 2.0 firmware. I'm still baffled over the SN range for these lenses in the recall.
For what it's worth, my 50 came back just as good as it was before I sent it in. In day-to-day operations, I cannot tell a difference now versus before (AF, sharpness, etc.). All them little dots are gone - not that I even noticed before this recall was announced. It took 2.5 weeks with rather poor communication (and I'm a Pro Support member), but it was sent back fully cleaned and pristine, impeccably packaged in an enormous box with more than enough bubble wrap. Overall, I'm happy with the service.
MrTMan wrote:
It's great that it worked out well for you. Though I'm quite apprehensive about the fact that I'm going to be getting back an altogether different lens... given that I'm quite happy with the sharpness of my copy, as it is. I guess the only consolation is that the 50/1.4 isn't known to have an unusually high level of sample variation.
For sure. I was extremely worried about how my lens would perform after the repair. I wasn't expecting anything good, really, and was actually thinking of selling it upon receiving. But, wow, it is so good now that I am happy there was this recall. This is probably (or not) due to me getting directly to the engineer who worked on the lens and talking to him personally.
Still, he managed to damage the front of the lens:
The Sony service center ordered that front plastic part and it will be replaced. Good thing it's simply glued and exchanging it doesn't require the disassembling of the whole lens. This is the least that could happen, imo.
Wow. That seems impossible. Where is the Born On Date located? I’ll check mine.
My SN is around 100 after the recall. Got the lens this past week.
Chainring wrote:
Mine, a SN within the recall batch, yet manufactured in Nov 2017, already has the 2.0 firmware. I'm still baffled over the SN range for these lenses in the recall.
How in the world did I end up with a lens that's manufactured months after yours, yet has a lower serial number? Different facilities, perhaps? That'd be strange though.
How in the world did I end up with a lens that's manufactured months after yours, yet has a lower serial number? Different facilities, perhaps? That'd be strange though.
